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Sports Backers newest virtual running event, ‘7 Marathons 7 Continents,’ will launch on Nov. 7 in conjunction with the Richmond Marathon, Richmond Half Marathon, and Allianz Partners 8k. Participants can use those races as miles towards their virtual North American race.
During the virtual event, which will continue through Jan. 31, 2021, individuals will run either a marathon or half marathon on each of the seven continents, tracking their runs, logging their miles, and watching their interactive tracker move across the globe. Participants can run their full or half marathon all at once or accumulate the equivalent miles over multiple runs to complete a race on each continent. After finishing 26.2 miles or 13.1 miles on one continent, participants will move on to the next one, totaling either 183.4 miles or 91.7 miles to complete the ‘7 Marathons 7 Continents’ journey.
Marathon and half marathon courses are pre-selected on each continent, and will be run in the following order: North America: Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona; South America: Tancac to Machu Picchu along the Inca Trail in Peru; Europe: Marathon to Athens in Greece; Asia: Kyoto, Japan; Australia: Sydney; Africa: Ngorongoro Conservation Area in Tanzania; and Antarctica: McMurdo Station on Ross Island.
Awards will be given to the first male and female participants to finish all seven courses on the seven continents, as well as the male and female with the fastest cumulative time to complete all seven continents. To be eligible for the award categories, runners must be prepared to validate each of their logged miles through a tracking device or GPS-enabled app.
Registration is now open at sportsbackers.org. The $60 event fee includes a long-sleeved participant shirt, finisher’s medal, virtual finisher’s badge, seven pre-mapped marathon or half marathon courses on seven continents, virtual leaderboard, and online map updates as each runner completes another course. The event will also include a virtual travel experience for each participant with fun facts, cultural insights, and imagery of notable attractions along each course.
“We know people are still seeking big challenges and innovative approaches to virtual events, and we’re excited to launch ‘7 Marathons 7 Continents’ to provide more opportunities for active living over the next few months,” said Megan Schultz, chief operating officer for Sports Backers. “We hope this will be a great way for participants to experience parts of the world they’ve always dreamed of visiting for a marathon or half marathon adventure and allow them to achieve some running milestones.”
For full event details, including schedules and course maps, visit http://www.sportsbackers.org/events/7-marathons-7-continents/.
