British man becomes first handcycle athlete to finish World Marathon Challenge
Darren Edwards completed seven marathons in seven days on all seven continents
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Instagram/darrenedwards_adventurer
The World Marathon Challenge (WMC) came to an end in Miami on Tuesday, with the few dozen athletes entered in the event completing their seventh marathon in as many days on all seven continents. When he crossed the finish line in Miami, Britain’s Darren Edwards became the first handcycle athlete to complete the WMC, a challenge he used to raise close to C$75,000 for charity.
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Edwards’s journey
The WMC started with the first of its seven daily marathons in Antarctica on Jan. 31, and Edwards crossed the finish line in 5:48:37. The group then flew to South Africa, where Edwards cut a significant amount of time from his previous day’s result, posting a sub-three-hour split of 2:52:04 on a hot and windy course in Cape Town. The next stop was Perth, Australia, but the event faced a speed bump as crew and athletes attempted to leave South Africa, forcing WMC organizers to alter the event schedule. The upshot was that the athletes got an extra day of recovery ahead of the Perth marathon, which was moved to Feb. 3.
Edwards clearly used his rest day well, since he laid down a massive result in Australia, where he stopped the clock in a PB of 2:36:30, despite racing in 36 C heat. The following day took racers to Dubai for the Asian leg of the challenge, where Edwards set yet another PB, smashing his day-old best by a whopping 13 minutes and posting a time of two hours, 23 minutes. He and his fellow WMC challengers then flew to Madrid, and although Edwards slowed considerably, he still managed to record a stellar time of 3:23:05 for his fifth marathon in six days.
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With the European leg complete, athletes were set for a busy final day of racing. They arrived in Fortaleza, Brazil, for the penultimate marathon of the challenge, which started late at night. Edwards bounced back from his slower result in Spain to post another sub-three-hour time, crossing the line in 2:36:59. Some more travel issues prevented race crew and athletes from leaving Brazil on time, but they managed to make it to Miami later on Monday. The race started just after midnight Tuesday morning, with Edwards crossing the line in 2:31:40 to become the first handcycle athlete to finish the WMC.
He finished his seven marathons in an average time of four hours, 20 minutes, although his result in Antarctica skewed that time quite a bit; not counting Antarctica, his average was a blazing two hours, 43 minutes. Edwards’s current fundraising total of C$74,300 will be donated to the British Armed Forces Para-Snowsport Team, a program to help “50 injured [and] wounded veterans to experience the freedom of alpine [and] nordic skiing (as well as snowboarding) at the annual AFPST training camp in 2023,” as noted on Edwards’s fundraising web page.
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Other WMC results
In the men’s challenge, American David Kilgore won all seven marathons. His slowest was a 3:23 result in Antarctica, which was his only run over three hours. On the women’s side, Kilgore’s compatriot Deirdre Keane got off to a hot start, winning the first three marathons. Once they hit Dubai, however, fellow American Julie Uychiat took over at the head of the challenge, and she didn’t look back, winning the final four races of the WMC.
For full results from all seven WMC races, click here.
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