For many people, running a marathon is a bucket list item, something people want to accomplish one time in their life. For this marathon man, it was something that he did every single day of 2022!
This Marathon Man Ran 365 Marathons in 365 Days
Gary McKee started 2022 like many people did – with a goal. He set out, finishing one marathon a day. As someone who has run 7 marathon distances in as many days, I know the grind that can exist of just getting out and getting it done. But, Gary didn’t stop at 7 – or 70. He ran one marathon distance a day for everyday of 2022 – that is 365 marathons!
For those unfamiliar with it, a “marathon” is a set distance, not just going for something hard. It is a distance of 26.2 miles (or 42.195km for those in the rest of the world). While some people would maintain that a marathon has to be a race and organized as such, Covid redefined that for a lot of people so that it is mostly accepted now that a marathon is a run of 26.2 miles at one time.
People that attempt huge things like this may typically have sponsors or something similar in order to not have to do a full-time job during such an endeavor and still cover the expenses. For Gary, he was still working a regular job even while clocking of the miles (or, kilometers in his case) every single day.
‘It was just running’
Marathon man Gary McKee spoke to Roger on #BBCBreakfast the morning after completing 365 marathons in 365 days and raising more than £1m for cancer charities https://t.co/RCM1XNbc9o pic.twitter.com/BSOKqgr5CN
— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) January 1, 2023
But he wasn’t just doing this for some record or something like that. Instead, he was doing it as a fundraiser for MacMillan Cancer Support and Hospice at Home West Cumbria. This wasn’t his first fundraising effort for this noble cause as he had run 110 marathons in 2017 as a fundraiser as well. His goal? 1 million pounds. As of the completion of his amazing accomplishment on December 31, he had completed that goal as well. As of the writing of this post, the fundraising effort is still open and has raised an amazing £1,116,772 – or about $1,346,000 for those of us tracking in US dollars. This has been accomplished thanks to over 34,000 supporters of his amazing effort.
If you want to see what each of these amazing marathon runs looked like, check out Gary’s Strava page that shows each of those runs over the last year. In 2022, Gary ran over 9,500 miles! That is just simply amazing.
Well done, Gary and for those closest to him that supported him through all this. What an incredible inspiration as so many of us look to take on our own goals and challenges for 2023.
Featured image from Gary’s Twitter page – give him a follow and a congrats!
