World Marathon Challenge is a multievent

marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of , usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair div ...

competition that involves completing seven full

run Run(s) or RUN may refer to: Places * Run (island), one of the Banda Islands in Indonesia * Run (stream), a stream in the Dutch province of North Brabant People * Run (rapper), Joseph Simmons, now known as "Reverend Run", from the hip-hop group ...

marathon races on seven continents in seven days.

History

The first World Marathon Challenge was held in 2015, beginning in

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

on January 17, 2015, and ending in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

. The inaugural event combined the race results from Antarctica, Chile, the United States, Spain, Morocco, United Arab Emirates and Australia. David Gething won the inaugural event with a total time for all seven races combined of 25 hours, 36 minutes and 3 seconds, and an average time of 3:39:26 per race, against a field that included eleven other runners, ten of whom were male. In order to reach all of the stages of the marathon competition, the participants traveled a total of . Marianna Zaikova of Finland became the first woman to complete the event as the only successful woman in the 2015 field. The 2016 event began on January 26, 2016, with certified marathon courses in

Union Glacier Union Glacier (), is a large, heavily crevassed glacier which receives the flow of several tributaries and drains through the middle of the Heritage Range, Ellsworth Mountains, Antarctica. The glacier drains from the plateau at Edson Hills on ...

(Antarctica),

Punta Arenas Punta Arenas (; historically Sandy Point in English) is the capital city of Chile's southernmost region, Magallanes and Antarctica Chilena. The city was officially renamed as Magallanes in 1927, but in 1938 it was changed back to "Punta Aren ...

(Chile),

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

(USA),

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

(Spain),

Marrakech Marrakesh or Marrakech ( or ; ar, مراكش, murrākuš, ; ber, ⵎⵕⵕⴰⴽⵛ, translit=mṛṛakc}) is the fourth largest city in the Kingdom of Morocco. It is one of the four Imperial cities of Morocco and is the capital of the Marrakes ...

(Morocco),

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...

(United Arab Emirates) and

(Australia). Registration for the event was

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists o ...

32,000. In 2016

Becca Pizzi Rebecca Pizzi (born 1980) is an American marathon runner from Belmont, Massachusetts. In 2016 she was the first American woman to complete the World Marathon Challenge, a series of seven marathons on seven continents in seven consecutive days, ...

became the first American woman to complete the event, while finishing first among the women runners, with a total time of 27:26:15 hours and an average time of 3:55:11 hours.

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

Daniel Cartica won the race with a total time of 24:46:56 and an average time of 3:32:25, besting a field of thirteen other runners and setting a new world record for the event. In 2017, American

Michael Wardian Michael Wardian (born April 12, 1974) is an American marathoner and ultra-marathoner. He won the 2008, 2009 and 2010 US 50 km championships and the 2011 US 50 mile championship. In 2008, he won the U.S. National 100 km championship. W ...

won in 19:21:36 (averaging 2:45:57 per marathon), which was a new world record, and in the women's race Chilean Silvana Camelio won in 29:28:17. In 2018, the men's race was won by Irish Gary Thornton in 22:26:16 and the women's race by American Becca Pizzi (who also won in 2016) in 28:32:35. In 2019, the marathon courses were in Nova (Antarctica),

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

(South Africa),

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

(Australia), Dubai (United Arab Emirates), Madrid (Spain),

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

(Chile) and Miami (USA). The men's edition was won by American Michael Wardian in 20:49:30 and the women's edition was won by British Susannah Gill in 24:17:6 (initially reported as 24:19:09). With an average of 3:28:9 per marathon, Gill's time was a new world record for women, which was surpassed the following year by Danish Kristina Schou Madsen with 3:25:57 per marathon (total time 24:1:40). The 2020 race was also unusual for other reasons; since it happened during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, seven of the people who had planned on participating were unable to do so, and because of extreme weather preventing the plane from flying to Antarctic for the first day's run, Cape Town instead became day one with Antarctica on day two. In February 2023, Darren Edwards (Disabled Adventurer) became the first person with a disability to complete the World Marathon Challenge. Over the course of seven days, he successfully ran seven marathons across seven continents and became the first person with a disability to complete the challenge.

Notes

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External links

Official website
Annual athletics series Long-distance races Marathon running Recurring sporting events established in 2015