![]() It was nice to get six hours of sleep in the hotel last night. Massive steaks after my marathons and tons of candy during the races. I’ve never eaten so much food in my life. Plus, I refuse to lose any muscle on this trip. I usually feel like death when I first hit the gym but feel ready to run another marathon after. It doesn’t make sense, but moving around a bit and getting a pump in my arms really helps with blood circulation. One thing that has helped me on this trip is hitting the weight room after my marathons. When I tried to get up I thought I was going to need a wheelchair I could hardly move. It’s 10 times harder than asphalt.Īfter the race, my legs actually felt decent until I sat down for breakfast the next morning. I would never recommend running a step on concrete. Luckily I have my extra cushy Asics 33-M to help offset the pounding. This entire course was concrete, which is brutal on the legs-my calves were absolutely hammered the last 10k. I was running a sub-3-hour pace halfway through the race before the fatigue set in and I started slowing down. I was surprised at how good my legs felt, so I decided to go out harder to test the waters a bit. It’s crazy how big of a difference it makes to not slip when you push off your toes. Running on firm ground today felt amazing. I’m really looking forward to getting a good night’s rest tonight at a hotel in Punta Arenas, Chile-the destination of our next marathon. We were staying in camping tents so it was impossible to get darkness. The most challenging part of being in Antarctica is getting used to 24-hour-a-day sunlight. At 3:26, I only missed my personal best marathon time by 1 hour and 22 minutes. I had never run longer than 2:30 until today. Oh, and I set a new personal record for my slowest marathon time. My legs aren’t too trashed, so I’m curious to see how I’ll feel on number two (set to begin nine hours from now…ouch). If it weren’t for grabbing a large handful of cookies at mile 23 I’m not sure I would have made it. I ran the first 6.55-mile loop at about a 6:30 pace, the next at a 7-minute pace, the following at an 8-minute pace, then died a slow death on the last lap. I could see my moment-by-moment pace on my Fitbit Surge, so I knew I was probably running faster than I ought to, but hey, you never know how long you can hold a faster pace until you try. I started my seven-marathon challenge in my typical fashion: fast. The path was covered in snow, but the race organizers groomed it 24 hours prior to the start, so the footing was surprisingly good. The temperature today was around 0 degrees Fahrenheit with some pesky winds that made our four-loop course a real challenge. ![]() Snow was everywhere despite the fact it was the peak of their summer. We were actually staying on a glacier with the mountains looming all around us. After spending the last 4 days in Antarctica, everyone was getting stir crazy in camp. Below are the journal entries I recorded after completing each marathon. I’m happy to report that my preparation, though unconventional, paid off. And I reminded myself to “just have fun.” If I’m having fun then I’m usually running well and am happy when I cross the finish line. For example, I kept telling myself “I can always take one more step” until it was so ingrained in my mind that it became a reality. I also repeated “When things get harder, I get tougher” to convince myself I was created to overcome difficult challenges. I knew that my biggest challenge was going to be mental, so I trained my mind for battle. I knew I could complete the challenge if I trained properly, but I wasn’t sure I could do it on this minimal of training, so that made things interesting. My unique buildup was to ensure I came to the start line healthy and fresh, which I definitely did. Why did I choose such an unorthodox buildup?Īll too often people sign up for an epic challenge and over-train, leaving them injured or extremely fatigued. ![]() In the three months prior to the World Marathon Challenge, the furthest I ran was eight miles. However, to build up to the World Marathon Challenge I did 60 to 90 minutes of intense weight training and an easy 30- to 60-minute jog every day-no hard run sessions and no long runs. Typically, I would run 15 to 20 miles a day with some intense hard-running sessions twice a week and then do a long run (usually about 26 miles) in 2:30. ![]() My preparation for the World Marathon Challenge was unlike any previous marathon training I’ve done. Yes, you read that right, 183 miles spread across the globe in one week. If you’ve been following me on social media, then you may have heard that I just completed the World Marathon Challenge, which tasks participants with running seven marathons on seven continents in seven days. Photo courtesy of World Marathon Challenge.
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