Sydney: Australian marathon man Pat Farmer doesn't know if he can jog from the North Pole to the South Pole - said to be the longest run ever attempted - but he's prepared to give it a shot for the world's poor.
The 48-year-old former politician says he will brave crevasses, conflict and hungry bears, as well as extreme physical hardship, in a bid to raise $100 million for Red Cross water projects.
"I think it's most noble when a person hurts to save another person from hurting," explains Farmer, 48.
"It's not about just writing a cheque. It's not about just saying, 'Ok, here's some money, go away'. It's about saying 'I understand your plight and I'm prepared to hurt to make your life different."
The father of two knows a thing or two about endurance: he holds seven world records, including the fastest run around Australia - 15,000 kilometres in 191 days.
The ultra-marathon athlete has twice crossed Australia's desert centre on foot and also raced across the United States, finishing fourth despite 50 days of running with a fractured leg.
"I've done ultra-marathons all my life," he told AFP, referring to races longer than a marathon, which is 42 kilometres.
"I believe I'm born with a gift, and my gift is to be able to run long distances faster and perhaps further than any other person on Earth."
But even he is uncertain about the epic journey from the world's most northerly tip to its southernmost, which will take in 14 countries and conditions from sub-zero ice wastes to mountains and sweltering tropics.
During the gruelling 21,000 kilometre, 11-month journey, Farmer will confront extremes of cold and heat, dodge grizzly and polar bears, and brave areas dogged by political unrest and armed rebellion.
It's been a dream 10 years in the making, but Farmer said it took a "heart-breaking" trip through Asia to jolt him into action.
"I saw children covered with needlestick injuries in a dump trying to break syringes down to sell the metal inside for bottles of water," he said.
"Without water there is no life and I've seen first-hand the devastation to people and communities," he said.
His Pole 2 Pole run (www.pole2polerun.com) is dedicated to Red Cross water and sanitation projects and Farmer has set himself the ambitious target of $100 million in donations.
"I call him the real deal. He's not a phony, he's not a pretender, he's not overly ambitious," said Robert Tickner, chief of the Australian Red Cross.
"He's got the track record having undertaken credible marathon runs in the past, I think he can do that. But I also think he's a very inspirational person who will be carrying this message right around the world," Tickner said.
The training is punishment enough: ice baths, running two hours a day dragging a tyre to simulate a sled, and ingesting litres (pints) of olive oil every day to get used to the massive calorie levels he will need at the poles.
"I have olive oil on my cereal, my bread, my toast, I have olive oil on everything," he said with a grim smile, adding that be had been training "like a man possessed".
Farmer was a member of Australia's parliament for 10 years, and was once dubbed "Forrest Gump" by then-opposition leader Mark Latham, a reference to the the Oscar-winning Tom Hanks movie in which the lead character runs across America.
He expects to go through 40 shoes and 300 pairs of socks as he makes his way from the North pole through Canada, the United States and South America to Argentina, where he will be airlifted to Antarctica for his final leg.
Hungry bears worry him, as does a guerrilla ambush, but Farmer says his goal will keep him focused. He will address the United Nations at the end of his run.
"There will be moments where I feel like I'm a million miles from anything or anyone and it will be hard to keep my spirits up," he said.
"To be quite honest with you I don't know if I can run from the North Pole to the South Pole," he added.
"But I do know that I can run for 80 kilometres, 85 kilometres, 90 or 100 kilometres a day and I know that I can get up the next morning and do the same thing the next day.
I'm a man that dedicates himself to action rather than words, and you just do it. You do what you need to do," he said.
Farmer will travel to the United States to continue training in November before being flown to the North Pole in March 2011 for the start of the expedition, the entire 11 months of which will be streamed live on the internet.
He will run through Canada, the United States, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Argentina, before being flown to Antarctica to head for the South Pole.
