Max Calderan crosses the Tropic of Cancer
A new challenge for limitless, extreme desert explorer Max Calderan– the 12th one, precisely. Starting March 18th, Calderan aims to cover – on foot, no stop – the 340 kilometers of the Tropic of Cancer line. In 2014, the Qatari Al Jazeera broadcasting station dedicated a special documentary about the Italian man and broadcasted it worldwide to report a challenge that is not just a sports record, but also a challenge to current rampant prejudice against the Middle East. It is possible to follow the man’s records on social media such as Facebook e Instagram.
“I am so very keen on cleanliness which I consider as a full liberation from all materials and energies that uselessly fill out not only our closets, but also the lives of those around us,” writes Max Calderan on his FB timeline. “A kettle left laying there for so many years, the regret one feels for not having taken a particular train, and perpetually brooding over a previous situation which has kept us and others motionless.” Calderan’s physical top shape won’t be enough, mental determination seems to be the main ingredient to achieve the impossible. Calderan explains it in his own words on the Social Platform: “At the age of six, an orthopedist prescribed me a pair of orthopedic shoes that my ‘hyperactivity’ was blamed for a serious problem I had with my feet. The doctor advised my mother that I should not have made extra efforts when I play and recommended I should take up more moderate and less vigorous activities. No more than a fraction of a second separated the lapse between my first attempts of rebellion and the feeling of sadness. Luck played a significant role when my mother refused the idea that a 6-year-old child should taste the feeling of sadness. And there, my shoes went flying out of the window.”
From that moment on, Max never stopped walking, actually collecting 11 records, step after step. In reality, more than just walk, he jumps, runs and attacks the desert like no one else on the planet. He crosses unexplored territories under severe weather condition, at night as well as daytime, with no fear of danger from the environment and total absence of food or water. Been the man a medical marvel, his body actually performs on a particular DNA that is currently under medical research.
Calderan already ran 90 hours – never stopping – covering 437 km in Oman following the imaginary line of the Tropic of Cancer. He also ran 360 km in 75 hours across Oman’s deserts in summer time with temperature +58 C. Followed by Al Jazeera Documentary team, in 2013 he crossed the Sinai Peninsula during Ramadan, fasting himself under 45-celsius degrees in covering 240 kilometers in 72 hours. The unstoppable man is today determined to write a new story on his – already legendary – book of records. Since childhood, answering to whom explained to him that some desert dunes are impassable even by car, his reply sticks to “Well, sorry, I am Max Calderan and am ready to do it.”
MFM is cheerleading this great Italian athlete, all the way through the challenge.
