Around the World in Five Days — and Seven Marathons

Tue, Jun 16, 2009

Donovan trudges through the snow on Antarctica during the first of his seven marathons on all seven continents in five days. Photo credit: courtesy Richard Donovan

Richard Donovan broke Sir Ranulph Fiennes’s mark by running marathons on seven continents in five days, 10 hours, eight minutes.

By Martin Mulkeen

Irishman Richard Donovan set a record time for running seven marathons on the seven continents in January, completing marathons in Antarctica, Cape Town, Dubai, London, Toronto, Santiago, and Sydney in five days, 10 hours, and eight minutes. As one would expect, he didn’t have much time to take in the sights while breaking Briton Ranulph Fiennes’s 2003 mark of seven days. In fact, Donovan was in such a hurry he didn’t even grab a shower until completing his third marathon in Dubai. From catching his flights to getting some sleep in coach, logistics were the biggest hurdle: One delay or cancellation and the record would have slipped away. “It was all done on the cheap and I put no real thought into what I would eat. I had to go light, so I ate airline food,” says Donovan, speaking from his home in Galway. “In my mind those meals all just kind of fuse together.” Donovan, did, however, get a reminder of what he ate when those airline meals came back up on four different continents. “I left a little piece of me in those places,” he quips.