Paul Holborn originally from Sunderland but now based in America completed seven marathons on seven continents in seven days. His overall time for the seven events was 23 hours, 38 minutes and 11 seconds.

The World Marathon Challenge is a logistical and physical challenge to run 7 marathons on 7 continents in 7 days. Competitors must run the standard 42.195 km marathon distance in Antarctica, Africa, Australia, Asia, Europe, South America, and North America within 168 hours, or 7 days.

The first marathon took place within the Antarctic Circle on mainland Antarctica with participants flying to Novo Base. After the first marathon commences on the 'Frozen Continent', he had 168 hours left to complete the World Marathon Challenge.

During these seven days, he flew by charter plane to run standard 42.2km (26.2 miles) marathon distances at Novo (Antarctica), Cape Town (South Africa), Perth (Australia), Dubai (Asia), Madrid (Europe), Fortaleza (South America) and Miami (North America). At each location, local running experts ensured the marathons were the correct distance on custom courses.

Paul, along with the other competitors suffered from marathon fatigue, jet lag, and sleep deprivation as the event progressed. The impact of wide temperature fluctuations was also a factor, with the variation of 50 Degrees Celsius at different locations.