A runner prepares to run 40,000km around the world to raise money for charity.
Polish ultra runner Tomasz Drybala, 44, who has lived in London for 21 years, plans to run around the world in stages over more than three years: from London to Athens; from Cairo to Kuwait City; from Indonesia via Southeast Asia to Hong Kong; then from the west coast to the east coast of the USA, starting in Los Angeles and ending in New York.
Tomasz will travel by plane between stages and has scheduled regular trips back to London to see his two sons.
Polish ultra runner Tomasz Drybala, 44, who has lived in London for 21 years, plans to run around the world for more than three years
Tomasz will travel between stages by air or sea and has scheduled regular trips back to London to see his two sons. In the picture during one of his training runs
He will fund his trip through savings and sponsorships and will continue to serve as a keynote speaker.
He explained: “We will have a lot of gear behind us and between stages (Europe-Arabia, Arabia-Asia, Asia-USA) we have up to four weeks off.
“It’s not a long run. It’s impossible to do it like this. We need time to reorganize our efforts and move all the equipment to a new location.
“My body needs time to recover and I have two sons in London and they need their father. We’ve scheduled weekend breaks and half-time breaks every three weeks so I can see my boys.’
Tomasz, who plans to leave in August, will initially stay in a number of hotels. A support crew with trailers will be by his side full-time by the end of October 2022 so he can rest on the road and save money
Tomasz, who plans to leave in August, will initially stay in a number of hotels. A support crew with trailers will be by his side full-time by the end of October 2022 so he can rest on the road and save money.
The goal of the runner is to go around the circumference of the earth: 40,075 km.
Where on earth is Tomasz running?
He will be from London to:
London to Athens
Cairo to Kuwait City
Indonesia through Southeast Asia to Hong Kong
From the west coast to the east coast of the USA, starting in Los Angeles and ending in New York
40,075 km in total – the circumference of the earth
He trains by running around 40km a day across the UK.
He said: “I do these runs alone. I only walk with a backpack. And I run from hotel to hotel.
“I ran 56 km in one day. I ran 40km uphill and the last 16km downhill. I ran out of water twice. It was pretty difficult.
“I’m slowly increasing the distance every week. I currently run about 50 km a day.
“I will run 300 km a week, about 1,350 km a month. I run Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
“And I get up to 75 km a day. I will finish this in the first two weeks of July.’
Tomasz took up long-distance running in 2018 to improve his mental health.
He said: “And then I got divorced. I lost my business and was in a bad mental state for a while.
“And I just needed to do something with myself and decided to start training for big challenges.”
His first challenge in 2019 was to walk 5 million steps in 100 days. He increased his strides and was exercising 12-14 hours a day by the end of the challenge.
Next, he attempted to run 11,000 km from Hanoi, Vietnam to Bali, Indonesia.
However, he was forced to cut back on his plans when lockdown hit.
“I escaped from Indonesia to Sumatra where I was supposed to continue running, but I couldn’t run,” he said.
Tomasz, who has trained part-time in Scotland, has been tackling his epic challenges and raising money for charity since 2018
The 44-year-old hopes to complete his round-the-world run by the end of 2025, attending a series of events along the way to raise money for Unicef
“Indonesia has never been in full lockdown, but you can’t even move from one village to another village, so I couldn’t even go to the airport.”
Stranded in a small village, Tomasz adjusted his plan and ran 225 half marathons instead.
Tomasz, whose own childhood was marred by trauma, will be raising money for Unicef and will be documenting his journey on Instagram.
He plans to work with local communities and businesses along the way, educating them about childhood trauma.
He added: “I don’t want to break a world record. I run with a message and build trauma-informed communities along the way. The journey is rewarding in itself.”
Tomasz hopes to complete his amazing World Marathon quest by the end of 2025, stopping for a series of events along the way to raise money for UNICEF.
The 44-year-old wants to continue helping others to live in the present moment and not in the past or worrying about the future
The ultra runner said “negative self-talk” in the back of our minds is something we should try to eliminate