Imagine running one marathon, an impressive feat by anyone’s standards. Now try to envision running seven marathons in as many consecutive days, all on different continents.
That’s exactly what Orlando resident Beth Reed did, and she made quick work of it too. With an overall average time of 3 hours, 39 minutes and 28 seconds, Reed placed first among 16 women competing in the World Marathon Challenge, which celebrated its ninth edition this year with more than 50 total entrants.
The races began at Ultima Basecamp, Antarctica, before continuing to Cape Town, South Africa, then Perth, Australia. The challenge then headed to the Middle East for a race in Dubai, then Madrid, Spain, then Fortaleza, Brazil, finally wrapping up in Miami.
As someone who has run 31 marathons, including all six of the original world marathon majors, Reed, 42, was no stranger to going the distance. Still, there’s a big difference between running one marathon in a week versus seven.
“I was doing 90-100 miles a week,” she said of her training regimen. “In typical marathon training, you’ll do a long run every weekend. For this one, I was doing back to back long runs most weeks.”
Orlando resident Beth Reed runs in Antarctica during the World Marathon Challenge, which had runners completing seven marathons in as many days on all seven continents. (Kyle LaFerriere/Courtesy of World Marathon Challenge)
Reed ran in junior high, then fell in love with the sport again while living in New York City, where her run club convinced her to run the New York Marathon in 2010. More than a decade later, she signed up for the World Marathon Challenge as a 40th birthday present to herself.
“It’s a once in a lifetime thing,” Reed said. “I had some idea of what was going to happen but I really didn’t, actually, as it turns out.”
It’s quite the contrast going from frigid, blustery Antarctica to Australia, where the temperature soared into triple digits.
Orlando resident Beth Reed runs in Perth, Australia, during the World Marathon Challenge, which had runners completing seven marathons in as many days on all seven continents. (Richard Ducker/Courtesy of World Marathon Challenge)
“We went through some extreme temperatures,” Reed said. “[Perth] was my favorite because you’re running along on a bike path along the water. You had the sunsets and the moonrise with the city just absolutely beautiful and stunning in the background.”
Each marathon had an 8-hour time limit, and Reed was done in under four hours in all but one race, Antarctica. That gave her a little extra time to pack and dine out in each place, but with a new continent to visit every day, there wasn’t much time to spare.
“You can only see so much of a culture through one dining experience, but I was able to get out a little bit,” she said, highlighting the experience of eating Manchego cheese in Spain.
Orlando resident Beth Reed runs in Cape Town, South Africa, during the World Marathon Challenge, which had runners completing seven marathons in as many days on all seven continents. (Richard Ducker/Courtesy of World Marathon Challenge)
Even though the experience of running back-to-back marathons is exhausting, sometimes sleep was hard to come by on this epic journey.
“You’re meeting all these new people and you’re excited. When you’re done running and you get on the plane, you almost want to just chat all night or hang out. You have to remember the plane is where you sleep,” Reed said. “There’s people who I met who I’ll probably be in touch with for the rest of my life. Some of us have already talked about, ‘When’s our next marathon?’”
The runner’s fastest and final marathon of this challenge was run close to home in Miami. Finishing with a time of 3 hours, 20 minutes and 55 seconds, Reed crossed the Florida finish line around 2:30 a.m. on the last day with her husband and mother-in-law there to celebrate with her.
“They sprayed me with champagne and brought flowers, then we got cheeseburgers at like 5 a.m. It was one of the best nights in recent memory,” she said. “It was a nice little bonus to win.”
Orlando resident Beth Reed shows off her medal collection following the World Marathon Challenge, which had runners completing seven marathons in as many days on all seven continents. (Max Moody/Courtesy of World Marathon Challenge)
On her adventurous journey, Reed brought home life lessons in addition to her medals.
“This is one example of remembering to live and not just exist. It sounds so simple but it’s something that’s hard to do,” she said. “I think that’s an important reminder. You don’t always know when you’ll be injured or sick. When you’re healthy and you can do things, you should definitely capitalize on that.”
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