Pierre Daniel is a resident of Qatar and plans to run over 439km around the country in seven days. His run will start from February 18 and will end on February 24.
The run aims at showing the power of the human spirit, highlighting the beauty of Qatar and encouraging a healthier lifestyle.
The challenge, including an official world record attempt is presented by MBM Transport and with key partners Katara and Aspire. Pierre Daniel is a French national and has been living in Qatar for over 10 years. He will run to circumnavigate Qatar’s border covering over 439 kilometres.
Additionally, during the challenge, on days three to five, Pierre will attempt to set a new official world record for the fastest run north to south in Qatar.
Pierre will be undertaking the challenge alone, receiving no assistance from his support team, who will only be capturing key moments of the run to share the challenge with the people.
Throughout the challenge, Pierre will carry all his clothing and necessary supplies. However, he must source his water along the way, either from farms or local population he passes, with distances as far as 50km to travel from one water source to another.
His entire equipment and food supply for the challenge weighs only 7.515kg (without water) but he will carry at times an additional 10kg of water.
During the challenge, supporters can follow Pierre via a unique tracking portal developed by Aspire Zone’s IT team, which will show live tracking of Pierre’s progress including distance covered, speed, heartrate.
On his challenge, Pierre comments, ‘The idea of running around Qatar was born from my admiration for Qatar and adventure. I have had the most amazing time enjoying the natural beauty of Qatar over the last decade. The austere nature, simplicity of the geography and the harmony of colours reveal many secret beauties to appreciate. The natural beauty of Qatar is something that most take for granted and don’t explore, hopefully in sharing the challenge more people will go out to discover Qatar.
He continues, ‘I have done many walks and runs across the country and the world, completing the famous Marathon Des Sables in Morocco last year but that was a mere 250km, so this run around Qatar seems to be the ultimate challenge. Running long distances in solitary offers a spiritual experience, there’s a lot of introspection and it takes a huge commitment and suffering and it helps me appreciate the sacredness of life and its fragility.
He adds, “As someone who has only been an endurance athlete for the last couple of years, I hope this shows the true potential of the human spirit when one commits and inspires people to push themselves further than they believed possible.”
Saeed Mohamed Nazeer, representative of MBM transport, the presenting partner of this challenge, comments, “MBM has a philosophy of being with you all the way, and we are proud to support Pierre as he goes all the way around Qatar in tribute of our great nation and its beauty and the potential of all Qatari residents.”
Pierre will start his challenge on 18 February at 7:00am from Katara.
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