Marathon Man,Y U UNBEATABLE?

[mαrkαsscoρ]

Anyone who's played Ocarina of Time is most likely aware of Marathon Man [or the running man as some call him,but I prefer marathon].You encounter him as a child and as an adult.As Young Link,the Marathon Man can be seen jogging around Hyrule Field [I think after a certain point],he's a part of the Happy Mask man's mask trading sequence,basically if you give him the bunny hood,he fills up your wallet.If you try to find his usual route after that,he'll be seen wearing the bunny hood and running like he's being chased by la migra.

Anyways,lets get to the topic at hand.As adult Link,the Marathon Man can be seen hanging around the carpenter's tent in Gerudo Valley.He challenges you to a race to Kokiri Forest.
AND NO MATTER WHAT,it's straight up impossible for you to beat him.He'll always be 1 second ahead of your time.And what's strange is,during the race,you don't encounter him anywhere in the field.He doesn't zip by you,he doesn't go around you,he's just plain not there during the race.And there doesn't appear to be any other route from the valley to the forest.So here's a theory on how it's possible that he's always one second ahead of you no matter how quickly you get there [even if you use the moon jump hack or whatever it is]:
Perhaps the Marathon Man has some type of teleportation or warping powers.I mean he doesn't appear to have the bunny mask on him,but even if he were to just bring it out and use it as soon as Link leaves,that doesn't necessarily explain why there's absolutely NO sight of him anywhere in the field,as that appears to be the only direct way to get from the valley to the forest.So could that be the reason he give's Link a head start?....BECAUSE HE CHEATS?

So what do you guy's think?Do you think he cheats?Is he truly winning these races by running?Or perhaps if you use the lens of truth,it reveals that he's actually Sonic the hedgehog...

 

[Ventus]

He's unbeatable because the game was never made for him to be beaten. He'll always beat your time by like one second IIRC. There was this huge troll post about how if you left your N64on for like a week you can beat him -- this is obviously not true but the point is, you cannot beat him. He doesn't lead to the fabled Unicorn Fountain nor does he have the secret to the Temple of Light.

If you use a megaslide he can still beat you. It's ridiculous, I know, but he's just programmed to be unbeatable.

 

[athenian200]

It is impossible to beat the Marathon Man. I don't know how he does it, but no matter how fast you beat the challenge, you cannot win against him, even using cheats that place you there at zero seconds or one second. Every method listed for doing so is fake. The programming for a scenario in which you win is simply not in the game.

I'm not sure if it was intended to be a sidequest in 64DD version of Ura Zelda that was removed or what, but he is intended to always be faster than you in the normal game. There was a rumor I heard once that implied that they were going to add a way to beat him using the Bunny Hood in Ura Zelda, but just left the unwinnable race as a remnant of that, which was originally a tease for something you couldn't do until later.

Believe me, everyone has been analyzing that game data and trying to figure this out for over 12 years. I was there 1998 when it all started. More work was probably put into finding a way to beat him than into developing the game itself.

 

[mαrkαsscoρ]

he's just programmed to be unbeatable.

that kinda would figure,but im talking about an in-game reason on why he can't be beatable

Believe me, everyone has been analyzing that game data and trying to figure this out for over 12 years. I was there 1998 when it all started. More work was probably put into finding a way to beat him than into developing the game itself.

ha,i'll believe that

 

[Ventus]

That's exactly why; something about his genes has him essentially programmed to be unbeatable in a race. He runs marathons for goodness' sake!

 

[Batman]

I actually beat him once. But then I woke up.....

Seriously, he's completely unbeatable. As to why Nintendo made a challenge that couldn't be beaten; no one knows.

 

[mαrkαsscoρ]

I actually beat him once. But then I woke up.....

Seriously, he's completely unbeatable. As to why Nintendo made a challenge that couldn't be beaten; no one knows.

hmm,well athenian200 proposed a possible theory

 

[Pennycan1800]

I just figured they programed him to be unbeatable to mess with the fans. lol

 

[mαrkαsscoρ]

natural assumption

 

[PokaLink]

He cannot be beeten wich is very annoying, i never unerstood when younger how he did it. We know that even with Hacking the game you cannot beat him I presume the creators put it out there as a mystery. Although the creators never meant for him to be pondered abouit what he uses to do it i think he just flys, there you go, hes just a friggen Unicorn.

 

[Satsy]

Link's job is to save the world, the running man's job is to be good at running.

So if you were to beat the running man at his job, then you would be better at running than saving the world, and the world would be doomed.

Since I don't think the running man has nearly as much interest in saving Hyrule that Link does/should.

Either that or it's a moral lesson; you can't be good at everything.

Who knows.

 

[TR8364]

Clearly he has a twin. I'm not joking, that's really my theory.

 

[mαrkαsscoρ]

Clearly he has a twin. I'm not joking, that's really my theory.

hmm....seems legit

Link's job is to save the world, the running man's job is to be good at running.

So if you were to beat the running man at his job, then you would be better at running than saving the world, and the world would be doomed.

Since I don't think the running man has nearly as much interest in saving Hyrule that Link does/should.

Either that or it's a moral lesson; you can't be good at everything.

Who knows.

but N64 Link doesn't have to actually be physically capable of beating the Marathon Man by running,clearly you can just use Epona as transportation

 

[Satsy]

you'd still only be good at running, which the world doesn't need from link.

 

[LaytonLink]

I thought you would've gotten a piece of heart for beating like 30 sec or something but not after using ZD...