Two of my favorite things are running and traveling. That said, I rarely mix the two, preferring to leave my running shoes behind when I hit the road. That isn't the case for Nick Butter however, as he has certainly found a way to combine those two passions in a creative manner. This past weekend, the 30-year old British endurance athlete completed a marathon in Greece for instance, which is certainly a fun goal to have on your travel resume. What set this particular run apart however is that by completing the race, Butter became the first person to ever run a marathon in every country on Earth.
The inspiration for this massive undertaking came a few years back when Nick met another runner named Kevin Webber at a race in the Sahara Desert. Butter learned that his new friend continued to run long-distance events despite the fact that he had been diagnosed with prose cancer. Upon discovering this, the Brit knew that he wanted to do something to help the cause, so he came up with the idea of running a marathon in every country to help raise funds for the nonprofit Prostate Cancer UK. When he crossed the finish line in Greece on Sunday, he had brought in more than $83,000 for that cause.
The challenge of running all of those races began last year with a race in Canada, but the build-up to the start of the project actually started a couple of years before that. It took some time for Butter - who is a former banker - to put the logistics together to run all of those marathons. Some of the countries had difficult visa requirements for instance and just saving enough cash to travel to all of the other countries took time. Still, he not only stuck with the plan, he also managed to complete his quest in just 675-days. Considering that he ran in 196 countries, that means he completed a 26.2-mile (42 km) marathon roughly every three-and -half days. According to CNN, Nick filled ten passports along the way, often returning home just long enough to collect a new visa before setting out again.
All of that travel is exhausting enough on its own, let alone trying to work in a marathon every few days. This is an impressive achievement on a number of levels to say the least. Congrats to Nick on finishing this impressive feat and doing it for a good cause. I think he's earned a few rest days.
