Galway man wins 2018 World Marathon Challenge running 7 marathons in 7 days on 7 continents
Galway's Gary Thornton has won the 2018 World Marathon Challenge.
The 37-year-old faced international competition and claimed victory in Miami yesterday.
The World Marathon Challenge sees runners compete in seven marathons in seven days across seven different continents.
Clearly not a race for the faint-hearted.
The seven races took place in Novo, Antartica; Cape Town, Africa; Perth, Australia; Dubai, Asia; Lisbon, Europe; Cartagena, South America and Miami, North America.
The fastest combined marathon times determine the outright winners of the challenge and participants run 295km over the seven-day period.
Thornton, a teacher, was helped on his way to claiming overall victory by finishing first place in each of the seven races - a remarkable feat in itself.
His total time for the seven races was 22 hours, 26 minutes 16 seconds, taking an average time of 3:12:19 per marathon.
Thornton's tiem for each race were:
- Novo, Antartica: 2:58:39
- Cape Town, Africa: 3:06:55
- Perth, Australia: 2:59:55
- Dubai, Asia: 3:04:29
- Lisbon, Europe: 3:19:28
- Cartagena, South America: 3:35:31
- Miami, North America: 3:21:19
Last year, Cork woman Sinéad Kane completed the same challenge becoming the first visually-impaired runner to complete the seven marathons, over seven days on seven continents.
