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Ian O’Riordan, Irish Times,
6th February 2009
Richard Donovan tells Ian O’Riordan how – and why –
he achieved an extraordinary feat of endurance
ANYONE THINKING 2009 is the year to finally run a marathon can
take inspiration from Richard Donovan. The 42-year-old from Galway
yesterday completed his seventh marathon on the seventh continent
in less than seven days: 295km of running, 43,000km of flying, in
five days, nine hours and eight minutes, to be exact.
Donovan becomes the first man to do so – the key being he
achieved the extraordinary feat in less than seven calendar days.
Six years ago British explorer Ranulph Fiennes did it in seven days,
but Donovan has bettered that.
Incredibly, the idea started almost on a whim just three weeks
ago. Donovan has been a renowned ultra-marathon runner for the past
decade, and organises the North Pole Marathon. When he found that
a business trip was taking him to the Antarctic and the Russian
base at Novolazarevskaya (or Novo, for short), he decided to take
“the long way home”.
So he came up with the idea of trying for seven marathons across
seven continents in less than seven days. As a committed supporter
of the charity GOAL, Donovan then gave added purpose to his challenge
as a way of highlighting Goal’s concerns for the vulnerable
population of Darfur in western Sudan.
Starting in Novo early last Saturday, Donovan went from Cape Town
to Dubai to London to Toronto to Santiago to Sydney – stopping
off at each location for just enough time to run his 26.2 miles
– and catch a little sleep. He finished in Sydney yesterday
afternoon, and it was there The Irish Times caught up with him.
“I think the biggest challenge really was coping with the
different fluctuations in temperature,” he said. “Starting
out in the Antarctic it was as low as minus 20 degrees, and later
that day, in Cape Town, it was 28 degrees.
“Obviously there was a lot of sleep deprivation as well,
and with all the travel, economy class, a bit or airline sickness,
perhaps. Because I was having a hard time keeping down even liquids
a lot of the time.
“But physically I’m okay. There’s no great pain
in the legs or anything like that, but with the ultra-marathon background
I know how to pace it carefully. It was hard at the end of each
marathon, but at no point did I think I wasn’t going to actually
finish them.”
Donovan relied on the goodwill and cooperation of friends at each
location, and, through his running contacts, got each route officially
measured and certified. In fact, such was the goodwill that he ended
up with company on most of his runs, and at some points even enjoyed
a police escort.
On arrival in Toronto, for example, he was met by Jay Glassman,
the Toronto Marathon race director: “He arrived. We picked
him up. He ran. He showered. He celebrated. He left,” explained
Glassman.
The increasing lack of sleep and the continuing fluctuation in
temperatures added to his challenge, but given he’d previously
run as far as 100 miles, Donovan was always up for it. On arrival
in Sydney he was met by Dave Cundy, the marathon aficionado who
measured the Olympic courses in Sydney and Beijing, and who certified
Donovan’s route.
“The whole idea of six degrees of separation is completely
true in running,” added Donovan. “I found myself with
great support along the way. But the whole thing really hinged on
getting out of Antarctica when I did. There was a delay of one day,
but that was manageable, but if my flight didn’t take off
in the end when it did then the whole thing was done.”
Typical of Donovan he won’t be resting long on this achievement.
“I have a vague idea, all right, to run all the way across
the Antarctic. It’s the only continent that no one has yet
run across.”
Shouldn’t be too long before that idea becomes a reality.
© The Irish Times
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