In 1982, The Clash's Joe Strummer secretly ran off to Paris, drank 10 pints of beer at a pub, and the next morning ran the Paris Marathon. It may have been a publicity stunt to promote the band's new LP Combat Rock, but whatever— Strummer did it. From an oral history of the shenanigans republished in Louder:
Richard Schroeder [Parisian photographer]: Near the end of his time in Paris, Joe bought a French newspaper, because he wanted to learn French, which he never actually did. We met in a bar and he was reading in the newspaper about the Paris Marathon. "Oh, there's a marathon on Sunday. Do you think we can do it?" I told him I didn't know how to enter it. He said: "Yeah, but if we just turn up on the day…" I told him he was in no shape to run the marathon, but he said that being on stage was like sport.
Kit Buckler [Head of Press, CBS Records]: You'd never know it to look at him, but Joe was a reasonably heathy guy. We used to play five-a-side football in-between Clash recording sessions at Westbourne Grove, and he was pretty good. He had previously run at least one marathon before he went to Paris, and he ran others after he came back.
Richard Schroeder: He made no preparations for it. He didn't do any training. The day before the marathon he was completely drunk.
Joe Strummer: You really shouldn't ask me about my training regime, you know. Okay, you want it, here it is: drink 10 pints of beer the night before the race. Ya got that? And don't run a single step at least four weeks before the race… But make sure you put a warning in this article: 'Do not try this at home'. I mean, it works for me and Hunter Thompson, but it might not work for others. I can only tell you what I do.
(Thanks, Gil Kaufman!)
