7 marathons in 7 days on 7 continents: Minnesota sisters-in-law complete ‘Great World Race’

NINA MOINI: Well, for some of us, it's difficult to imagine having the strength to run a marathon, I know it is for me. But my next two guests ran seven in seven days on seven continents. It's called the Great World Race. And they're here to share with us the experience of this incredible physical and mental challenge. Ellen Hunter Gans is now back in the Twin Cities and joins us on the line. Hi, Ellen.

ELLEN HUNTER GANS: Hi, Mo. How are you?

NINA MOINI: I'm great. Thank you for being here. And her sister-in-law, Sarah Hunter, is on her way home, also joining us on the line. Thank you both for being here.

SARAH HUNTER: Of course, thanks for having us.

NINA MOINI: So I will start with you, Ellen. People might be thinking, what is going on here? How are they able to do all of this? Can you explain just first logistically how this works?

ELLEN HUNTER GANS: Sure. And I will say, I was going to say good morning. I don't even know what day it is, what continent I'm in. My wallet is in Turkey. My brain is somewhere over the Atlantic. And my dignity is in a bush in Australia. So, yes, logistically, it was-- I do not envy those who had to plan and coordinate this. I actually think it was easier to run.

So we gathered in Cape Town, South Africa, took a plane to Antarctica and back. In most cases, we were in each location for about eight hours total, then ran in Cape Town, flew to Australia and ran, flew to Istanbul, ran on the European side, then on the Asian side, those were the ones that were closest together, and then flew to Cartagena, Colombia, and then to Miami for the final one. So it was a constant stream of run and go, run and go, run and go.

NINA MOINI: I mean, that sounds difficult, too. Travel like that is exhausting enough. What inspired you to participate, Ellen?

ELLEN HUNTER GANS: Well, Sarah and I, we refer to each other as partners in questionable endurance sports. And we have mostly shifted from marathons to ultra marathons. But we also both really love travel and are constantly looking for new ways to challenge ourselves.

So that's the short answer. There's more to it than that, I think. And I certainly can't speak for Sarah either. But yeah, this seemed like the ultimate combination of travel and endurance sports.

NINA MOINI: Sarah, what about you? What inspired you to go ahead with this?

SARAH HUNTER: I use endurance athletics as my best form of mental health support. I work in public education. And in order to be able to focus my attention while at work and making sure we make our education systems the best they can be for all students, I have found that my best respite is really crazy long distances. It's the only time that I'm not thinking or worrying about work.

And like Ellen said, we really enjoy doing these things together. I think there's something about having a partner in things that are really taxing on your body. That makes it many, many times easier for me.

NINA MOINI: And, Ellen, you mentioned there was a bit of a deeper reason. Do you want to talk about that?

ELLEN HUNTER GANS: Yeah, certainly. So I had always envisioned myself doing something, taking on something truly unhinged of this caliber, perhaps when I was an empty nester.

I have boys who are 8 and 11. But I have a genetic connective tissue disorder that tends to be degenerative. And I don't know what my body will be like in 10 years. And my father, Sarah's father-in-law, also has late-stage Alzheimer's. And it's a form of Alzheimer's that has been very slow progressing and has been hanging around since he was in his 50s. So it's not lost on me that I really need to take advantage of the time right now.

So we were actually very late to sign up for this. Some folks signed up at least a year in advance. But we signed up in August and just decided let's go all in and really seize the moment. And tomorrow is not guaranteed.

So people think we're really, really unhinged for doing this. And I don't doubt that we are. But also anything can happen tomorrow. So this was our chance to really take advantage of what we have today.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, thank you for sharing that. And you mentioned that you all got in the game a little late. Sarah, I'll kick this one over to you. What is it even like training for something like this?

SARAH HUNTER: Yeah, that's a great question. So Ellen and I were signed up for a 100 miler or 100 mile race and pivoted from that training to this, which meant that at least we had a training base.

But the huge difference in training for a stage race, which is what this would be considered because you have to do something hard and then sleep and get up and do it over and over and over again, is training your body to do so in training.

So typically, training for a marathon, you would do one long run each weekend and then some runs during the week. This training, the biggest difference was that we needed to be doing back to back long runs that were of a significantly longer distance than you would typically do back to back and just essentially teach your body that that is possible.

And I had wondered in training if-- I had doubts. I thought like, is this going to-- is this really going to happen? Am I going to be able to do this seven times? I ran a marathon in October. I ran Twin Cities. And I woke up the next morning and thought, oh my God, what have I done? Because I could not imagine running that six more times, but it worked.

So I guess a piece of advice I would give people who are thinking about doing something that's like outside of what you think is possible is trust your training. If you have been given a training plan that is supposed to be for the event that you're doing, trust that it's going to work because that is what I wish I'd been able to tell myself ahead of time.

NINA MOINI: That's good advice. Ellen, I'm curious. I guess like 50 other people were participating in this Great World Race and from all over the place. Did you get to know the other runners? Or how much did you interact? Or was this a pretty individual thing?

ELLEN HUNTER GANS: Oh, it was very much a group thing. And we were all on a charter plane together. And there was no Wi-Fi on the plane, which at first, I was horrified. I thought, oh my goodness, alone with my thoughts for like 90 hours of flight time. No, thank you.

But actually, it turned out to be great because, of course, we were trying to sleep as much as possible. Not successful for me. I think I spent twice as much time running as sleeping that week.

But it really gave us a chance to connect. And we made what are absolutely going to be lifelong friendships. And now we have couches to crash on all over the world if we want. So that was an unexpected and really, really positive benefit.

And in it, I think it helped us, at least for me, get through the races because these were all courses exclusively for our small group. And they were tended to be looped out in back courses. And so we would get to see each other over and over and actively cheer for each other on the course. And we would be able to know how everyone was doing. And that was a huge element that I'm so grateful for.

NINA MOINI: And we just have a minute left. But I want to ask both of you what you think now that it's over. Are you proud of yourselves? And what's next for you? I'll start with you, Ellen.

ELLEN HUNTER GANS: I don't know that it has sunk in yet. Like I said, I'm still a little frazzled. But yeah, I'm signed up to do the Boston Marathon in April. And other than that, I plan on sitting on the couch for the foreseeable future and processing this big, amazing thing that I was fortunate enough to do and do with Sarah.

NINA MOINI: Cool. What about you, Sarah?

SARAH HUNTER: I've been thinking about that a lot. I'm grateful that I have a friend who traveled with me. And she helped me record the whole experience. And one of the things that came through is that competitors at the beginning and the people who I was looking around and thinking, oh God, I don't fit in this group, I don't know that I've trained enough, or I haven't done enough, they became our best supporters and then friends. And I have no doubt that several of them will be lifelong friends.

And I think it just suggests to me that you got to do the thing you thought wasn't possible, trust that you will have support along the way. And I mean, I feel like I will be forever changed by this trip around the world.

NINA MOINI: Amazing. Sarah and Ellen, I really appreciate you coming on to talk about this and just your words of wisdom for everybody.

ELLEN HUNTER GANS: Thank you so much for having us.

SARAH HUNTER: Thank you so much.

NINA MOINI: Thank you. Ellen Hunter Gans and Sarah Hunter live in the Twin Cities Metro. They recently completed the Great World Race by running seven marathons on seven continents in seven days. Amazing.