Irish Sun, 5 February 2009

Richard, 42, finishes seven marathons in seven days

An Irish athlete is set to make history tomorrow when he completes his SEVENTH marathon on seven continents - in less than a week.

Richard Donovan, 42, from Galway is on the final leg of his remarkable run round the world and is due to land in Australia tonight.

He will then race a full marathon in Sydney tomorrow morning to complete the ultimate global endurance test. Super-fit Richard, who took up the global challenge to raise money for charity GOAL, started in Antartica on Saturday.

Each of runs were independently monitored to ensure he covered the full 42.2km distance. By the end of the week he will have run 295 km and flown over 43,000km.

LIGHT

And road warrior Richard is travelling light - carrying just one bag and sleeping on airplanes.

From Antarctica the iron man flew to Cape Town for the African leg of his run where the temperature was 28c - a swing of 43 degrees from frozen Antartica.

He endured scorching heat in Dubai on SUnday for the Asian section before flying onto London where he slogged through the SNOW in the middle of the night. There was no time to rest before leaving for Toronto, Canada, where he completed his fifth marathon in frigid conditions.

At each event Richard was helped by other athletes. Toronto race director Jay Glassman summed it all up; "He arrived. We picked him up. He ran. He showered. He celebrated. He left."

Santiago in Chile was Richard's next stop where he went the distance in the middle of the night in a time of 4hrs 37mins before jetting Down Under.

Ultra-runner Richard has previously the length of Ireland and around Mount Everest.

©The Irish Sun