Special Reports

Why This Woman Runs 40 Marathons In 40 Days Across Six Continents [Video]

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Mina Guli, despite wincing in pain, continues to put one foot forward over and over again until she completes her attempt to run 40 marathons in 40 days across six continents. Whatever is fueling Guli right now, it must be very big.

According to BBC, the 46-year-old lawyer is now at the latter part of her 1, 687-kilometer journey. She does this to raise awareness about water scarcity issues. In particular, she wants to highlight the amount of water used in consumer goods.

Per the same source, Guli stressed that only five percent of water goes to household consumption. The rest, she noted, is in people's "invisible water footprint". Guli has run her marathons along the Colorado River in the US and Mexico, the Murray River in Australia, the Amazon in Brazil, the Yangtze River in China, and the Nile in Egypt. On Monday, she is set to finish the final leg along River Thames in London.

For the record, Guli has done an even longer run in 2016. Well, the United Nations predicts that by 2025, 1.8 billion people will experience water shortage in the countries and regions they are living in right now. Some of the triggering factors will be population growth, poor governance, and climate change.

Basically, Guli wants to convey this message: Many countries use more water than what nature can replenish. Five years ago, she founded Thirst, a global charity meant to educate young people about the said matter. When she finally reaches the finish lie, she said she wants to eat ice cream.

Meanwhile, another marathon for the environment is taking place in London. Mashable reported that police officer Tom Harris is "crawling" his way to the finish line "gorilla style". Apparently, the 26-mile journey is meant to raise money for The Gorilla Organization. He is expected to complete the last leg on Thursday or Friday.

While it may sound bizarre, the campaign is actually working. In fact, the donations have already exceeded his initial goal by 500 percent. The donations are done through his "JustGiving" page. Below is a video of Guli's first run last year across seven deserts in seven continents.

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