What do Miami, Cape Town and Dubai all have in common? They were all stops on David Kilgore’s recent global adventure.
On Jan. 31, over 50 runners landed in Antarctica, an opposite climate than what the Palm Bay native and Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy alum grew up running in.
“I kind of randomly got pulled into running at a young age,” said Kilgore. “My coach was Doug Butler, who coaches at Satellite High School now. I was about 11 or 12 years old and I feel like what he curates with those young kids is just incredible.”
Antarctica was just the first stop of Kilgore’s global trot. Then came Cape Town, Perth, Dubai, Madrid, followed by Fortaleza, Brazil before ending in Miami.
Seven marathons, seven continents, all in seven days.
The World Marathon Challenge flies competitors from around the world on a charter plane to every continent to run over 183 miles in a week’s worth of time. It starts with an application. If runners are accepted, they’ll pay an all-inclusive fee that covers the entirety of the trip.
“Each time we’d leave a continent, we’d pack our new gear in a carry-on and change on the plane,” said Kilgore. “When we’d get off the plane, we were just like ready to go to the starting line.”
The 31-year-old faced a range of weather conditions -- from extreme cold to warm and muggy. The further Kilgore got into the challenge, the more he got into a zone and felt like he was getting into shape. While Antarctica was an experience of a lifetime, capping off a worldwide running tour in his home state in the early hours of the morning was his favorite marathon moment.
“The Miami marathon is close to heart. At the start line and through whole race, it was just like, packed with people and you just feel the love and energy,” he said.
To accomplish a feat such as the World Marathon Challenge, Kilgore needed epic music to pair with it. You can check out his Hype Spotify playlist below.