British man runs 70+ consecutive marathons with his dogs

During the past two months, a British man has taken running with his dog a step further (literally). Aaron Robinson of London and his two border collies, Inca and River, have completed a mind-boggling 72 consecutive marathons together.

The trio sets out from their home in east London at 3 a.m. to run a marathon loop around nearby parks and woodlands, before Robinson heads to work. Robinson told the Daily Mail that each marathon takes around five hours.

Robinson and his dogs have broken the previous human/dog Guinness world record for consecutive marathons, which was 62. Since breaking the record, Robinson has faced a lot of heat online for putting this mileage on his dogs, but defended himself: “Since border collies are working dogs, if they weren’t pets they would be used to working on a farm all day, so they’re very used to running and working hard, and actually the cruel thing is just to keep them inside,” says Robinson. “They love it.”

During his journey, the 40-year-old dog owner and marathoner has been fundraising for the charity he works for, Hope for Justice, which aims to tackle human trafficking and modern slavery in London.

Border collies are known to be athletic and exceptional runners that can easily outpace their owners if given a chance. The number of kilometres a dog can run can vary depending on the dog’s breed, health, attention span and training.

Robinson said in another article that the marathons have become hard work, adding, “It’s quite hard to get enough sleep, get enough calories in and then go to work afterwards—you don’t really recover 100 per cent before the next one.”

Robinson has not decided when he will stop his challenge, and plans to continue to run a marathon every day.