Starting on January 30, Brian Winter will embark on the challenge of a lifetime. He will run seven marathons on seven continents in seven consecutive days.
Winter says, “the World Marathon Challenge is not only a realization of a long-time dream, but a reminder how much inspiration and creativity flows from pushing yourself into interesting, uncomfortable and challenging situations.”
There is simply nothing like The World Marathon Challenge. It is a unique event that offers the opportunity to run 7 marathons on 7 continents in 7 days. Winter and 54 other endurance athletes will run 183.4 miles over the seven-day period, spend 52 hours in the air and travel nearly 30,000 miles. Successful participants will be recognized by The 7 Continents Marathon Club™ and Intercontinental Marathon Club. The challenge is a test of both physical strength and mental fitness, mixing extreme weather conditions with jetlag and fatigue, all in a single week. Here’s how it works:
- All seven races are the classic marathon distance: 26.2 miles (42.2 kilometers)
- Fifty-five competitors will cross 16 time zones between the start in Antarctica and the finish in Miami
- The longest flights are over 15 hours in between marathons. In most cases, the participants will be running within an hour of landing, on little to no sleep
- For some races, runners will have less than 18 hours to recover before running the next marathon on the next continent
- Temperatures will fluctuate wildly: It is expected to be 10-20 degrees Fahrenheit in Antarctica and nearly 80 degrees F the next day in South Africa
The training started months prior to the upcoming event. Winter has been pounding the pavement since October with the marathons in mind. At the peak of his training he logged 120 miles in a single week and a total of 600 miles over the last three months, prior to tapering his training before meeting the rest of the runners in Cape Town, South Africa next week.
Winter will embark on this peripatetic journey and line up next Tuesday with longtime friend and fellow ultrarunner Andrew Brooks, a serial entrepreneur that resides in Palo Alto, California. Winter is a father of three girls, entrepreneur, ultrarunner and global speaker on a broad range of high performance topics including fueling creativity, overcoming obstacles and achieving dreams.
“I’ve always been attracted to seemingly insurmountable challenges, but I believe you should make your dreams bigger than you imagine you can fulfill. It’s worth putting yourself out there and this adventure further fortified that in my mind.”
22 years ago he challenged himself to run his first marathon. Since then he has completed over 50 marathons and ultras including 5 marathons in 5 days in 5 states, the American River 50-mile trail race, the Javelina Jundred 100-miler and TransRockies 120-mile, 6-day stage race gaining over 24,000 ft during the event.
“Finding new challenges that push the limits mentally, emotionally and physically, has always been a driving force for me,” says Winter.
After the 2018 World Marathon Challenge, his next challenge is to compete in the Triple Crown of 200-mile trail races–the Bigfoot 200 in Washington state, Tahoe 200 in California and Moab 200 in Utah, later this year. When he isn’t training or speaking, he spends his time advising his digital marketing firm, Pyxl, and traveling with his three daughters.
The World Marathon Challenge® is organized by Global Running Adventures who also organizes the world’s most northerly marathon, the North Pole Marathon®, the world’s most southerly marathon, the Antarctic Ice Marathon®, and the world’s highest desert marathon, the Volcano Marathon®.
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