Pierre Daniel, resident of Qatar, on Sunday set off from Katara on 439 kilometres run around the country in seven days, from February 18 to 24. He plans to reach Katara again at 10:30am on the concluding day.
The solo event named Alone, A Run Around Qatar aims at showing residents and nationals the power of the human spirit, raising awareness of the country’s natural beauty and promoting healthy living. Pierre was wished well by his family, friends and sponsors at Katara.
Pierre is running the challenge, which includes an official world record attempt, is presented by MBM Transport and with key partners Katara and Aspire. He runs out of his combined love for adventure and for Qatar where he has been living for last 10 years.
During the course of next seven days, Pierre will circumnavigate Qatar’s border covering over 439 kilometres on foot. During which, on days three to five, the runner 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 public.
Pierre is carrying 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 50 kilometres 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 next seven days, 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.
At the start, Pierre commented, “I’m very excited to finally take the start of what will be without a doubt a memorable experience. It has been a lot of work to put everything in place but I am so glad to be able to share this moment with people.”
He added, ‘Today will be a bit of a test day. I am going to take it very easy and finishing strong for the rest of the week. I know that the real tough challenge will start on day three with the 110km that starts the record attempt and that is why I will use the first two days to adapt and warm up into it. I will try to take the time to enjoy every minute of it.”
Pierre’s run will cover the following route, from Katara to Dhakira Port – 55km on first day, from Dhakira Port to Al Ruwais – 60km on day two, from Al Ruwais to Zekreet – 102km on day three, from Zekreet to Um Bab – 30km on day four, from Um Bab to Salwa – 55km on day five, from Salwa to Sealine Resort – 80km on day six, and from Sealine Resort to Katara – 60km on the final day.
Saeed Mohamed Nazeer, Chief Executive Officer of MBM transport, the presenting partner of this challenge said, “As Pierre sets off into the desert from Doha today we wish him success. Doing the challenge in such a solitary manner is not only a beautiful demonstration of his love for our amazing country and the human spirit of adventure but also a challenge with real risk and danger. Our staff, customers and management all wish success and safe travel over the coming week.”
RUNNER: Pierre Daniel at the starting point.
