Woman runs seven marathons on seven continents in seven days

The runner won six out of seven of the marathons

Katie O'Malley
Friday 08 February 2019 10:57 EST
Comments
Female British runner sets world record in marathon challenge

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

British runner Susannah Gill has won the World Marathon Challenge after completing seven marathons on seven continents in seven days.

The 34-year-old Londoner ran a total of 295km in a world record time of 24 hours 19 minutes nine seconds.

Gill finished the final marathon (42.2km) in Miami on Wednesday night, winning the women’s title in the race, which is also known as the “777 challenge”.

She won every race during the week-long challenge, except in Antarctica where she came second despite temperatures dropping as low as -35C.

The challenge saw Gill and her competitors run in Novo (Antarctica), Cape Town (Africa), Perth (Australia), Dubai (Asia), Madrid (Europe), Santiago (South America) and Miami (North America) .

"It was a crazy ambition that I wanted to do. The challenge seemed absolutely irresistible to me," she told the BBC.

"Ten years ago, I just wanted to get fit and run the London Marathon. Now, marathon running has literally taken me around the world."

Over the last decade, Gill has completed 45 marathons, including 10 London Marathons – her fastest being just two hours 58 minutes.

Fewer than 200 people have finished the challenge since Sir Ranulph Fiennes first completed the race in 2003.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in