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Marathon charity feat moves on
SYDNEY, Australia -- Charity marathon men Ranulph Fiennes and Mike Stroud have left Australia for Singapore having completed the third leg of their bid to run seven marathons in seven days on seven continents.
The two British men are attempting their feat in a bid to raise money for the British Heart Foundation. Fiennes, 59, who suffered a life-threatening heart attack just five months ago, has completed two legs of the attempt so far. The first leg was run in Patagonia in southern Chile after plans to fly to King George Island in Antarctica were stalled by poor weather and engine trouble. The second leg was completed on the Falkland Islands in the south Atlantic, which was deemed as the Antarctic leg of the journey. Fiennes and Stroud ran the Australian leg in Sydney on a course which took in the Sydney Opera House, Harbor Bridge and Botanical Gardens. But the two men had little time to enjoy the Australian climes, with the schedule allowing just seven hours on the ground in Sydney -- five of those running the 42 kilometer (26.2 mile) course and another two negotiating Sydney airport's immigration controls. After Singapore, the next legs of the attempt will be London and Cairo before the final marathon in New York. Fiennes, who describes himself as an explorer, is one of the first men to reach both the North and South Poles by foot. He and Stroud were also the first men to cross the Antarctic continent unsupported on foot. The explorer and former special forces officer underwent emergency double-bypass heart surgery after collapsing on June 7. Fiennes said he decided on his latest feat because he did not want to slow down after his heart attack. "After my heart attack I thought, is this it?" Fiennes says on the Heart Foundation Web site. "Will I spend my life in a wheelchair? Tottering around my lounge, instead of running up mountain passes or navigating glaciers?"
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