Seven’s definitely a lucky number for Tulsa dentist, Raj Patel. Last week he completed a once-in-a-lifetime challenge of running 7 marathons in 7 days on 7 continents!
The first race was January 23rd in Union Glacier, Antarctica where the temperature was -30 degrees and the wind was more than 30 miles per hour. “It was bone-chilling cold,” the 50-year-old Patel told Tulsa World. From there the runners immediately boarded a charter plane, flew to Punta Arenas, Chile, rested 5 hours, and raced again.
Each day during the 7 days, all 31 participants in the World Marathon Challenge ran a standard 42.2km (26.2 miles) marathon distance on each of the planet's 7 continents: Antarctica, South America, North America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. In addition to Union Glacier and Punta Arenas, the exceptional athletes raced in Miami, Florida; Madrid, Spain; Marrakech, Morocco; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; and Sydney, Australia.
After running a total of 183 miles, Dr. Patel finished in 8th place in overall time among all men and women participants. His most enjoyable race, he said, was Madrid with perfect weather and a beautiful countryside. The worst was Dubai, with temperatures in the 90s. “There was a lot of pain and anguish in that one,” he said.
Patel, who didn’t start running until he was 44 and has no family history of running or athletics, has traveled to more than 30 nations on dental mission trips and said this experience was his best mission trip. On his final race in Sydney, he was surprised by his wife and son and some members of his church who were in that part of the world on a mission trip.
And it didn’t take him long to get back to work after finishing the brutal marathon challenge. Dr. Raj Patel finished the last marathon on Sunday in Australia and was seeing patients at his south Tulsa dental clinic on Tuesday, but not before taking a 5 mile run that morning, reports Tulsa World. Although the World Marathon Challenge was extremely rewarding, Dr. Patel said it was “probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, mentally, emotionally, physically ... and financially, too,” he said with a laugh, noting that the trip cost about $50,000.
Photo courtesy of Tulsa World.