Seven marathons, seven days, seven continents: Two Americans become the first-ever U.S. competitors to win the World Marathon Challenge
- Daniel Cartica and Becca Pizzi are the first Americans to win the World Marathon Challenge
- The challenge has competitors running seven marathons in seven days with one on every continent
- More people have voyaged into space or scaled Mount Everest than have won the World Marathon Challenge
- It took 168 hours for competitors to travel 23,560 miles around the world
Two Americans have become the first-ever U.S. competitors to win the World Marathon Challenge, which has athletes run seven marathons on all seven continents in seven days.
Daniel Cartica, 27, of Chicago, and Becca Pizzi, 35, of Belmont, Massachusetts, won the challenge on Friday in world-record time.
Pizzi finished the final race in just over four hours. Cartica finished the last race at just past three and a half hours.
Americans Becca Pizzi, 35, (left) and Daniel Cartica, 27, (right) won the World Marathon Challenge on Friday
The two ran seven marathons in seven days on all seven continents in world-record time to claim the victory
Pizzi was the first woman to cross the finish line in all seven races of the World Challenge Marathon
Around the world in seven days: The challenge begins in Antarctica and ends in Sydney, Australia, with stops in Chile, Morocco, Dubai, Spain, and Miami, US
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The grueling week-long race began in Antarctica on January 23 and ended January 29 in Sydney, Australia.
Cartica, a U.S. Marine Corps captain, and Pizzi, a day care center operator, finished with a marathon in Sydney.
Along with 13 others, Cartica and Pizzi began the challenge in Antarctica and on consecutive days ran the 26.2-mile distance in Chile, Miami, Spain, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates.
It took Pizzi (pictured) and Cartica 168 hours to travel 23,560 miles around the world to complete the races
Australia was the last stop on the list. The marathon began in Antarctica, which was Pizzi's favorite and least favorite stop of the trip
Cartica (left) had to hold off fellow American Calum Ramm to claim first place in the final stretch of the race
They now join a club more elite than those who have voyaged into space or scaled Mount Everest.
'We just made history.
'I believed in myself since the moment I signed up for it. I went for it and got it done. When you believe in yourself, anything is possible,' Pizzi said.
It took competitors 168 hours to complete the challenge and 59 of those were spent trying to recover aboard the charter flight that shuttled them 23,560 miles to all the continents.
The two Americans in the men's division were neck-and-neck during the final race, but Cartica, a U.S. Marine Corps captain, pulled away at the end and dedicated his win to those killed in Chattanooga last year
Pizzi had support on the sidelines as she neared the end of the seventh race in the World Marathon Challenge
The American champions now join a group more elite than those who have been to space or climbed Everest
Along the way, they had to cope with the extreme cold of Antarctica and the brutal heat of the Sahara desert, all while navigating the extremely different terrain.
Cartica who grew up in Poughkeepsie, New York, dedicated his run to the four Marines and sailor killed in July when a gunman attacked a U.S. Naval Reserve Center in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Pizzi was the first woman across the finish line in all seven races.
Her highs: 'Antarctica and running on glaciers,' she said
Her lows: 'Antarctica and the cold. It was my favorite place and my least favorite place,' she added.
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