Seven Marathons, Seven Continents: Michelle Khare's Opening Days of the Great World Race
Michelle Khare
Michelle Khare opens the episode by saying that, after years of extreme challenges on the channel, this is the first one they genuinely believe might be impossible. The Great World Race asks runners to complete seven marathons in seven days on all seven continents, living aboard a chartered plane between stops. According to the video, fewer than 300 people have ever finished all seven. Khare's central question is whether they can do it, and what kind of person they would be on the other side if they did. This first episode covers the seven months of preparation, a last-minute schedule change, and the first two races: Cape Town, then Antarctica.
The Route and Why It Is So Punishing
The race was planned to start at the bottom of the globe with a marathon at Wolf's Fang, Antarctica. Runners then fly to Cape Town, South Africa; 12 hours to Perth, Australia; another 12 hours to Abu Dhabi; on to the coast of Portugal; seven more hours to Cartagena, Colombia; and finally a few hours to Miami for the finale. The seven races span five very different biomes. Antarctica is the coldest stop, and Khare learns during training that every remaining race will be run in extreme heat. News clips in the video mention Western Australia's driest month on record and record-breaking temperatures in the UAE.
David Kilgore, a professional Red Bull athlete who is running the event for the third time and says plainly that they intend to win it, calls Antarctica the most challenging race and the most challenging continent. Kilgore also points out that it is normally the first marathon, so it sets the tone, and there is a real chance that people, Khare included, will not finish it.
Lab Testing: "A Well-Tuned Audi, Not a Ferrari"
Preparation began at a high-performance lab where Khare was tested in front of coach Gareth Thomas and Kilgore. Khare admits to feeling intimidated: being tested by someone who tests world-class athletes, in front of a world-class athlete and a world-class coach. Thomas says that when they first heard about the Great World Race, they thought it was crazy, even after a lifetime around Ironman races and the Tour de France.
The lab staff explain what an endurance event demands: the runner has to be very efficient at burning fat. A mask worn during the VO2 test shows how much fat and carbohydrate is burned at different intensities, and blood lactate measurements show how effective the athlete is metabolically. One of Khare's readings came in at 13.2. The tester called it high and said it reflected good anaerobic capacity. Khare's VO2 max was 48 ml per minute per kilo, which the tester placed a little below average for runners. The tester's verdict was that Khare is "a well-tuned Audi, you're not a Ferrari," which is better than being "a poorly tuned Ford Focus."
Thomas turned the data into a seven-month training plan built around Khare's body, ability, and this specific event. Khare summarizes it as "a lot of running." On the training calendar, black marks shorter runs of 1 to 9 miles and blue marks runs of 10 miles and up, such as an 18-mile day. Repeat lactate and VO2 max tests are scheduled throughout to update the data. The lab staff's stated goal is that every workout has a purpose grounded in these markers.
Rehearsing Antarctica in a Freezer and the Heat in a Chamber
To simulate Antarctica, the team trained in a cold storage freezer at 5°F (-11°C). The purpose was to mix and match gear and find what would work on race day. The hardest problem was keeping gels and water from freezing. An insulated bottle helped, but eating a gel with gloves on was another obstacle. Khare joked that Thomas would have to feed them.
Thomas explains the choice of fuel. Energy gel is essentially concentrated carbohydrate, and the ones that work best scientifically taste bland. The team chose products that worked and didn't cause stomach distress over ones with good flavor. Their freezer solution was to keep the gels next to Khare's body, and the gels stayed unfrozen.
Psychologically, Khare says the session was hard. They felt strong impostor syndrome, as though everyone else had far more experience. Kilgore replied that everybody feels that way, "even me." Kilgore's approach is to enjoy the moment, especially somewhere as wild as Antarctica: to look around and think how insane it is to be there. Kilgore also told Khare they were already winning by putting themselves out there. Khare returns to this advice at the end of the episode.
Heat preparation took place in a hot, humid chamber. A sensor fed exact sodium and water loss to Khare's watch, and Thomas monitored a heat-stress gauge. The lesson Khare takes from it is that in hot environments, they need to run intentionally slower.
A Training Year That "Felt Like Being Thrown Into a Blender"
Khare says plainly that the ideal training scenario fell apart. Halfway through the program, a lactate test showed extreme fatigue. Thomas said that as soon as they saw two particular data points, they knew Khare was fatigued.
Khare explains that these challenges are never done in a vacuum. Khare describes taking a red-eye to France, running 10 miles right off the plane, and then going to film Jet Lag: The Game. Another day started at 4:15 a.m. in Vienna, with a couple of hours of running before a shoot. Khare had originally hoped all the travel would be good preparation for a race spent on a plane. Instead, by Khare's account, the travel compounded the fatigue "to a massive degree." Then Khare got COVID, spent three weeks in bed, and lost an entire month of training. Rather than watching their Strava numbers steadily improve, Khare describes the year as a roller coaster "where the car flew off the tracks and we landed in the pond near Six Flags."
During this stretch, a friend offered a reframe. Their little sister watches Khare's videos and looks up to them, as do millions of other people. Every ounce of effort and pain, the friend said, becomes a moment of inspiration for those people.
Going Public and Facing Doubt
Khare usually keeps a challenge private until it is finished. This time Khare posted about it online beforehand, and many people responded that Khare shouldn't or couldn't do it. In person, some reactions were simply alarmed, along the lines of "Oh my god, Michelle. How? Why?" Khare hopes those sentiments came from care, but says they weren't what Khare needed to hear. Khare admits wanting the willpower to say "I'm going to prove them wrong," but also wondering, "what if they're right?"
The doubt carried into the race briefing. Khare compares it to walking into a high school reunion for a school they never attended. Everyone else seemed to know each other and could trade stories about major marathons and world records. Among the other runners was Jacky, a South African runner whose leg was amputated within three weeks of a bone cancer diagnosis at age 26, and who has run 104 marathons in a row. Khare joked that this event must be a warm-up for Jacky, but says that meeting such accomplished people made them doubt themselves further.
The Briefing: Antarctica Is "Designed to Kill You"
The organizers described these as events of uncertainty, which they called part of the adventure. They said Antarctica's weather can go from clear skies one day to a blizzard the next, and that conditions can turn bad enough to strand people there for days. They listed blue ice that can break a leg, crevasses, disorienting darkness and brightness, and the risk of getting lost. One speaker summed it up: "Everything there is, yeah, designed to kill you. People aren't supposed to be there." The organizers also warned that the thin ozone layer makes UV intense, and with the glare off the snow, snow blindness is a real danger. Runners would wear glacier glasses. Runners were firmly told not to leave the area where the teams were stationed, even to relieve themselves. Khare saw fear on many faces in the room.
Chaos Before the Start: Antarctica Moves to Second
Before the race began, the organizers announced that changing weather at Wolf's Fang meant Cape Town would be run first. Khare explains why this matters: the race historically starts in Antarctica because, in theory, you want to race it on your freshest legs. Now the runners would complete a full marathon in Cape Town and then run Antarctica within the same 24-hour window. Khare called a last-minute crew meeting to revise the whole plan. Khare had never run two marathons back to back. After every previous marathon, Khare says, they went home, ate ice cream, and lay down for hours.
Marathon One: Cape Town
On race morning, Kilgore advised starting slower than feels natural, because the day would heat up toward the end. Khare was surprised to find members of the Challenge Accepted community at the start. One of them, Phoebe, had baked something at midnight. Having trained mostly alone, Khare says this gave them a huge energy boost.
The course was six 7K loops with two aid stations, which Thomas says made fueling easy. Each time Khare passed the start, they took a particular waffle they liked. Khare also carried a bottle of water with sodium, so hydration was covered continuously. Thomas's master plan assumed each loop would take about 40 minutes, with adjustments as the race went on.
Khare found this very different from a big city marathon, where thousands of runners share your pace. Here Khare was often alone. Khare's strategy was to find a running buddy as quickly as possible, someone whose energy could pull them along. Khare ran stretches with Jamie and Silviu, but these partnerships kept breaking up as people sped up or slowed down. Few runners were at Khare's pace. Khare's goal for the week was to finish each marathon in five hours or less.
Kilgore offers a sense of scale. Most people starting out in marathons aim for under four hours, and a sub-three is the "diamond standard." Kilgore's personal best is around 2:27 and they ran Cape Town in 2:58, which Kilgore jokingly called their best Cape Town marathon ever, since it was the first one of the year. Kilgore says the overall volume of this year's race was more nerve-wracking, and that uncertainty is a big part of the event.
Khare had run only two marathons before this: the LA Marathon and an ultra in Death Valley. In both, Khare felt they had barely scraped by because they hit the wall. Thomas rejects the concept. The wall is the idea that around mile 20 an energy block stops you, and Thomas calls it "mathematically nonsense," because people run 100-mile races and these runners would complete seven marathons in a week. In Thomas's view, hitting the wall just means running too fast and not fueling correctly. Thomas describes Khare as a high-carb burner and says they had no worries about Khare hitting the wall, because the fueling plan was based on science and Khare's own physiology. Late in the race, Khare reported that the plan seemed to be working, even though their pace was slow.
Khare finished in under five hours, the goal they had set. Thomas was proud but flagged the concerns ahead: a quick turnaround, getting enough hydration in, and a hard recovery. Khare also noted that while the community's support had carried them, they couldn't depend on it going forward, because "ain't nobody coming to Antarctica."
Marathon Two: Antarctica on Tired Legs
On the flight south, Khare was amazed at how chipper the other runners seemed, as though they hadn't just run a marathon. Khare felt their own fatigue was obvious. Kilgore explains that every race has a time limit, and Antarctica's is the harshest: the plane is on the ground for only eight hours, so the entire marathon must be finished within that window.
The landing on an ice runway felt chaotic. Khare worried about where their gear was, whether they had eaten enough, and whether they had packed enough clothing compared with everyone else. Under a perpetual sunset, it was -12°C at the start. Khare joked that this was warmer than the freezer. The course was 10 laps. Thomas's instructions were to start slow, take whatever fuel was available, and focus on breathing.
Thomas stresses that this wasn't really "day two." It was a marathon starting about 14 hours after the previous one, on ice, in cold and wind, with difficult footing and a heavy mental load. Khare's fleece froze. The body-heat method for gels worked, and Thomas handed gels to Khare between laps. Thomas said Khare was slower than in Cape Town but had to be more careful in the conditions.
Running With Tariq
Khare found a partner in Tariq Amassyali, runner number 62, who was running the Great World Race for the second year in a row while wearing a tuxedo. Tariq jokes that they hadn't known who Khare was until their daughter Lex mentioned it, and Tariq's response was that since Tariq had done the race before, Khare was the one running with Tariq. The two worked as a team. One would run in front to block the wind for a lap, then they would switch.
When Khare asked how to get through something like this, Tariq said the purpose has to be bigger than the pain. Tariq's purpose was men's mental health. Tariq cited a statistic that a man dies by suicide about every 60 seconds. Tariq explained that the tuxedo represents a facade: when you see someone who seems to have everything together, you have no idea what they're going through mentally or emotionally. Tariq's philosophy is that if wearing a tux for seven marathons changes even one person's life, the effort is worth it. Khare's answer was simpler: they saw the race, doubted they could do it, and decided to try.
Their plan was to warm up at each aid station, but every minute spent warming up was a minute less to beat the cutoff. By lap four, they reported winds of about 25 knots and a temperature of -23°C. To pass the time, Khare asked Tariq about their favorite place in Miami. Tariq warned it would bring tears, and Khare replied that the tears would freeze to their face. Tariq says Khare was intensely focused on finishing before the cutoff, since the plane would leave at the eight-hour mark no matter what.
The Front of the Field
Kilgore finished in 3:55, more than an hour slower than the previous year, which Kilgore offers as evidence of how brutal the conditions were. Kilgore joked that their tongue started freezing to the medal, and said it was a privilege to go through that brutality in such a place. When asked whether they'd had deep conversations on the course, Kilgore said only with God, and God said, "You're in hell." Watching Khare stop to warm up and then head back out, Kilgore says that was the moment they became convinced Khare was tough and would get through the event.
Leaving a Partner Behind
As the race went on, Khare slowed down and grew emotional, and Tariq hit a rough patch. Vehicles began picking up runners who weren't moving fast enough and taking them to the plane by sled. Khare says fear set in at that point. Khare was walking a lot, and had abandoned any target pace, time, or heart rate. Khare faced a decision: wait for Tariq, or keep going. Khare reasoned that waiting would mean cooling down and starting to freeze, which could cost them the finish. The team's goal was to cross all seven finish lines, so Khare went on alone.
On the course, Khare cried and said it felt like everyone else could do this except them. Thomas reassured Khare that they would finish, and in a really good time, then left Khare to complete the final stretch. Khare describes it as haunting. No one else was in sight, their watch had died, their shoes kept slipping, and they weren't even sure they were on course. Khare thought Tariq was somewhere behind but couldn't check, because stopping risked being picked up and left behind. Khare says that when people ask about the hardest challenge they've ever done, there is now a clear answer: this day.
What kept Khare moving was Kilgore's earlier advice to pause and take it all in. Few people ever get to experience Antarctica, a place Khare describes as untouched, raw, and brutal, and Khare told themselves over and over that they would probably never be there again. Khare says that by then, this thought was all they had left.
The Finish and No Time to Celebrate
Khare crossed the finish line in tears, repeating "It's done," and saying this had been the hard one. A crowd of fellow runners congratulated Khare. But one second after finishing, Khare was told to grab their things and board the plane. There was no time to change clothes, use the bathroom, or eat any of the catering Khare had watched others enjoy for the past three hours.
The episode ends with two of seven marathons done and a preview of what's next. Runners compare the plane to a party in the sky. Someone asks whether any race will be harder than Antarctica, and runners say they are bracing for the heat. Clips show the heat at its peak, terror on runners' faces, and Khare saying the inside of their knee hurts so badly they can't run. The preview also introduces Dan Little, 83, who is running the Great World Race for the fourth time. Whether Khare can finish the remaining five races is left for the next episodes.
I've done a lot of crazy things on this channel. But this is the first time I'm attempting something I genuinely think is impossible.
It's called the Great World Race. Running a marathon is already impressive in and of itself, but how about running seven of them in seven days on all seven continents? Less than 300 people in the history of mankind have ever finished all seven. And it's a race that absolutely wrecks even the most elite athletes.
Can I do that? And if I could, wow, what type of person would I be on the other side of that? To accomplish this, I'll need to run farther than I've ever run and prepare my body to survive in the most extreme biomes on Earth. And yes, that includes Antarctica.
Okay, so this is—yeah, it is. Everything there is designed to kill you.
What you're about to watch is the unbelievable story that follows me and 60 of the craziest people you'll ever meet. Somebody's got to be the oldest.
Living in a plane for seven days, flying around the globe, hitting the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Michelle is in a dark place right now.
This is the Great World Race. Let's go!
You guys remember how hard it was for us to get into Secret Service? This was actually harder. And I've always wanted to come here because it's like this top secret Pentagon where athletes train to kick ass.
I will be put through a series of tests that will help determine what my training plan should be for the next seven months. You can feel the tension, huh? Because I don't want to do this in front of you who tests world-class athletes, in front of David who is a world-class athlete, and Gareth who's a world-class coach.
When I first heard about the Great World Race, I thought it was a crazy thing, and I've been around crazy athletic things my whole life. People doing Ironmans and Tour de France. So, the idea of seven marathons in seven days was insane.
Okay. You seem a little bit scared, but you're going to be okay. Three, two, one.
In an endurance event, what we need is someone to be very efficient at burning fats. So, that's measured by—we use the mask on them in the lab for the VO2 test, which tells us exactly how much fat and carbohydrates they're burning at different intensities. And then we measure lactates in the blood to see how effective they are metabolically as well.
Three, two, one. Well done. 13.2. 13—that's high. Yeah. Got some good anaerobic capacity going on.
All these markers are deeply scientific and then can shape the training program, so every workout has a purpose.
So, 48 ml per minute per kilo. And where does that stack among other athletes? Yeah, a little bit below the average for runners. Yeah. You're a well-tuned Audi, you're not a Ferrari. You're a really well-tuned Audi, which is better than being a poorly tuned Ford Focus.
So, Gareth has taken all of that data that we've gathered and turned it into a seven-month training plan specific to my body, my athletic ability, and this event we're training for. My training plan is going to be a lot of running. Pretty much.
Black represents shorter runs, like one to nine miles. Blue is anything 10 miles and above. Got an 18-mile run today. And I'm also noting anytime I have to do a lactate test or VO2 max testing to update my data.
And if you're interested, I put all of these details in my fitness app at challengefitness.co, where you can check out all of our pre-built training plans for a 5K, half marathon, and even a full marathon.
You might be wondering, how is this even possible? So, this is the route for the Great World Race, starting here at the bottom of the globe. Race number one, Wolf's Fang, Antarctica. It would be really cool in Antarctica if we saw a penguin.
Then we fly up to Cape Town, South Africa. And then we fly 12 hours to race number three in Perth, Australia. After Western Australia have seen their driest month on record.
Fly another 12 hours to race number four, Abu Dhabi. Arab Emirates faces a sizzling record-breaking temperature.
Then we're flying all the way to the coast of Portugal, then fly seven more hours to race number six, Cartagena, Colombia. Run another marathon. And then fly just a few hours over here to Miami, the grand finale.
And these seven races take place across five extremely different biomes. So, my next step is to figure out how to prepare my body for all of this.
Holy cow. Ooh. This is really happening. Oh my God. The ceiling. It's like when you leave ice cream in the freezer too long. A warm 5° Fahrenheit. -11° Celsius for Gareth.
Welcome to Antarctica. Does this feel like Antarctica? Yeah, to a certain extent.
I'm David Kilgore. I'm a professional athlete for Red Bull and I'm about to win the Great World Race. So, this will be my third time at the Great World Race. Really, I would argue that it's the most challenging race and the most challenging continent, the continent of Antarctica.
Oh my God. Someone's definitely been murdered here.
It is marathon number one as well, so it really sets the tone, and there's such a big chance of people to not finish the first one, including Michelle, so I know she's probably quite nervous.
Today, we are in a cold storage freezer to train for the first marathon, which famously is on the great continent of Antarctica. Yes. So, the focus of today is to mix and match gear to see what will work best on the day. But the hardest thing we've been trying to figure out is how to keep my gels and water bottle from freezing.
So, what have we done to the liquid here to help it? Is it just room temperature or is it—it's insulated, yeah. Oh my God. Is it cold? It's so cold. How are you going to eat a gel with gloves on? You have to feed me, Gareth.
So, one of the things we use during the races for fueling is energy gel, which is basically a carbohydrate concentrate. The best ones from a scientific perspective taste pretty bland. But they work and they don't give you stomach distress. So, we focused on using stuff that was actually working rather than the flavor.
Okay, so we have a non-frozen gel that's kept next to my body. That's good news. You can actually see the steam coming off right now. Yeah.
Psychologically, it's pretty tough right now. I feel a lot of impostor syndrome doing this. It feels like everyone else is so much more experienced.
I think everybody has the same feeling as you. Really? Yeah, I don't know. Even Kilgore? Even me. As crazy as it sounds, I try to enjoy the moment. Especially in a place as wild as Antarctica, and you just look around and I'm like, "Wow, how insane is this right now? This is where I get to be." You're already winning by putting yourself out there, so that's super awesome.
But it's not just Antarctica I need to be prepared for. It turns out the remaining races will all be in extreme heat.
So, Coach Gareth, you are the mastermind here. We're going to learn today how your body reacts in this type of heat. Because you've been training in LA and it's been hot, but it's not this hot or this humid. Ooh, I'm feeling it.
So, we're going to get exact sodium loss from your sensor into your watch, exact water loss, and I've got a gauge here about heat stress. So, what we're learning is in the hot environments, I need to go intentionally slower. Yeah, absolutely.
Whatever dream scenario I had for training for this event has absolutely gone out the window because this year has felt like being thrown into a blender. We're halfway through the training. I just got out of my lactate test with Coach Gareth. All of my data said that I am extremely fatigued.
It should be trending down here. As soon as I saw these two, I knew you were fatigued. Yeah.
When I do these challenges, I don't do them in a vacuum. I will literally red-eye to France, immediately get off the plane, run 10 miles, and then go film Jet Lag: The Game. Jet Lag season finale, let's go!
Originally, when I saw my schedule for this year and I saw all the travel, I thought, "Okay, well, this will be great to prepare for this event because there's so much travel."
4:15 a.m., I am in Vienna shooting another episode of Jet Lag. That's it. Getting in a couple hours of running before the shoot day starts. Oh my God. That's a massive lever. Holy—
And I'm going to be honest, it has compounded to a massive degree. Then I get COVID. I'm on my ass in bed for three weeks straight, losing an entire month of training. I was looking forward to really getting in a groove and just watching all of my Strava numbers get better, but it was a goddamn roller coaster where the car flew off the tracks and we landed in the pond near Six Flags.
My little sister watches all of your videos, and she really looks up to you. And she's very inspired by you. And she is one of literally millions of people who feel that way about you. So, think about the fact that with each ounce of effort that you put in and the pain or difficulty that you feel, the output of that is a moment of inspiration for millions of people. So, that's pretty good math.
Oh my God, thank you, Adam.
Usually when I do a challenge, I keep it all to myself until it's all wrapped up and done. And this time, I decided to post online and share with everyone. We leave tomorrow for the Great World Race. I'm trying not to freak out. And to my surprise, I had a lot of people telling me that I shouldn't do it or that I can't do it.
To be totally honest, this is not always the case, but sometimes when I tell people I'm doing this, this is kind of the reaction. So, the concept is running seven marathons in seven days. Wait. Oh God. Oh my God, Michelle. How? Why?
I like to hope and think and pray that these sentiments are from a place of care, but at the same time it wasn't what I needed to hear right now. I want more than anything to have the strength and the mental willpower to say, "I'm going to prove them wrong." But also, what if they're right?
Going into the race briefing, I am completely full of impostor syndrome. It feels like walking into a high school reunion for a high school I didn't go to. Everybody else knows each other or can swap stories of major marathons they've run and world records that they have. I definitely feel out of place.
Hi, I'm Michelle. Jacky. But you ran 104 marathons in a row.
Marathoners typically run on two legs and grit. Jacky Hunt-Broersma does it on one. Twenty years ago at age 26, the South African native got bone cancer. Within three weeks, I went from cancer diagnosis to having my leg amputated.
So, this is basically like a warm-up for you. You're here to clown on all of us. I'm excited to meet everyone, but also it makes me doubt myself in hearing their own level of excellence.
All right, folks. Obviously, I'd like to welcome you here to the Great World Race. Great to see so many faces in the room here. These are very much events of uncertainty, but that is part of the adventure. Antarctica is a really temperamental place from a weather perspective. One day we can have perfectly sunny, clear skies, and the next day it can be an absolute blizzard. The truth of Antarctica, of course, there are plenty of ways you can get into serious trouble there.
The weather can change so drastically where it's just absolutely terrible, where we could get stuck there for days. Of course, there is blue ice that you can slip on and easily break a leg. It's brutal. There's crevasses you can fall down. The darkness, the brightness. Of course, you can get lost. Everything there is designed to kill you. People aren't supposed to be there.
The one thing to bear in mind with Antarctica is that the ozone layer is really thin and the UV really gets to you. So, one of the things we will be using when we get to Antarctica are things like glacier glasses because the UV is so strong down there and the reflection off the snow so bright that snow blindness is a real issue.
So, arriving at Wolf's Fang, please, guys, this is really, really important. Don't venture out of the area where our teams are. If you run off to have a wee in the snow, we don't know what's going to happen over there.
Just looking around that room and feeling the tension and the nerves in these people and seeing the fear on their faces, this is a real undertaking. And knowing that tomorrow morning we're waking up and going to Antarctica, you could see a lot of people are very worried about that.
Dear Great World Race participants, due to changing weather conditions at Wolf's Fang, we are adjusting the race schedule for safety reasons. We will now run the Cape Town leg first.
So, the race hasn't even started yet and chaos has already ensued. This race historically always starts in Antarctica. In theory, you want to race Antarctica on your freshest legs. Now, we will be racing Antarctica after doing a full marathon in the same day. So, we're basically going to do two marathons in one day. And the second one is Antarctica.
So, we called a last-minute crew meeting to go through and revise the entire plan because tomorrow morning, I am running in Africa. I'm basically running two marathons in 24 hours tomorrow. That was always the plan anyway. I know, but now we have to do the harder one after the other one.
I'm about to run two marathons in a row. And I have never done that. Every time I've run a single marathon, I have gone home, had some ice cream, and laid down for many hours. What do they say? Challenge accepted?
Let's go. It's the day. Are you so excited? I'm so excited. What advice do you have?
First of seven, yeah. I'd say really start off a little slower and just feel out because you're going to lose a lot today because it is going to heat up towards the back end of it. Have fun. Take it out slow, maybe find some running buddies. I will. Just rock and roll.
Oh my gosh, this is so cool. Because of the change. So, you did this so last minute? I did midnight baking. No way. Wait, what's your name? Sorry. I'm Phoebe. Phoebe, it's so nice to meet you.
Usually when we do a challenge, I keep it all to myself until it's completely done. And this time, I actually shared with community what we were doing day by day. And people have actually come out. This is so cool. Thank you guys so much for coming out. You are so kind. We're so excited because originally we were supposed to be in Antarctica today.
I felt in many ways really alone doing a lot of this training by myself. So, it just gave me this huge energy boost.
All right, we're going to get started here in the next minutes. I'm feeling pretty nervous. I can't believe it's actually about to happen.
Go get them. All right, folks, the best of luck. Three, two, one, go.
So freaking sick. Oh my God. So crazy.
Okay, so this is a looped course, right? So, we've got six 7K loops. So, it's actually really easy feeding-wise because you've got two aid stations. So, we've got a strategy where every time she comes through the start, she takes this particular waffle that she likes for eating.
Calories are going in perfectly, and she's running with a bottle that's got sodium and water in it. So, the hydration's been taken care of all the time. So, we've got a master plan based on her doing each loop in about 40 minutes, and then we'll just adjust as we go from there.
Two and a half miles in. Only 180-something left to go. Just trying to stay in the zone and the headspace. This is so different from a big city marathon where there are thousands of people going your pace. You're just kind of by yourself out here.
In a way, when you're able to find a running buddy who keeps you at a pace and pushes you a little bit, there's a feeling of kind of being pulled along by their energy. So, my goal for this is to find a running buddy at my pace as quickly as I possibly can. Hi, I'm Michelle.
You too. And what's your name? Jamie. Jamie, I'm Michelle. Nice to meet you.
Everybody, meet my friend Silviu. Nice to meet you. And luckily for me, we're going the same pace, so now I have a buddy to run with. We're doing it. Hey, we are doing it.
But I'm finding that these moments are very short-lived. Okay, see you in a bit. I'll find someone, we'll run a couple miles together, but for one reason or another, we eventually get separated. I might need to slow down a bit. Go ahead. And I find myself running alone again.
Right off the bat, I notice that pretty much no one is running at my pace. And for those of you wondering, my goal for this week is to run each marathon in 5 hours or less.
Hey, I need a lead runner. Let's go. The majority of the world, if they start marathoning, most people's goal is, "I want to do sub four." And then there is other crazy folks that are like, "I need to go sub three." And I think that's really the diamond standard. So, my fastest marathon ever is around 2:27. For the Great World Race, I don't think that really matters, to be honest. It's a little bit out of my league, though.
Honestly, I think this is my best Cape Town marathon ever. It was the first one this year, though, so take that with a grain of salt. I came through at 2:58. The overall volume of this race this year is a little bit more nerve-wracking to me. I feel like it's a big part of this race, right? The uncertainty.
I was nervous going into this race because I've only ever run two other marathons in my life before this: the LA Marathon and an ultra in Death Valley. But in both instances, I felt like I just scraped by because both times I hit the wall.
So, one of the biggest things people worry about with marathons in general is this concept of the wall. The wall is the idea that at mile 20, you sort of hit an energy block and you just can't go forwards. Now, to me as a coach, I know that that's mathematically nonsense because people run 100-mile races and people here are going to be running seven marathons in 7 days. So, the wall is just someone who runs too fast and doesn't fuel it correctly.
22 miles. One left. One to go. One to go.
Scientifically, she's a high-carb burner. She's going to go on to run four for the last 4 and 1/2 miles.
However, to my surprise, it seems like Coach Gareth's master calculus math equation is actually working. So, that's a huge win. Even though I'm going pretty slow.
Don't have any worries about Michelle hitting the wall at any point because we had a fueling strategy that was based on science and her personal physiology.
Come on, Jacky. One mile to go. I'm not messing around anymore. I posted a TikTok saying I was doing this challenge and all the comments were saying I shouldn't do it. We're about to finish one marathon. Let's go. No!
Oh, home. Oh my god. Oh. Thank you. Oh my god.
One down, six to go. Let's go! Congratulations, Michelle. I got what I wanted, under five.
Very proud of her. She's got this one in the bag. It's going to be a quick turnaround. The concern is going to be getting through enough hydration. Recovery is going to be hard from this one.
While it's amazing that the incredible Challenge Accepted community showed up for this race, you gave me so much life every time I saw you. I also can't become reliant on that energy for the races to come. Because ain't nobody coming to Antarctica.
I feel like we're going to Antarctica right now. That's so crazy. I'm sort of in disbelief that this is about to happen. It is happening. And you've done this? Oh, yeah. I did it 3 years ago. How was the Antarctica? It was so windy. So windy. I thought I was going to fly away from the...
Dude, I don't know what everyone else is on, but I need some of it because everyone is so chipper and normal. You would never guess this group ran a marathon. Except for me. I think it's obvious.
This is so surreal. It almost feels like we're going to an alien planet.
Antarctica always has the possibility for being the most challenging segment of the entire race. There's a time limit for every single race, Antarctica being the most brutal. I think it's always in the back of everybody's mind. The plane only touches down for 8 hours. So, you have 8 hours to complete the whole race.
The plane lands. Oh my god. It's absolute chaos.
I'm already freaking out wondering, where is my stuff? Did I eat enough? And I'm also kind of looking at what everybody else is wearing. Did I pack enough? Oh my god.
Thank you.
This is so crazy. There's a perpetual sunset happening. It's beautiful. We literally just landed on an ice runway to run our second marathon of seven. My goal is still to try to get in around 5 hours. I don't know how that's going to go on this ice. Oh my god. Oh my god, it's so cold. Instantly. Instantly, it's you cold. I just want to get through it and enjoy it while it lasts. Oh, we're moving.
I just feel like I look crazy. None of my tail on correctly. This is really intense.
Jacky. How are you doing? Cold. Yeah. Running on this will be very interesting. What did we sign up for? I know. That's part of the adventure, right?
Is this happening so fast? We've been here for 5 minutes. What is it, minus 12? Minus 12 Celsius. Hey, it's warmer than the freezer. That's a win.
Guys, please all huddle up close. Guys, fire for a second. It's a very simple course. There's going to be plenty people out on the course guiding you to the goal. Stay focused. Very, very cold out there. Hey, so this is... Yeah, it is.
Round two. Round two. Go get it. Start slow. Start slow. Don't worry about the fuel. Just take whatever you get. Start with just breathing. Three. Two. One. Go!
Antarctica marathon, let's go!
Oh my god. So cold. It's so late. I have no idea how my legs are moving right now.
The truth is, this isn't really day two. This is a marathon that's being done 14 hours after the other marathon. But it's not just any old marathon, it's a marathon on the ice. So, the underfoot conditions are very tough. And it's cold and it's windy and the conditions are rough. So, there's a lot of things to bear in mind there and also to overcome mentally.
Oh, my fleece is frozen.
We were really worried about things like fluids and gels freezing because it's just been so cold. So, we worked out that if Michelle kept the gels against her body, against her skin instead, they'd stay warm.
All right. Thirsty or gel? Gel. All right. There you go.
So, she's doing great. A bit slower than the earlier marathon, but the conditions are so much harder to run in. So, she's got to be a bit more careful.
How many laps is it? Nine? 10. 10. One down, nine to go.
One mile is better. I just took a 5-minute break. Oh, that's nice. I try to do it between laps. You done all right? This is tough. Yeah. It's easier to do one mile run with you for a little bit. Oh, thank you.
Hi, my name's Tariq. I'm number 62, running the Great World Race the second year in a row wearing this tuxedo. Hey, we're still wearing the tuxedo, baby.
At the time, I didn't really know who Michelle was. My daughter, Lex, told me, she's like, "Oh, you're running with Michelle." I was like, "No. I've done this race before. Michelle's running with me."
Come on. We're on lap three now? Yeah. Oh, come on.
The way it worked, I would run in front of Michelle to block the wind. Then we would trade. And so, we would do that on every lap. Okay, you take it this lap, then I'll take it this lap. And we worked as a team.
After the Cape Town Marathon, my mission became to find a running buddy. And luckily, I meet Tariq. Tariq has been so kind.
What's up? Inspirational words of wisdom. We've been running together, so it's been good. It's been good. A little duo through Antarctica.
Our plan for Antarctica is to strategically warm up at each of the aid stations. However, the clock is ticking. Every minute you take to warm up is a minute less you have to cross the finish line.
Oh, it is brutal. Dude, it's only getting colder. Tariq has been so kind to pace me. Ready? No, but we're doing it anyways, right? Tariq is keeping me alive.
We got this. 8 miles down, 7 left to go. Come on. That rest stop is a game changer. It is. I'm doing a lot better now.
You got me a question earlier. How do you get through this? Purpose has to be bigger than the pain. You get through it. Yeah. What's yours? Mine is, when you understand how bad it is for men's mental health.
I wore a tuxedo for the Great World Race 2025 to bring awareness to men's mental health. The study is a man commits suicide about every 60 seconds. The tux represents a facade. When you look at another man, when you look at someone, and you think they got it all going on, everything's going great for them. The reality is you have no idea what they're going through, either mentally or emotionally. My philosophy has been, if we can bring awareness to men's mental health, I can change one person's life by wearing a tux for 7 days running a marathon, then I think I've done a good job.
What about you? This is something I saw and I said, "I don't know if I can do that." It sounds so crazy. So, I thought I'd try it.
After today, I will be... Focus on the... What's your favorite place? Talk to me about your favorite place in Miami. Oh, Miami. Come on. It'll bring tears to your eyes. I don't want to cry right now. It'll freeze to my face.
She's super determined. She's just like, "Get this done. Really get it done by the cut-off." It's 8 hours from the start, the plane is leaving, no matter what. So, it's about that, really, getting it done.
Only one outcome. Me and Tariq finishing this thing. So grateful for you, Tariq. Thank you. You're welcome. A lot of people give up.
Oh, man. It is brutal. This is lap four. The wind's like 25 knots. It's -23 Celsius. Freaking cold. But we got this. How are you feeling, Michelle? We do. Come on. Oh, yeah. I'm catching up, Tariq. Let's go. Here's David. Go, David.
I came in at 3:55 this year. It was over an hour slower than last year, so you can tell how brutal the conditions were. That one you earned. I felt my tongue getting frozen to it.
Oh, it's all worth it to be in this amazing place. It's just such a privilege. Can't smile. My face is frozen. It's a privilege to go through this brutality.
Amazing. Good to meet you, yeah? Yeah. I'm going to keep this one pretty short. Yeah. I want to get back out there. Just want to get this done. So, you're not getting deep conversation out there, are you? I'm just deep conversation with God.
This just doesn't end. What the heck? Just like we're in hell. I thought you were talking to God. Yeah. And God said, "You're in hell."
Dude, this is going to be like heaven now. We're going to get so much recovery. I'm so jealous of you guys. Congrats.
I think what was so inspiring to me was everybody that just grinded it out, but it's especially Michelle. You're kicking ass. Okay. You're kicking ass, for sure. Just watching her warm up for a second and then get back out there and just grind through it all. I think that's where it set the tone where I was like, "Okay, Michelle's going to kick this thing's ass." She is tough.
So, I'm watching Michelle do these laps running around the ice here, and everything's going well, but there's a cut-off time, and she's slowing down, and she's getting really emotional. She was running with Tariq for quite a long time, and Tariq was going through a tough patch.
Tariq. Come on, Tariq. Come on. Stay with me.
When you have been through something as crazy as this in a partnership, it's devastating to have to move forward without them.
Go slower. You have to keep moving. We're not going to make the cut-off.
You're looking around, and I see these vehicles. I see a lot of movement. We're at a point in the race where they are starting to pick people up in the sled if they're not going fast enough. And they were being escorted to the plane. And in that moment, fear sets in.
Having to walk quite a bit on this lap. Just feels like it's never-ending. I just thrown my goal pace and time and heart rate out the window. I just...
At this point, I have to make a critical decision. Wait for Tariq, or do I go? I knew for my own race, if I waited any longer, I would start to cool down. I would start to freeze in the environment, and I might not finish the race. And at the end of the day, the goal for our team was cross all seven finish lines. And so, I had to continue on without Tariq.
We're at the part where we're crying. By we, I mean me. Oh my god. How does everyone do it except for me? It feels like it. I just feel like I'm by myself out here.
You got this, Michelle. You got this. You're actually going to do it in a really good time. Okay. You actually are. You got this? Yeah, I do. You got this, Michelle. Okay. I'm so proud of you. Thank you, Garrett. You mean so much. I'm going to leave you here. You're going to cross.
It's absolutely haunting being the only person I can see within my vision. I'm completely by myself. I'm praying I'm on course. I have no idea I am. My watch is dead. My shoes keep slipping. I think Tariq is somewhere behind me, but I can't see him, and if I stop to check, I will get picked up and left behind. People ask me all the time, "What is the hardest challenge you've ever done?" Now, I have a very clear answer. It is today.
But I keep trying to remind myself what David said to me just a few months ago. To pause for a moment and just take it all in. So many people don't ever get to experience a place like Antarctica, and it's so untouched, it's so raw, it's so brutal, but I think that's also what makes it really special to be out there, though. I'll probably never get the chance to be here again. That's what I keep telling myself over and over. Because at this point, it's all I have left to go. Let's go.
Thank you. Thank you so... Well done, you. What a champion. What a champion. How do you do it so fast? How are you doing it so fast? You're so good. You did your marathon in 8 hours. It's incredible. You're so tough.
Oh my god. I'm falling forever. It's done. It's done. It's accomplished. You done? It's done. But this one was the hard one. This is the one that... It's done. It's done. Well done.
You did it. You did it. How... Oh, how are you feeling? I'm so happy. Thank you so much. You're welcome. You're welcome. You're welcome. You did it. You crushed it. Yeah, so did you. Way to go. Yes. Way to go, Michelle.
Finally, when I cross the finish line and have a moment to soak it in, 1 second later they say, "Grab your things and get on the plane." I had no opportunity to celebrate. I'm not even able to change clothes, go to the bathroom, get any of the beautiful catering that I watched everyone else eat for the past 3 hours. The Great World Race continues.
Next time on The Great World Race.
Cheers. Getting on a PJ in your PJs? It's like a party in the sky, honestly. This is how we fly.
Do you think any of the marathons are going to be harder than Antarctica? Because I've heard Hurst is supposed to be night. Change up. I'll be struggling with the heat.
The heat is at its absolute max. You're melting. You could just see terror on people's faces. I'm really feeling it today. The inside of my knee hurts pretty bad. I can't even run.
Breaking news. Attempting seven marathons on all seven continents in 1 week is extremely hard.
My name is Dan Little. I am 83 years old. Dan, have you done this before? This is my fourth time.
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