Hi there,
Thank you so much for visiting the website to learn a little more about the “Marathon Man” adventures.
My name is Trent Morrow and having always been a big fan of sports growing up the world of athletics was never a reality for me with team sports such as rugby league and rugby union dominating during the winter months and cricket taking over in summer.
I played rugby union during school and was fortunate to represent the Australian National University Colts Rugby Union team as Captain for three years while studying for my Bachelor of Arts degree in Politics and History in the national capital with a representative trial and finals football being the highest honour achieved.
During the final year of studies, this was one of the toughest periods in my life to date as my Mum, Kay lost her brave battle against colon cancer in August 1993. I had grown up with my brother Craig with my Mum doing an incredible job raising us both as a single parent following my parents divorce at an early age. At 20 years old I was soon to complete my studies and be faced with the realities of moving on with life, entering the workforce, finding a place to live and finding a new path without the most influential person in my world.
I soon found my new home in the eastern suburbs of Sydney falling in love with the iconic Bondi Beach and established myself in a sales career building a solid résumé over the years ahead with leading organisations such as Novartis Consumer Products, Reckitt Benckiser and Panasonic.
During the years ahead the career was a focus with additional studies to complete a Masters of Business in Marketing at the University of Technology, Sydney bringing to an end the rugby union playing days. There would be times where I would take on a 10km fun run or the City 2 Surf Fun Run in Sydney although these were few and far apart with no thoughts of ever running a marathon.
It had not been all that long ago when I remember driving around Sydney during the 2000 Olympics and being intrigued by the kilometre markings that seemed to go on forever. I vividly recall seeing the 10km, 15km, 21km, 30km and thinking are you serious…
In the lead up to my first half marathon I had primarily been in the gym and had never run more than 14km at the City 2 Surf. This would be a big test and luckily I made it across the line in 1:51. Not too bad for the first half marathon even though I could not walk for the next week.
It was now that I had learnt that it was important to continually set new goals and not rest when one major goal was achieved. This can be applied to all areas of life whether it be your business, relationship, financial, health or physical it is valuable to reassess where you are at and plan for future success.
It was not long before I was planning to step up and take on the challenge of a lifetime signing up to the Marathon des Sables – a multi staged endurance event over 250km known as the Toughest Footrace on Earth across the Sahara Desert. This was to be a defining moment and open up a new world of possibilities. In March/April 2008 I successfully crossed the Sahara Desert in temperatures above 50 degrees Celsius and soon found myself ready to take on the world.
Following my travels to the Sahara I found myself in London for my first real taste of a major city marathon and soon completed my first official marathon in the beautiful European City of Prague in May. In 2008 I ran six marathons in six weeks in Sydney, Melbourne, Amsterdam, Dublin, New York and Athens. WOW – what a great adventure this new world is… Talk about an amazing way to see the world, meet incredible people and keep healthy and fit.
During 2009 – 2012 I would continue the “Marathon Man” adventures primarily running in Australia, New Zealand and Asia. It was common to search out marathons and ultra marathons to then travel to events on the weekends and return back to my desk to continue business on Monday morning.
During 2011, I was the only person to run an official marathon in every state and territory of Australia and in both islands of New Zealand. It was a great honour to back this achievement up again the following year in 2012!
There was a calling for a bigger challenge and the thought of running more official marathons than any other person across all 7 continents seemed like a solid goal at the time. There is a higher purpose behind this mission of a lifetime to honour the memory of my Mum and share the journey with others that have been in a similar position, or are going through challenges right now. It is important to me to be able to make a difference to help others going through hard times and hopefully inspire people around the world along the way as my Mum inspires me still to this day. The fact that 2013 would be the 20 year anniversary since the passing of my Mum and the reality that I had discovered my Step Mum was battling terminal lung cancer convinced me that this was the moment!
It is with much pride that I was successful in this audacious mission, running more than 200 marathons in 16 months across all 7 continents with an adventure that will remain with me for a lifetime. The most special experience to date has been meeting so many new and incredible people that have shared the journey and helped keep the dream alive each and every day with the recognition as World Record Holder for the most marathons across 7 continents a bonus.
Now having crossed the line for more than 370 marathons in just over 10 years, I sincerely believe that anyone can run a marathon should they have a big enough reason and it would be great to share many more exciting new adventures with you over the days ahead. Look forward to seeing you on the road very soon.
Happy running,
Trent
