While water scarcity is still an issue less talked about, an Australian athlete, Mina Guli, who also happens to be the CEO of educational water conservation charity thirst, is doing the undoable.
To raise awareness of the global water scarcity, Guli is running 40 marathons, a total of 1688 km. The run will be spread across seven deserts and seven continents and will be completed in just a matter of seven weeks.
Training for and running one marathon sounds like a big enough challenge on its own, let alone 40 in extreme conditions!
The marathon began on February 1 and in just the first week she ran for 240 km in the first week. Guli, at 45 years of age, began her voyage by running through the Tabernas Desert in Spain. As of now, Mila has already completed her run through Spain, the Arabian Desert in Jordan, and Antarctica.
Battling the gruelling conditions and braving the harsh and brutal weather conditions, Mina has already completed almost four weeks of running. So far, Mila has touched the 700 km mark, which is nearly half her journey.
The most challenging part was the run in the Antarctic. The chilly and strenuous weather conditions not only gave her frostbites but also slowed down her run. The conditions were so cold that she could only start running at about 11 am.
Now, as begins her Journey at the Simpson Desert in Australia, one thing that may create problems is extreme heat. After her Australian desert journey, on March 3 she will run miles across the Karoo Desert in South Africa. Furthermore, she will head towards the driest desert on Earth, the Atacama Desert in Chile.
Mina will end her journey by running across the Mojave Desert in the United States of America. Her quest for raising awareness of water scarcity will come to an end on March 22. The reason for running 40 marathons is that by the year 2030, water supply and demand will see a difference of around 40 percent.
She is doing all that it takes to make the world and the concerned authorities aware of water scarcity. For a 45-year-old woman to run for so long, respect is all we have. After all, have you ever heard somebody run a thousand miles just for water!
Image Credit: thirst (Facebook), Kelvin Trautman
