44 Marathons in 44 European Cities
In 44 Days! Bournemouth runner Peter Thompson beats all sporting and travelling records.
Peter Thompson did not only win a seemingly impossible challenge of running 44 marathons. He ran them in 44 consecutive days and even more amazingly in 44 countries thoughout Europe. Now, beat that!
44 Marathons for the Mind is the name of his challenge during which Peter ran 1152.8 miles in 44 countries in 44 days and used 21 trains, 12 planes, 5 buses, 5 cars and 1 ferry to travel from one city to another. Peter said travelling between countries had been a logistical nightmare.
Peter Thompson, from Bournemouth, UK, took this challenge a as part of charity project. He was raising money for mental health charities Livability Holton Lee and Mind. He hoped his challenge would “encourage others to be open about mental health and, if comfortable, share their own stories”. Besides a lot of public and media attention he also raised almost £18,000.
He said it had been the “best thing and the hardest thing” he had ever done.
A 32-year-old Peter began his challenge on 1st April in St. Petersburg and finished in Dublin on Sunday, 14th May 2017.
If you want to run along check our active getaway packages.
Active Getaways
For all interested, here is the 44-marathon route:
- St. Petersburg, Russia
- Helsinki, Finland
- Tallinn, Estonia
- Riga, Latvia
- Vilnius, Lithuania
- Minsk, Belarus
- Kiev, Ukraine
- Chisinau, Moldova
- Bucharest, Romania
- Sofia, Bulgaria
- Nis, Serbia
- Skopje, North Macedonia
- Shkoder, Albania
- Podgorica, Montenegro
- Sarajevo, Bosnia
- Zagreb, Croatia
- Ljubljana, Slovenia
- Vienna, Austria
- Bratislava, Slovakia
- Brno, Czech Republic
- Budapest, Hungary
- Krakow, Poland
- London, United Kingdom
- Lisbon, Portugal
- Barcelona, Spain
- Andorra La Vella, Andorra
- Mormoiron, France
- Monaco, Monaco
- City of San Marino, San Marino
- Rimini, Italy
- Vatican City
- Luqa, Malta
- Athens, Greece
- Vaduz, Liechtenstein
- Sargans, Switzerland
- Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
- Mons, Belgium
- Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Hamburg, Germany
- Copenhagen, Denmark
- Gothenburg, Sweden
- Oslo, Norway
- Reykjavik, Iceland
- Dublin, Ireland
Read more about the challenge and have a look at the route of the challenge here.
You can also follow Peter on social media: Facebook.
44 Marathons for the Mind challenge gained a lot of publicity especially in the sports communities since all runners pay special respect to marathon running. A professional runner would normally run only up to 4 marathons a year.
See more media reports below:
- The Sunday Times: Runner tops of 44 marathons with Guinness
- BBC: Bournemouth runner completes 44 marathons in 44 days
- Runners World: How one runner run a marathon in every country in Europe
