Personal information | |
---|---|
Nationality | Irish |
Sport | |
Sport | Athletics |
Event(s) | Marathon |
Richard Donovan (born c. 1966) [1] is an Irish runner, commercial race organizer, and sports administrator. Donovan organised and was first to complete the inaugural South Pole Marathon [2] in January 2002, then completed the first marathon-length run in the North Pole in April of that year. [3] He used the publicity from this to launch his North Pole Marathon venture, offering runners an adventure tourism experience, with the 2018 event costing €16,000. [4]
Between 30 January and 5 February 2009, Donovan claimed a worlds best for running seven marathons, on seven different continents, in fewer than seven days. [1] Starting 1 February 2012 he improved on this by completing the 7 on 7 in under 120 hours. [5]
Donovan has also completed transcontinental runs across North America in 2015 and Europe in 2016, [6] adding South America in 2017. In addition to the North Pole Marathon, he organizes a number of other commercial events.
The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of 42.195 km, usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair divisions. More than 800 marathons are held throughout the world each year, with the vast majority of competitors being recreational athletes, as larger marathons can have tens of thousands of participants.
The Boston Marathon is an annual marathon race hosted by several cities and towns in greater Boston in eastern Massachusetts, United States. It is traditionally held on Patriots' Day, the third Monday of April. Begun in 1897, the event was inspired by the success of the first marathon competition in the 1896 Summer Olympics. The Boston Marathon is the world's oldest annual marathon and ranks as one of the world's best-known road racing events. It is one of six World Marathon Majors. Its course runs from Hopkinton in southern Middlesex County to Copley Square in Boston.
An ultramarathon, also called ultra distance or ultra running, is any footrace longer than the traditional marathon length of 42.195 kilometres. Various distances are raced competitively, from the shortest common ultramarathon of 31 miles (50 km) to over 200 miles (320 km). 50k and 100k are both World Athletics record distances, but some 100 miles (160 km) races are among the oldest and most prestigious events, especially in North America.
Patrick Francis Daniel Farmer is an Australian ultra-marathon athlete, motivational speaker, and former politician. He served as a Member of the Australian House of Representatives, representing the seat of Macarthur in south-west Sydney from 2001 to 2010, as a member of the Liberal Party.
Dean Karnazes, is an American ultramarathon runner, and author of Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner, which details ultra endurance running for the general public.
Multiday races are ultramarathon running events which are typically either segmented into daily events of a specified distance or time, or staged so that runners can run as far as they want, at their own discretion, over a set course or over a set number of days. Multiday races can range from continuous 48-hour track events to staged transcontinental treks.
The Antarctic Ice Marathon was established by Richard Donovan and Polar Running Adventures to enable marathon runners to complete a marathon on all seven continents. It also enables athletes to complete the marathon grand slam – a marathon on all seven continents and the North Pole.
Don Kern is an adventure runner, IT Consultant, freelance writer, and the director of the Metro Health Grand Rapids Marathon. He has run 325 marathons or longer races, in each of fifty states of the USA twice, in thirty-two countries, and at the North Pole. On January 22, 2002, he also completed a half-marathon on the South Pole as a part of the Adventure Network's inaugural South Pole Marathon. In 2007 he embarked on a quest to set a world record by completing marathons on each of the seven continents in the shortest period of time, but while completing them in 35 days was beaten to the record by Richard Takata of Canada. A second attempt later in 2007 was unsuccessful as well, due to a delay of eight days en route to Antarctica. The record was finally broken by Kern on 1 December 2011 in 25 days, 18 hours, 10 minutes.
Michael Wardian is an American marathoner and ultra-marathoner. He won the 2008, 2009 and 2010 US 50 km championships and the 2011 US 50 mile championship. In 2008, he won the U.S. National 100 km championship. Wardian also is the 2007 JFK 50 Mile winner, and won the National Marathon in Washington D.C. three consecutive years (2006–2008), and in 2010, 2011 and 2012. He ran in Maldives Addu marathon on 29 June 2018 and got first place and MVR12000. In 2020, Wardian won the Quarantine Backyard Ultra, running nearly 263 miles over the course of 63 hours without sleeping in a repetitive neighborhood loop in Arlington, VA to follow social distancing guidelines during the coronavirus pandemic.
Jin Feibao is a Chinese mountain climber. He has been described as "arguably modern China's greatest adventurer." A native from Kunming, Feibao has completed the Explorers Grand Slam, summiting the highest mountain in every continent and reaching both the North and South Poles in a record 18 months and 24 days. He has also trekked across the Sahara Desert and took part in the first Chinese expedition to cross Greenland from West to East. On top of his many explorations, he is also a celebrated stamp collector, having collected the Guinness Book of World Records largest Olympic stamp collection, and the largest collection of stamps featuring birds. His recent achievement is the Fairyland 100 Marathon, he successfully finished a big challenge - to run 100 marathons in 100 consecutive days in 100 beautiful countryside places in Yunnan, Southeast China.
Dave McGillivray is a U.S.-based road race director, entrepreneur, philanthropist, motivational speaker, author, and athlete.
Andrew Murray is a Scottish doctor, runner and author who works for the Scottish government promoting physical activity for health. He became widely known in January 2011 when he completed a 2659-mile run from John o' Groats in far north Scotland to Merzouga, in the Moroccan Sahara desert running an average of over 34 miles for 78 consecutive days.
The North Pole Marathon is run over the classic 42.195 km (26.219 mi) marathon distance at the North Pole. The race is run on small, 4.22 km (2.62 mi) loop about 10 times over hard snow or the frozen ice of the Arctic Ocean. There are individual competitions with male and female divisions, and a team competition for teams of three or more. There is also an option to run a half marathon.
World Marathon Challenge is a multievent marathon competition that involves completing seven full 26.2-mile (42.2 km) run marathon races on seven continents in seven days.
Maria Leijerstam is a British polar adventurer. In 2013 she became the first person to cycle to the South Pole from the edge of the continent. Leijerstam started her expedition on the Ross Ice Shelf at the edge of the Antarctic continent, and cycled for 10 to 17 hours each day with no rest days, and the total distance cycled was 638 km (396 mi). Leijerstam's cycle was a three wheeled design, and she reached the pole faster than any previous skiing expedition.
Amy Hughes is a British marathon runner. In 2014-15, Hughes claimed to have completed 53 marathons in 53 days, after which she claimed to have broken the Guinness World Record. However, her record claim was rejected by the organisation, as their requirements at the time asked for claimants to have run the marathons in official races. In 2017, Hughes claimed to have broken the 7 day treadmill world record, by running 521 miles (838 km) over seven days at the Trafford Centre. Her record claim was rejected as implausible for a non-elite runner, and it also lacked independent verification.
Fiona Oakes is a British distance runner who holds four world records for marathon running. In 2013, she won both the Antarctic Ice Marathon and the North Pole Marathon. She runs despite losing a kneecap due to a tumour when she was 17. Oakes has been vegan since she was 6 years old. As far as Fiona is aware, she was the first vegan woman to complete the Marathon des Sables. She runs Tower Hill Stables Animal Sanctuary, is an ambassador for The Vegan Society, and is a patron of the Captive Animals Protection Society.
Rebecca Pizzi is an American marathon runner from Belmont, Massachusetts. In 2016 she was the first American woman to complete the World Marathon Challenge, a series of seven marathons on seven continents in seven consecutive days, for which she holds the current record. She finished each race well ahead of all the other four women runners, and ahead of nine of the eleven men competitors. In 2018, she became the first woman to complete the World Marathon Challenge twice, again winning the women's overall race, and six of the seven individual marathons.
Tuedon "Tee" Omatsola-Morgan, born 3 April 1973 is a Nigerian ultramaraton runner. She has completed in over 73 marathons and has competed in 2 ultramarathons.
The official Seven Continents Club (SCC) was founded in 1995 when Marathon Tours & Travel created the inaugural Antarctica Marathon & Half-Marathon and made it possible for runners to conquer a marathon or half-marathon on seven continents. With more than 8,100 members from 87 countries, the SCC continues to service clients interested in pursuing their seven continents goal.