World Marathon Challenge winner David Gething’s transformation from overweight to world record holder
SEVEN marathons, on seven continents in seven days. This former party guy set himself the challenge, and underwent an amazing transformation.
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I NEVER thought I’d be writing this story. I never thought I’d compete in, let alone win, the first ever World Marathon Challenge — seven marathons on seven continents in seven days — and set two world records in the process.
I was never the sports guy. I was the other guy, the party guy, the expat Aussie living the high life in Hong Kong. My wife Trilby and I worked hard during the week then played even harder at weekends, dining out in lavish restaurants, partying all night with friends and crawling in to bed at dawn, followed by boozy hair-of-the-dog recovery lunches.
I smoked too much, drank too much and enjoyed indulging in everything Hong Kong had to offer. We had a great time.
But during the later stage of Trilby’s pregnancy with our first child, a few well-placed words from her resulted in me taking a good, hard look at myself. I’d always struggled with my weight but it had really ballooned.
I had taken full advantage of having a personal ‘designated driver’ for nine months, and often joked that I was the first husband in history to gain more weight than his pregnant wife. Hers was all baby, mine was all beer and chips.
In the course of one fateful conversation on an evening in early November 2007, Trilby quietly asked me to think about the kind of example I wanted to set for our child and the type of father I wanted to be.
This was the picture of myself she revealed to me from the perspective of our unborn daughter: I was 32 years old and 30kg overweight, grossly unfit and living a very unhealthy lifestyle. And then I realised that’s how other people saw me, too.
The self-deception — my belief that I was the ‘fun’ guy just having a good time and enjoying his freedom — came crashing down around my ears. I knew it was time to make a change. The battle to become the kind of father my daughter deserved began that night.
For many people, exercise is a joyful experience. Sadly, my battle for fitness had less to do with inspiration and an awful lot more to do with perspiration and dogged perseverance. Those first few runs were excruciating — I felt like I had concrete shoes on and fought hard for every breath. Even so, I learned to celebrate the little milestones: the first time I ran a kilometre without stopping to walk; the first 5km run; every time I beat my personal best.
With hindsight, I realise each little goal was an early sign of the inner competitiveness that would drive me to seek ever greater challenges.
My first real breakthrough came on the bike. I was struggling up a steep hill in Hong Kong, a sweaty, overweight man in board shorts and baggy t-shirt. I may have been fat but I still had my pride; the Lycra uniform of the ‘MAMIL’ was not for me.
A group of four fit, lean cyclists whizzed past me. To my shock and eternal gratitude, they were waiting for me at the top of the hill and invited me to join them. After a few obligatory polite refusals, I sheepishly agreed to meet them for group rides three times a week.
In the months that followed, they forced me up and down the Hong Kong countryside. The weight began to drop off, and the fitness skyrocketed. I consider those guys some of my closest friends and all these years later we’re still riding those three times per week.
Before long, I was back to setting ever more difficult personal goals, looking for ever bigger challenges. I signed up for my first 8km charity run, then my first triathlon, my first marathon, my first ultra-marathon.
I began to win races, and soon became “the guy to beat”. Each win spurred me on in search of a new high and, before I knew it, the idea of running a marathon on every continent had captured my imagination.
In the middle of my planning in March 2014, I reached out to Richard Donovan, the only person I could find who had done something this crazy before. I discovered he was organising the first ever World Marathon Challenge, to take place in January 2015. This sounded much more interesting so I put my own plans on hold.
The trip would be expensive and time-consuming in terms of preparation. My wife Trilby and I had since welcomed our second daughter into the world and I knew signing up for the race would be a huge commitment for the whole family. Once Trilby gave me her blessing, I started training — hard.
I became a food zealot. Nothing passed my lips that didn’t add to my fitness in some way. My training varied but in a peak week my coach Nigel Gray would have me running 120km, cycling 200km and swimming 8km, and pumping weights in the gym every couple of days.
I’d get up at 4am every day, squeeze in a couple of hours’ training before a full day at work, arrive home at 7pm for a quick play with my daughters, eat, then pass out at 9pm. It was gruelling. And the race hadn’t even begun.
The 2015 World Marathon Challenge took its 12 competitors to Antarctica, Punta Arenas in Chile, Miami, Madrid, Marrakech, Dubai and, finally, to my hometown of Sydney.
After 55,000km travelled and 295km raced in just 168 hours, I was thrilled to cross the final finish line under the Harbour Bridge in first place — winning the overall race as well as setting two new world records, including the fastest marathon ever run on the Antarctic continent. We battled blizzards, searing heat, exhaustion and injury to complete one of the world’s most unique and toughest foot races. It was the most exhilarating race of my life.
David Gething is a Hong Kong-based veterinarian and the author of Relentless: Seven Marathons, Seven Continents, Seven Days (available now).
Originally published as World Marathon Challenge winner David Gething’s transformation from overweight to world record holder