Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 126, January 2020 | Page 20

ROAD RUNNING
Seven Times
Seven
The World Marathon Challenge is a unique running feat that only a small
handful of runners will ever complete, but that’s what Nontuthuko Mgabhi
will be doing from 6 to 12 February – and this will make her the first South
African woman to complete this incredible challenge. – BY MANFRED SEIDLER
T
ry to wrap your head around this: Seven
marathons on seven consecutive days. That’s
295.4km in a week, which would already be
quite a feat, but now throw into the mix running those
seven marathons in seven days on seven different
continents, with the only rest time between runs
being taken up by flying from one continent to the
next. That’s what the World Marathon Challenge is all
about. It takes the traditional challenge of running a
42.2km standard marathon to a whole new level!
The 2020 edition of the challenge starts with the first
run at Novo in Antarctica on the 6 th of February. The
second run is on the African continent, right here in
Cape Town on the 7 th , before runners head to Perth,
Australia for the third marathon on the 8 th . From there
it is on to Dubai, UAE (9 th ) for the Asian leg, then
Madrid, Spain (10 th ) to cover Europe, followed by the
city of Fortaleza in Brazil on the 11 th for the South
American leg. Finally, it’s north from there to Miami
in the USA on the 12 th , to finish the challenge on the
North American continent.
On top of the gruelling 295.4km of running, the
Challenge runners must cope with close to 43,000km
of air travel, and travelling across multiple time zones!
Of course, the logistics of the travel arrangements
are a major part of the Challenge, which charters a
private plane to fly the runners from destination to
destination. As part of this, the organisers arrange for
easy transition at all the airports, to avoid the runners
having to stand in queues at customs. Unsurprisingly,
the whole excursion comes at a hefty cost of 35,000
Euros per person.
Taking on the Challenge
In 2018, South Africa’s Ross Taggart became the
first South African to compete in the World Marathon
Challenge, and this year 32-year-old Nontuthuko
Mgabhi from Richards Bay in KwaZulu-Natal will
become just the second South African in the Challenge,
and the first woman from Africa to attempt it. She says
she found out about the Challenge in March of 2019
and felt it is something she should do, to raise funds
for Khiphinkunzi Primary School in the Mtubatuba area
in KZN. This school was founded in 1997 and currently
has a total of 657 learners (349 boys and 308 girls)
between the ages of five to 15 years.
Nontu came across this rural school while running
the Karkloof Challenge 100 Miler trail race in 2018.
“I was stunned when I saw the poor state the school
was in. Over 100 kids in each class, and what facilities
there are, are in a very poor condition. There is only
one office for the principal and all the teachers. This
is hardly conducive when confidential conversations
need to take place. It really affected me,” she says.
“The school is in desperate need of basic infrastructural
resources, because the current infrastructure actually
undermines effective teaching and learning. All the
windowpanes are shattered. Old pieces of chalkboard
cover the back windows. The pot-holed floors in the
classrooms have not seen polish in years, because
there is almost no floor to polish. The implications of
learning under such conditions are frightening.”
Even worse, she says that many of the parents of the
children in the school are unemployed and depend on
government grants (pension or child support). “The
majority of the families are child-headed, or are raised
by their grandparents, and a significant number of
children who attend the school go to bed with empty
stomachs, and then have to travel a long distance to
and from school without any food.”
Supporting the Cause
While Nontu always knew that attempting seven
marathons in seven days, with all the travelling, would
Nontuthuko running
the iKhulu Trail Run in
Maputaland in October
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ISSUE 126 JANUARY 2020 / www.modernathlete.co.za