Saturday, March 25, 2006 | 7:16 a.m.
He left Las Vegas, not with egg on his face, but with chow mein and soy sauce on his running shoes.
Geoff Weber, a 38-year-old Navy intelligence officer based in Virginia Beach, Va., spent an entire day - and night - running on a treadmill during the International Health and Racquet Sportsclub Association exposition at the Las Vegas Convention Center on Thursday.
He did not, however, set a new world record for most miles covered in a 24-hour period - his stated goal - which was nullified by cramps and a more dramatic episode that saw him black out and fall into the Chinese dinner awaiting him.
There is a time in every extreme athlete's pursuit of ... well, more extremeness ... when the mind falls victim to the limitations of the body - a point where the line between perception and reality blurs into something resembling a Peter Max painting.
For Weber, that point arrived around 1 a.m. Thursday, about 17 hours after he clicked on a new Nautilus treadmill and, with all due respect to the Indy 500, began the true ultimate test of man and machine.
Or at least man on machine.
After developing intestinal and leg cramps about eight hours into the run, Weber ultimately collapsed, unconscious, into sweet and sour pork with all the trimmings.
Usually, it's the Chinese food that gets taken out. This time, it was the table it sat on.
"That's the way it was described to me," Weber said about scattering twice-fried rice all over the Nautilus booth. "I just crashed."
He said he didn't recall the incident because by then, "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" had introduced herself to the Mad Hatter.
"I guess there was a bunch of food on a blanket or a towel. The next thing I know, I'm lying there with Chinese food all over my legs," Weber said. "I'm sure it probably looked pretty bad."
Paramedics revived him and after giving his body fluids, Weber climbed back on board. Although the record of 153.76 miles was out of his reach, he soldiered on, or at least battened down the hatches, as any Navy man would.
At 8 a.m., he was still running, although not as fast as when he started. At the end of a very long and painful day, he had covered 91.69 miles.
"I knew after about eight hours that it wasn't going to happen," said Weber, who began running as a youngster when he discovered a running diary that his late grandfather had kept.
Marathon runners and triathletes and other lunatics - er, extreme athletes - have written books on why they do what they do. But Weber, who ran his first Boston Marathon as a 17-year-old, said with him it can be explained in just three words.
"I love it," he said, sounding completely refreshed about six hours after the ordeal.
But he's swearing off treadmills for awhile. As well as Kung Pao chicken.
"The next time I fall into something it's going to be an ice cream sandwich," he said.
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