Media Centre

ENQUIRIES DURING EVENT - Fearghal Murphy - worldmarathonchallenge2012@gmail.com 
Contact Richard* - rd@npmarathon.com - *Erratic email access during event!

In 2003, the British polar explorers Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Mike Stroud originated the concept of running 7 marathons on 7 continents in 7 days.

Six years after the duo's marathons across the continents, Richard Donovan attempted to complete the task in under 7 days. On 5th February 2009, he ran 7 marathons on 7 continents in 5 days 10 hours 8 minutes.

The World Marathon Challenge 2012 will be an effort by Richard to complete marathon distances on all 7 continents in under 5 days, or 120 hours.

In doing so, he wishes to raise funds to support GOAL's work to alleviate the suffering of people affected by famine and drought in the Horn of Africa.

Richard is an Irish ultra marathon runner who has run in various extremes such as the Atacama and Sahara Deserts, Andes and Himalayan Mountains, North and South Poles, and the Amazon Jungle. In the past 10 years, he has won several off-road events such as the Himalayan 100 Mile Stage Race, Antarctic 100k, Inca Trail Marathon, South Pole Marathon and Everest Challenge Marathon.

Richard organises the North Pole Marathon and Antarctic Ice Marathon, which are the northernmost and southernmost marathons in the world, respectively. In 2011 he was also Race Director at the Commonwealth Championships and the World Championships at ultramarathon trail running.