WOW!!! I'm Impressed!

[Dan_Harris]

Fiennes nears end of marathon feat

Saturday, November 1, 2003 Posted: 12:08 PM EST (1708 GMT)

 

• Brit running seven marathons after heart attack

 

CAIRO, Egypt (Reuters) -- British explorer Ranulph Fiennes slowly began the penultimate leg of his latest challenge on Saturday -- running seven marathons in seven days on seven continents months after suffering a near-fatal heart attack.

 

He set off against the backdrop of one of the ancient wonders of the world, the Pyramids, just two hours after flying into Cairo from London, where he completed the fifth marathon with his companion Mike Stroud.

 

Fiennes, who addressed reporters in stilted Arabic, said he could think of no better place in Africa to run, adding he chose Cairo because of his memories of travelling from the leafy Cairo suburb of Zamalek to Uganda in 1968.

 

"Things were very different then, I mean politically, but the beauty of the place is unchanged and...as one of the birthplaces of civilisation, it is a wonderful place," he told reporters at the Pyramids before starting the run.

 

The two men struggled to complete the fourth marathon in the searing heat of Singapore.

 

Fiennes finished the 26.2-mile distance in five hours and 24 minutes -- the slowest of his five runs so far -- while Stroud was forced to walk for much of the distance.

 

Stroud told the two dozen or so runners accompanying them on the Cairo leg that he could now barely run.

 

"Our blood tests showing the level of muscle breaking down ... at the end of yesterday, Ran's was 50 times the normal level, and mine was 500 times the normal level, so our legs are very tired," Stroud said.

 

The two men have so far run marathons in Patagonia, the Falkland Islands, Sydney and Singapore and London. After completing the marathon in Cairo they will travel to New York to join the thousands running the city's annual marathon on November 2.

 

Fiennes said the expedition almost failed in South America when they had to change destination at the last minute.

 

"The schedule is as difficult as the running," he said.

 

The explorer became one of the first men to reach both Poles on foot on his Trans-Globe Expedition in 1982.

 

Fiennes -- who has survived the torment of gangrene at the North Pole, dodged bullets in the Middle East, trekked across the Andes and canoed up the Amazon -- became one of the first men to reach both Poles on foot on his Trans-Globe Expedition in 1982.

 

Eleven years later he and Stroud became the first men to cross the Antarctic unsupported on foot.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/11/01/life.fiennes.reut/index.html