Ellen Hunter Gans and Sarah Hunter run a marathon in Antarctica, one of seven marathons of The Great World Race. Photos: Mark Conlon–The Great World Race
The Edina resident completed seven marathons on seven continents in only seven days.
On a crisp Thursday morning, running shoes tread fresh footprints across the untouched snow of Antarctica. By Sunday night, bodies weave along the Bosporus Strait of Istanbul in the dark, pelted by wind and rain, steering clear of the local’s fishing lures being cast over the stars and into the sea.
The Great World Race takes place over seven days. Entrants run seven marathons on each of the seven continents. Such a challenge takes the word “adventurous” to a new level, but runner Ellen Hunter Gans is a mile—or 26—above the typical adrenaline junkie. “People ask me if [The Great World Race] was on my bucket list, and the answer is absolutely not,” says Hunter Gans, an Edina resident. “I never would have dreamed of—let alone dared to—put something this absurd on my bucket list.”
Hunter Gans did one year of junior varsity track during her freshman year of high school. “I was so bad that I’m pretty sure the coach never bothered to learn my name. I don’t blame him,” she says. Though athleticism ran in the family, it wasn’t exactly something she enjoyed. “My parents dragged me out cross-country skiing, backpacking, cycling and canoe camping,” she says. “I wanted a comfy chair and a book.”
It wasn’t until college when she ran her first marathon, inspired by her brother and sister-in-law’s cross-country bike trip. “My parents very gently and wisely suggested that I consider starting with a 5K,” she says. “I didn’t listen.” Hunter Gans’ dreams ran faster than her feet could catch up with. Twenty-one years, multiple injuries and seven continents later, she’s completed 38 marathons and counting.
The Great World Race (informally the 777) begins and ends in the blink of an eye. After assembling all 60 participants in Cape Town, South Africa, a private jet whisked the group to Wolf’s Fang, Antarctica, on November 14, 2024. Each consecutive day, the runners would fly via business charter to run a new marathon on a new continent. According to The Great World Race website, competitors with the fastest average marathon time across all seven races are declared the winners.
The race order and locations included Wolf’s Fang, Antarctica; Cape Town, South Africa; Perth, Australia; Istanbul (This was run twice, once for Asia and for Europe, as the Bosphorus Strait straddles both continents.); Cartagena, Colombia; and Miami.
Ellen Hunter Gans runs the third marathon of the 777, which takes place in Australia.
Upon meeting in Cape Town before the races began, the runners were met with an unexpected surprise. “We found out that the entire adventure was being moved up a day to accommodate a sliver of good weather in Antarctica,” Hunter Gans says. “We still thought we had time to prep and they were like, ‘Be in the lobby at 5 a.m., we’re flying to Antarctica tomorrow!’”
Prior to the mid-November start of the 777, Hunter Gans and Sarah Hunter, her sister-in-law and running partner, had been training for something else—a 100-mile run in October. After discovering The Great World Race, however, Hunter Gans wanted to do “something else.” “She asked what the ‘something else’ was,” Hunter Gans says. “When I told her, she immediately said, ‘Oh, yeah, I want to do that instead too!’”
Thus began a regular schedule of runs between daily meetings and more than 30 miles on the treadmill at night. “I [saved] up a lot of trashy TV for those overnight runs,” she says.
Several weeks before the event, Hunter Gans stopped running due to what she assumed were shin splints; an MRI three months later would reveal it was a grade-4 stress fracture in her tibia. But this wasn’t the only physical challenge she’d overcome throughout the race; Hunter Gans ran the 777 with a chronic illness she had been dealing with since adolescence: Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS).
EDS is a rare genetic disorder affecting the body’s connective tissues. It can cause cardiovascular problems, chronic pain, fragile skin, joint instability and more. “I was met with a lot of well-intentioned shrugs at doctors’ appointments until someone finally suggested EDS just a few years ago,” Hunter Gans says. “It was surreal—and validating.”
The condition required her to adapt her 777 race preparation and packing list. “Aside from bringing every joint brace, muscle wrap and skin protection known to humankind, the only change I made in preparation … was cautiously starting to run on back-to-back days,” she says, noting that she typically runs only three days per week to lessen the impact on her joints.
Smiles and hugs abound as Ellen Hunter Gans celebrates finishing The Great World Race. The final marathon was in Miami.
Hunter Gans was the first person with EDS to ever do the challenge. “While EDS probably should have been the reason I didn’t attempt The Great World Race, it was a big reason I did,” she says, emphasizing that running isn’t possible for a lot of those with EDS. “If nothing else, EDS has given me an appreciation of what’s possible right in this moment.” And the possibilities were something that most people will never do in their entire lives—catching planes every day for a week to wake up and run in a new continent.
She and Hunter formed inspiring bonds with the other 777 runners, including a female firefighter, who did the entire race in her uniform, and a man with terminal brain cancer, attempting to break the world record for the most money raised for charity through running marathons. “The people I met, the memories made, the opportunity to shed even a tiny speck of light on the condition I have—it’s all amazing,” she says.
What does one do after they accomplish such a feat? For Hunter Gans, it was a 50-mile ultramarathon in September followed by a 100-mile ultramarathon in February, with several regular marathons in between. But a more unconventional race might be in the works. “The same people who put on The Great World Race have been teasing us with plans to host an ultramarathon at the North Pole,” says Hunter Gans, noting that the opportunity would require a sponsor.
Hunter Gans wrote a book about her and her fellow competitor’s experiences—The Great World Race: Seven Marathons. Seven Continents. One Unforgettable Week is set to come out later this year. “Above all else, I’m just so incredibly grateful for the massive privilege and opportunity to take part in something like this,” she says. “I keep waiting for it to sink in.”
