We already declared Irish man Richard Donovan the toughest runner on earth last year and now he is at it again with another crazy test of endurance.
The Galway man made the news in December by running 100 miles in 24 hours. In Antartica. That was bad but he is now trying to do something even more mind-boggling for those of us more familiar with naps than laps.
Richard is going to try and run seven marathons, on seven continents, in five days, starting this Wednesday. We’re pretty sure we couldn’t handle flying to seven continents in five days, never mind running a marathon at each stop but the Richard is made of sterner stuff than us. Much sterner.
The 45-year-old is aiming to beat his own record time for this from 2009, which stands at five days, 10 hours and eight minutes but even he is finding it difficult.
“It’s been very hard to figure a way of knocking off the half day,” he said in today’s Irish Independent.
“I’m keeping it real – I’m not going in some privileged manner. I’m going against all the rules, no special diet, flying economy by myself, bringing whatever I can fit in one bag. I’ll sleep where I can.”
“The chances are that my stomach will fall ill so I’m going to eat as simply as I can. Even by the third marathon there will be a lot of fatigue,” he said.
Speaking about his 2009 attempt, we are simply in awe of what he can endure.
“I found doing this challenge remarkably hard on the body in a way I did not expect – the temperatures really hit me. I go from -20C to 30C in the space of a few hours,” he said.
“The flying itself is hard. I was falling asleep in airports afraid I would miss flights. On the plane I could not sleep but coming into land I was falling asleep and was tired starting the run.”
“I threw up on four continents the last time – the huge effort and airline food as a staple diet will do that.”
Richard is undertaking this task to raise awareness of humanitarian issues in the Horn of Africa. We can only applaud his strength and willpower.
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