This December 2018, I’m all set to complete my challenge of running a marathon in all seven continents.

I will be the youngest Australian to date to complete a marathon in all seven continents un-assisted, but I’d really like to give my appreciation and acknowledgement towards Johanna Garvin who earlier this year became the youngest Australian to complete an assisted marathon on each of the seven continents, achieving the feat in seven days in a wheelchair – a truly remarkable achievement with Johanna using the opportunity to fundraise for Cerebral Palsy Alliance.

I am fundraising and raising awareness for local Gold Coast Charity 4ASD Kids, in aid of helping change the lives of families with children battling with an Autism Spectrum Disorder.

I’m just your everyday Australian. I watch the Sydney Swans play every weekend, I love our beaches and I eat fish ‘n’ chips every single Tuesday. I’ve not always been a runner, in fact I used to make up every excuse under the sun to avoid cross country events at school (just ask my Mum!)

At the age of 22, I entered my very first marathon and continued to travel around Europe running marathons in Cities that I visited. It was at this point I decided that my ambition would be to one day run a marathon in all seven continents.

While living in London in 2014, I was cycling through the city to collect my London Marathon registration just days before the event and was hit by a car. I will never forget it. It’s the first and last time I ever hope to ‘fly’. I went straight over the car and landed on my back in the middle of a 3-lane roundabout, suffering several injuries and cracking my cycling helmet in two. Luckily, I survived and had working legs so from this point onwards I was more determined than ever to complete my adventure and help other people along the way.

My challenge will continue this November in California, where I will complete a marathon on my fifth continent, followed by venturing to Curacao for continent six, and completing the final marathon hurdle in temperatures of -10 to -20 in Antarctica.

Its funny (well, it’s funny now, not at the time!) to look back at the planning for these final three continental marathons. Towards the end of last year, I began planning my trip and thought to triple check that Curacao counted towards ticking off South America as it’s an island to the north of the mainland. It was confirmed to me that it’s fine due to its close proximity to the continental shelf however as an example; Hawaii which is of course part of the United States of America, doesn’t actually count towards North America due to how far away it is from the continental shelf….  What was the one marathon that I had done in the USA? HAWAII!!!!! Here I was thinking that I only had 2 marathons to go.. but I have 3, so I needed to extend my trip by 2 weeks to run in California. Lucky! Believe me, I didn’t intend to run 18 marathons all up!

One of my biggest challenges at the moment is balancing my training for the September Triathlon World Championships which is sprint distance, and applying endurance training to my program so that I’m strong enough to run 3 marathons only 6 weeks after.

I’m hoping to be as focused as ever with this being my toughest adventure to date and I cannot wait to help inspire other Australians. You don’t have to have been fit at school to have sporting goals and ambitions.

Recent major event highlights have included:

-     Ironman Australia 2016

-     Angkor Wat Marathon 2016

-     Victoria Falls Marathon 2017

-     Australian representative for ITU Triathlon World Championships 2017

Events to come:

-     Australian representative for ITU Triathlon World Championships 2018 (13 September 2018)

-     Santa Clarita California Marathon (4 November 2018)

-     Curacao Marathon (25 November 2018)

-     Antarctica Marathon (13 December 2018)

Thank you for all your support, I hope we can raise awareness and fundraise for a great local charity in 4ASD Kids, and inspire other Australians to get active and explore what the world has to offer.

Follow me on Instagram: @running.around.the.world