Irishman Runs Seven Marathons on Seven Continents, in Six Days

by Kraig Becker on

Irish endurance runner Richard Donovan completed an impressive series of runs a few days back when he completed his seventh marathon in just six days. Even more impressive than that however, is that each of those marathons was run on a different continent.

The World Marathon Challenge got underway on January 31st when Donvan ran a marathon in Antarctica, covering the 26.2 miles n 4 hours, 39 minutes, 29 seconds in temperatures hovering around 0º Fahrenheit. Upon completing that race, he immediately hopped on a plane and flew to Cape Town, for his second run on the same day. From there, it was on to Dubai, where the temperatures soared dramatically, but Richard completed his third marathon in two days on the 1st of February.

The next destination was London, where the city was experiencing its worst snowfall in years, but Donvan pushed through, and logged his 26.2 miles, at three in the morning no less, before jetting off to Toronto, for yet another marathon. He completed the South American leg of his challenge by running a marathon in Santiago, Chile. The last of his runs took place in Sydney, Australia on Thursday, February 5th.

All told, Richard completed his journey in just 5 days, 10 hours, and 8 minutes, collecting 26,719 frequent flyer miles in the process. According to this story from the Independent, his only opportunities to eat and rest were aboard the airplanes he was flyng on, which caused him to battle sleep deprivation and jet lag the entire was as well.

What were Richard’s motivations for undertaking the World Marathon Challenge? To raise awareness of the ongoing crisis in Darfur, and to raise funds for the Irish charity GOAL.

Tagcrumbs are places worth remembering

by Brenda Yun on

Let’s face it: there are tons of online travel resources out there, and they seem to be growing exponentially by the day. It came to my attention that one of those millions should not be overlooked. Despite its rather unfortunate name, I found Tagcrumbs, a Germany and UK-based company, to be quite useful and informative.

The premise here is simple. When you come across a cool place in the world (one worth remembering), sign into your Tagcrumbs account and tag it by location. You can then write a little blurb about it, adding specific recommendations if you like. Each Tagcrumb is connected to a specific location and has some tags added to it. That way you can easily search for nearby places that are relevant to you.
The site will eventually provide a way to send your tagcrumbs to your friends as well as upload new tagcrumbs from your mobile phone.

Ultimately, Tagcrumbs is a comprehensive site that allows you to organize and share interesting stories, opinions and insider tips with the world. Right now, it’s just getting started, and while notable places in the U.S. have yet to be tagged, I could see this resource really taking off with the proper publicity. All this site needs is a little incentive for users.

So go ahead: get to it — Tagcrumb away!

London, buried in snow

by Jeffrey White on


Here’s a sight you don’t see that often: London like a winter wonderland.

London today is still scrambling, digging out of one of the biggest snowfalls ever to fall on Europe’s largest city.

Of course, that’s not saying all that much. The “blizzard” dumped 6-8 inches of the white stuff on London, depending on where you measure. Not exactly like a US Nor’easter, huh?

Still, it was enough to wreaked general havoc among the usually restrained, “mustn’t grumble” British. The storm left roads impassable, and London’s beloved public transportation system, especially its buses, were frozen. London’s airports have also been in chaos. Heathrow saw 850 cancellations through this morning; Gatwick canceled 47 flights and Stansted, 170. Some travelers at these airports, especially Heathrow, have been stranded for more than 60 hours as area hotels started jacking up their rates.

Worst of all, Londoners are furious with the government, wondering why it was so poorly prepared to handle such a storm (hint: It never snows in London).

The infrequency of snow storms belies London’s northern location, which can often be overlooked and is an interesting example of how general variances in jet streams and ocean temperatures can make a northern place still relatively mild.

Some people don’t realize that London is on pretty much the same line of latitude as Winnipeg. Ever been to Winnipeg in the winter? Exactly.

British tour company offers “redneck free” vacations

by Scott Carmichael on

Activities Abroad, a UK based tour company that offers upscale active vacations in places like Canada and Costa Rica has found itself on the receiving end of a ton of criticism.

The reason? They sent out 24,000 emails to potential customers describing the kind of people you will not see on their trips.

The company actually did research into the names of customers they associated with being “chav”, which is the Brit equivalent of the US redneck or trailer trash.

According to Activities Abroad, if your name is Britney, Kylie-Lianne, Bianca, Tiffany, Dazza, Chardonnay, Chantelle, Candice, Courtney or Shannon, you are probably a “chav”.

If your name is John, Sarah, James, Charles, Rachel, Michael, Alice, Lucy, Joseph or Charlotte then you are probably not trailer trash.

Good to know eh?

The managing director for the company says he feels it is time that the middle class finally stood up for themselves, and asks parents whether they’d want their kids playing at the shopping mall with the kind of people that hang around all day smoking cheap cigarettes.

So far, the campaign has only created 15 negative responses. The concept of advertising vacations where “certain” people won’t be found is of course pretty controversial, but I’m sure there is a market out there for it.

What do you think?

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(Via: Telegraph.co.uk)

Other funny names of places: How about Intercourse?

by Jamie Rhein on

It’s great to have belly laughs. The article in the New York Times that Jeremy wrote about yesterday had me chortling out loud and reminded me about why Monty Python is so darned funny.

I thought Intercourse, Pennsylvania was bad, but the list of funny names in England was impressive. For some reason, Titty Ho caught me the most.

As I was reading the NY Times article, I kept thinking of Life of Brian and the scenes with Pontius Pilate. It also reminded me of Annie’s post on Big Bone Lick, Kentucky, a place I have actually been to. There’s also Beaver Lick, Kentucky.

Here are a few more funny names for places. Pennsylvania also boasts the town Blue Ball which is not far from the aptly named town Virginville. Then there’s Montana’s — Bald Knob Mountain. What about Bucksnort, Tennessee? Or Bumpass, Virginia?

This one seems apropos, Happy Camp, California. Who couldn’t use a little stay in Happy Camp these days?

For some Saturday entertainment, keep reading for the YouTube Life of Brian scene with Pontius Pilate.