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Seven Marathons, Seven Continents: Heat, Injury, and Strangers Who Became a Team on Races Three Through Five

Michelle Khare · ▶ 32:43 · 14 min read
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Overview

In the second episode of her Great World Race series, Michelle Khare continues her attempt to run seven marathons on seven continents in seven days. She says she took on the challenge to see what kind of person she could become by attempting something she thinks is impossible. Episode one ended with two marathons done, the second in Antarctica, where she finished just before the cut-off. This episode covers races three through five: Perth, Abu Dhabi, and Portugal. It is also where, in her words, "everything changes." The physical toll grows, but the episode is mostly about people. A small group of fellow runners changes how Michelle approaches the suffering, and she starts treating the race as a group effort.

14 min read
0:46

Living on the Plane

Michelle and about 60 other racers board a private jet that will serve as their shared home for the rest of the week. At first it feels like a party. There is orange juice and champagne on board, slippers, and fully reclining seats. Tariq Amassyali, who runs in a suit, calls it "a party in the sky." Another runner calls it their "cabin in the sky" for the next six days.

The novelty fades quickly. The flight from Antarctica to Perth takes about nine hours, and Michelle is focused on recovery. She has been warned that Perth will be the biggest temperature jump of the whole event. The plane is already stretched thin, with only a couple of bathrooms for 60 runners. She lands having slept about six hours, with five races still ahead.

Later in the episode she describes daily life on board. Runners get ready in airplane bathrooms, stretch in the aisles, and mix their drinks in the flight attendants' catering area. She compares it to camping, or to a school field trip where everyone sleeps in the same room. There is no privacy, she says, but there is a lot of camaraderie.

2:04

Perth: The Heat Arrives

There is almost no break between landing and racing. Runners get ten minutes to set out gels, recovery supplies, water, and salt tablets at their assigned aid station spots. Michelle and her support crew plan to match her Cape Town pacing of 25 to 30 minutes per loop, with one gel per loop. The idea is to start slow and treat the early laps as a warm-up. Before the start, the race director tells runners that "a very cold day yesterday" has become a hot one. He warns them not to go into the red zone and to take a salt tablet on every lap.

The course on the Burswood Peninsula is a 3.5 km loop that climbs up past the stadium and comes back around, run 12 times. Local coverage notes that the racers were dealing with wind chill temperatures of -27° the day before.

Michelle says everyone starts strong but nobody is prepared for the heat. Runners end up on the medical table. One describes cramping legs and a painful inner knee. Michelle also notices that David Kilgore, one of the two leaders along with a runner named Paul, has slowed to a walk and looks miserable.

Kilgore explains his history. During the Jungle Ultra in Peru, a race across part of the Amazon that he says is regularly ranked among the toughest ultras, he twisted his ankle badly coming down a steep mountain. The bones splayed out and all his ligaments tore. He camped in the jungle for three days before he could be evacuated, and the ankle now holds two screws and a plate. "But you know what? We're going to send it," he says.

Michelle is struggling too. Her body feels completely depleted, and she hasn't showered since Africa. She compares her position to climbing Everest and trying to stay motivated for the summit while still at the first base camp. Like most of the field, she decides to walk. Others encourage this because there are still four marathons to go after Perth.

7:41

Walking With Dan Little

While walking, Michelle catches up to Dan Little, whom she considers one of the most interesting runners in the group. He is from Madill, Oklahoma. He is 82 and will turn 83 the following week, and this is his fourth Great World Race.

Dan says he originally thought there was no way he could do seven marathons in seven days. One of his favorite sayings for his grandchildren is "fooey on FOF," where FOF stands for fear of failure. His plan was to train, show up, and do his best. If he didn't finish, his grandkids would see that it had still been a great experience and that it was fine to fail. He finished. When Michelle tells him she's "dying" and asks for advice, he says: "Start slowly, and then slow down."

Michelle describes Dan as almost always the last person on the course. He spends more time moving each day than anyone else, and she finds his positive attitude inspiring for that reason. Dan talks about his late wife, Prudence. He calls marrying her the best and luckiest thing he ever did. She fought four primary cancers over 35 years, and he says she was so brave that those were "35 wonderful years." Fighting the disease made them appreciate each day more.

The conversation leads Michelle to reflect on herself. She says she finds the most joy in completing a project and crossing the finish line, even when she fails at a challenge. She has never been good at finding joy in the pain on the way there, and in Perth she wanted to try. She later thanks Dan for getting her through a rough patch. Dan finishes last, as usual. He mentions that Perth used to be run at night, so slow runners got to watch the sunrise over the river. "Somebody's got to be the oldest and the slowest, and I'm proud to be it," he says.

13:24

A Poster Everyone Could Sign

Back on the plane, Tariq takes the speaker and asks every runner to write their bib number and one motivational sentence on a poster. He says he wanted to make something everybody could touch, take home, and use to connect. Entries include "Surround yourself with relentless humans and climb together" and "Everything is easy after Antarctica." Michelle writes, "What a privilege it is to be challenged."

14:15

Abu Dhabi: Online Criticism and Self-Doubt

Michelle arrives in Abu Dhabi unsure what day or time it is. There are about 20 minutes to change before another hot race. Before the start, she talks about something that has been weighing on her. She had posted about the challenge expecting support from her usual community, which she calls very supportive. The TikTok went viral outside that community, and thousands of comments called the challenge irresponsible and said she was actively hurting herself. Several commenters said they were registered nurses and predicted she would get rhabdomyolysis. Around the same time, her producer Nick checks his watch, which tells him to rest because of excessive fatigue.

Michelle admits she had partly posted, selfishly, to get support because she was scared. When she's struggling, going slowly, or being passed, she sometimes feels she is proving the critics right. Someone on her team responds that those comments are often driven by jealousy and tells her to focus on what the run means to her community. A fan named Gina then comes to meet her. A member of her team says these encounters lift her. They remind her of the difference she is making and who actually cares.

16:12

Abu Dhabi: Adrian McHale

Race four is slow and punishing. Michelle says she is sweating heavily and moving slowly, and another runner calls the conditions "crazy." Reaching mile 13 would mean she was halfway through the whole event, which she expects to be a big psychological boost. She follows Dan's advice to go slow and then slower, and she starts drifting away from the group.

Then she meets Adrian McHale. He sells life insurance in Sligo, Ireland, a town he says has about 60,000 people. He says he's "not built for running": he likes his food and drink and had never run a marathon before this trip. He originally planned to do only half marathons, but after watching runners like Michelle he decided to try the full distances.

Michelle calls it the wackiest marathon of her life and says it was probably the most she had laughed in years. The two talk the whole way. She tells him she grew up in Shreveport, Louisiana, a city of about 100,000, and that her father is a physician. Her childhood was competitive science fairs and AP classes, and every minute through college was about optimizing for the future, never the present. She says she thinks a lot about the finish line and wants to learn to enjoy moments that are hard and painful, and to see what is beautiful in them.

Adrian shares the hardest day he can remember. His son AJ was born with Trisomy 18, or Edwards syndrome, and died after 17 days with the family, which then numbered six. Someone speaking for the family, who calls AJ "our son," explains that Adrian draws on that experience whenever he faces a challenge: if they survived that, he can survive anything. The family doesn't want to be limited by grief, though grief crippled them for a time and still comes in waves. They hope one day to tell AJ about everything they did because he existed. Michelle says Adrian "saved my life today."

20:48

David Kilgore Drops Out

Kilgore's race ends in Abu Dhabi. Around mile 17 or 18 his knee flares up, even after taking medication. He says that if this were the last race he might grind through. With three more to go and a major surgery behind him, he decides to stop. He describes the decision as hard to accept because of internal and external pressure: the work he had put in and what people expected of him. He also says part of being a professional at anything is making hard decisions and being secure that they are right for you and for your future.

Michelle finishes marathon four with Adrian. Late in the race she jokes that the video should be retitled "I got punched in the face seven times on seven continents in seven days," because, she says, no matter how much fun you're having, the marathon sneaks up and hits you. Earlier that day she had believed there was physically and mentally no way she could finish. Afterward she says that she and Adrian found the joy in the pain as it was happening, which is what she had been looking for. Adrian says Michelle inspired him in return and gave him real belief that he could finish all seven. He calls the halfway mark his turning point: from there they would finish, "whether we have to walk, crawl, cry over the line."

25:10

Portugal: The Fastest Marathon Comes on Day Five

Race five in Portugal starts with a different mood. Local schoolchildren come out and the national anthem is sung. One runner says that if that can't fire you up, nothing will. Kilgore could have flown home but stays to cheer. Michelle notes how supportive the community has become.

The weather is ideal. Michelle reaches halfway at 13.2 miles in 2 hours 17 minutes, which her team notes is the fastest she has run all week. One crew member says the woman who just walked past is a 3:30 marathoner and that Michelle seems to be getting stronger. He adds that he is glad for her, and for what this means for anyone who ever doubted her.

Michelle finishes in 4 hours 42 minutes, her fastest time of the five marathons so far. "Too bad for my haters," she says, adding that she never thought she could do five in a row and that many other people doubted it too. When asked whether it gets easier, she says it "remains hard all the time." What gets better is the community and camaraderie. She credits the crowd's energy and the beauty of the course for lifting everyone's spirits.

26:52

Stories From the Out-and-Back

The Portugal course has many laps back and forth, so runners keep passing each other and talking. One runner suggests it may be "misery loves company," but says the conversations with near-strangers become surprisingly meaningful.

One runner tells Michelle he fell 26 feet headfirst from a roof while working. He has plates in both wrists, fractured his whole face and five vertebrae, and damaged the MCLs in both knees. "I've no business being alive," he says. Others point out that at 6'6" he doesn't have a runner's build, yet he crushed the race. He describes the lesson as a choice: you can take the negatives from everything or find a positive.

Runners also share their "happy places." Michelle's is going to the pool with her husband, Garrett. Another runner's is his wife and kids. One runner says that whenever you wondered why you were doing this, you could look left and right and see someone still fighting.

Another runner explains that they are running for 30 for Freedom, which aims to raise half a million dollars to rescue girls from human trafficking. They say $400 can rescue one girl. A listener pledges enough for ten, $4,000, saying, "That's why we're here." Michelle notes that many runners are raising money for causes and says she has linked them all.

29:12

From "Can I?" to "Can We?"

By the end of the Portugal leg, Michelle says spending time with these people has changed how she sees the challenge. Running is not a team sport as such, she says, but this is a team accomplishment, made possible by people willing to try something this crazy and to help each other across finish lines. The question for her is no longer whether she can pull off the challenge, but whether they can.

31:30

What Comes Next: Cartagena

The episode ends with a preview of the finale. Runners describe marathon six in Cartagena, Colombia, as the toughest of the week, a "silent killer" that tests character. They say two people were hospitalized there the previous year with heatstroke and heat exhaustion. The preview shows Michelle in what someone calls "a dark place," and she reveals that her period has just started. She also admits, "I don't think I fully believe in myself," as she faces the last two races after seven months of training.

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