ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS: What are the world’s weirdest and most extreme marathon events?

QUESTION: What are the world’s weirdest and most extreme marathon events? 

In the weird category, we have Wales’s Man vs Horse Marathon. This began after Gordon Green, landlord of the Neuadd Arms Hotel in Llanwrtyd Wells, overheard a discussion between two men in his pub. One suggested that man was equal to any horse over a significant distance across the country.

In 1980, he put this to the test with the introduction of the marathon, which pits runners against horses on a rugged 22-mile course that combines road, trail and mountainous terrain. Horses typically win but not always. In 2004, Huw Lobb became the first runner to beat the horses and win £25,000 prize money.

In the Big Five Marathon at Entabeni Game Reserve, South Africa, first held in 2005, runners cross savannah among the ‘big five’ animals: lions, leopards, rhinos, elephants and buffalo. Presumably, you don’t want to be last.

There’s the Beer Lovers’ Marathon in Liege, Belgium, a 26.2-mile ‘pub crawl’ in which participants stop at beer stations featuring local brews, which are famously strong.

In the Marathon du Medoc in Bordeaux, France, runners in costumes traverse the vineyards, making frequent stops at wine-tasting stations en route and sampling gourmet food such as oysters.

Athletes run past Medoc’s vineyards, near Pauillac, during the 30th Marathon du Medoc, a 26-mile (42.2km) circuit in the Medoc wine region near Bordeaux in south-western France

The toughest must be the Marathon des Sables, a gruelling, multi-stage ultra-marathon held annually in the Sahara Desert in Morocco. Participants run a consecutive series of marathons totalling 155 miles over six days in extreme heat, with temperatures reaching up to 50c (122f). Runners carry their own supplies, including food, clothing and sleeping gear.

In the Antarctic Ice Marathon, runners battle extreme cold and high winds in a desolate frozen landscape.

Greg Beaumont, Ipswich, Suffolk

QUESTION: What was the first TV telethon to air?

The first telethon was a 16-hour event broadcast by NBC in America and hosted by all-round entertainer Milton Berle in 1949. It raised $1.1million for the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation.

The show set the tone for telethons: a big-name host, telephone operators to collect pledges, celebrity performances and impassioned pleas for donations. It was Jerry Lewis’s annual Labor Day Telethon for the Muscular Dystrophy Association that popularised the telethon. He hosted it from 1966 to 2010.

Britain took a while to catch on. Our first was the Thames Telethon of October 2, 1980. It lasted for ten hours and was hosted by Jimmy Young, Joan Shenton and Rolf Harris. Shortly after, on November 21, 1980, the BBC held the first national telethon for Children In Need. It was hosted by Terry Wogan, Sue Lawley and Esther Rantzen.

Ruth Worthington, Clacton-On-Sea, Essex

QUESTION: What became of Hans Hotter, Adolf Hitler’s favourite singer?

Hans Hotter (1909-2003) was a celebrated German operatic bass-baritone who was known for his masterful interpretations of Wagnerian roles. Hotter became associated with parts such as Wotan in The Ring Cycle, the Dutchman in The Flying Dutchman, and Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg.

Hotter’s career intersected with the Third Reich, during which time he enjoyed official favour. Hitler’s adoration of Wagner extended to performers of Wagner’s works

Hotter’s career intersected with the Third Reich, during which time he enjoyed official favour. Hitler’s adoration of Wagner extended to performers of Wagner’s works, and Hotter was among those regarded as exemplars of the idealised Germanic artistic tradition.

Hitler revered Wagner’s operas for their themes of heroism, mythology and nationalism, and valued Hotter’s ability to embody the grandeur and intensity of these roles. However, Hotter himself was not a member of the Nazi Party and is said to have ridiculed the German leader in private. He refused to appear at the 1940 Bayreuth festival, which was run by the devoted Hitler admirer Winifred Wagner. He had considered emigrating to the US but remained to protect his family.

While Hotter’s career benefited from the regime’s cultural policies, his legacy remains defined by his artistry rather than his association with the era.

After the Second World War, Hotter sang at Covent Garden in 1948 and, from 1952, began a 12-year association with the Bayreuth Festival under Wieland Wagner, Winifred’s son.

Hotter enjoyed a 50-year relationship with the Vienna State Opera, where he continued to sing through the 1980s, and appeared in Paris, Buenos Aires, Amsterdam and in countless other cities.

Neil Parks, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire