Dubai: Filipino ultra-marathon runner Cesar Guarin begins the seventh leg of his 16 phase global run, from Bahrain to the UAE, via Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Oman on Monday.
Having already run 16,000km across 15 countries since 1983, the 57-year-old from Manila still has 26,000km and 32 countries to complete, before he can be named the first Asian to have run an accumulative distance equivalent to the circumference of the earth.
The Middle Eastern leg, expected to end in Dubai on May 17, will take a 1265km and six country dent out of his total 42,000km and 47 nation target, which is estimated to end in 2017. Only three other people have successfully run this distance to date.
Guarin, a fine arts graduate who set himself the target of running the world after injury wrecked his chances of competing at the 1980 Olympics has dedicated his trek to Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) while raising funds for Filipino street children.
Snacking on energy bars along the way, Guarin, who has a high protein evening meal followed by a fruit-filled breakfast, believes this will be one of the hardest sections of his worldwide run.
“Unlike other areas where I have run through desert like in the USA, I had shade along the way,” said Guarin. “I’m also not accustomed to wind with sand in it.
“I’m expecting a hard run with injuries to my legs and feet but one of my more serious concerns is getting sunburnt,” he added.
Guarin will run 40-60km a day, resting only on Fridays to meet with members of the Filipino community at consulates and embassies across the region. In total he will spend two days in Bahrain, five days in Qatar, six days in Kuwait, two days in Saudi Arabia, seven days in Oman and nine days in the UAE.
