By Imprint-TV Contributing Reporter: Sarah Denlinger
Last week, Charlie Barkowski set out to run six marathons, on six continents, within five days. Though he did not complete all six marathons due to a late flight arrival in Cairo, one can hardly say that he failed. You could consider him a modern day Pheidippides (coincidental that he hails from Greece, New York too) and the challenge that he faced would be daunting for even the most talented of athletes. Barkowski referred to his run as the “Dash of Continents” and his sole trek began in Sydney, Australia with stops in: Los Angeles, Sao Paulo, London, Cairo, and finally ending in Jerusalem. When it was all said and done, Barkowski logged 100 hours of flight time from city to city; 131.1 miles by foot; a total of 18,642 calories burned; and an average run time of 4:59.
This ultimately begs the question of: why? As someone who can barely make it to the gym three times a week, I was curious as to the motives behind Barkowski’s feat (no pun intended). According to his website, he ran for the charity Run FIT, Inc., which stands for Run For Israel Together and was “started for the purpose of helping families in Israel who have lost loved ones in acts of terror.” The group’s main method of raising both funds and international awareness is through running in different events around the world. Barkowski is one of only a few people to ever attempt running that distance in such a short time period, and also the first American to do so.
The marathon distance was recorded via a global positioning system that Barkowski wore along with a heart monitor (for those cynics that may think that he skipped out on the running and just drove the myriad routes). You can read about his journey on his website and facebook pages: dashofcontinents.net and Run for Israel, respectively.
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