70-year-old Vietnamese woman runs 7 marathons on 7 continents in 7 days

Although she is 70 years old, Vietnamese-American woman Chau Smith still makes young people take their hats off to her for completing 7 marathon stages on 7 continents in just 7 days.

From January 25 to 31, this old woman ran 7 marathon stages in Perth (Australia); Singapore (Asia); Cairo (Egypt, Africa); Amsterdam (Netherlands, Europe); Garden City (New York, USA); Punta Arenas (Chile, South America) and King George Island (Antarctica).

Every day, she completes a 42km journey before boarding a plane to travel to her next destination.

Steve Hibbs, owner of Marathon Adventures, the tour operator that organised the trip, said Smith did not want to make her goal public before completing it.

“She overcame so many obstacles. It was impressive to see,” Hibbs said.

Despite having participated in many marathons before, the American grandmother still had to spend months training before joining this long trip with 9 others.

“It took me eight months to train. The last four months, I ran really long distances. Every week, I ran 15 to 130 miles,” Smith said.

Vietnamese-American woman Chau Smith and her husband Michael Smith, who inspired her passion for running Marathons from a young age.

Run around the world

Marathon Adventures’ challenge is called the Triple 7 Quest, which consists of seven marathons with a series of difficulties and obstacles along the way across seven continents. During the first leg in Australia, Ms. Smith suffered severe sunburn while running in temperatures above 37°C.

But the toughest challenge she and the other participants faced was the race in Cairo because their flights there were delayed, so they all had only a few minutes to change before the race.

“We had 10 minutes to get to the locker room. But my room key was broken. I even cried when I spent 10 minutes fumbling with it,” the 70-year-old shared. Fortunately, Ms. Smith still finished this race in 5:51.

Although this Vietnamese-American woman did not share with everyone about her latest trip, those who know her are not too surprised to hear this because this is not the first time Mrs. Smith has challenged her limits.

A year ago, she ran a marathon in Tanzania and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro just a day later. Last year, she spent five weeks completing four marathons.

“I do all kinds of crazy things in my life,” Smith said.

Chau Smith was born in Vietnam and moved to the United States in 1972. She currently runs a laundry business in Independence, Missouri. Although she is no longer young and often has to work 24/7, she has never stopped her hobby of conquering long distances around the world./.

According to VOV