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The first person to run a marathon in every country – here’s his message

  • Nick Butter ran 8,256km in 674 days to set his record marathon achievement, during which he was mugged, attacked by dogs and suffered a mini heart attack
  • He has documented the experience in his new book, Running the World, which he hopes will inspire others to begin living how they want to – right away

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Nick Butter in Torquay, the United Kingdom, in 2019, during his record-breaking adventure that saw him run a marathon in every country in the world. Photo: Courtesy of Nick Butter

What do you do once you’ve run your way around the world? For Nick Butter, there’s only one answer: you keep on running.

In November 2019, Butter, 31, a former banker from the UK, became the first person to run a marathon in every single country on the planet after a physically and mentally punishing 674-day expedition that involved running 8,256km (5,130 miles).

The story begins in 2016 in Morocco, where Butter, already an accomplished runner with more than 400 marathons under his belt, was competing in the notoriously gruelling Marathon des Sables, a 251km race through the Sahara Desert.

By chance he was sharing a tent with Kevin Webber, a fellow Briton working in finance. But while Butter was healthy, Webber was 18 months into a terminal prostate cancer diagnosis, and doctors had given him two years to live. He was running in the Sahara Desert to raise funds for the charity Prostate Cancer UK.

“Nick was saying to me, ‘In five years I’ll do this amazing thing, in 10 years that amazing thing,’” Webber, now 55, recalls. “I looked at him and I said: ‘What are you waiting for? Don’t wait for a rubbish prognosis before you realise that you’ve just got to go and do these things.’”

Butter (centre left) and Kevin Webber (centre right) at the Athens Marathon in November 2019, the final marathon on Butter’s worldwide tour. Photo: Courtesy of Nick Butter
Butter (centre left) and Kevin Webber (centre right) at the Athens Marathon in November 2019, the final marathon on Butter’s worldwide tour. Photo: Courtesy of Nick Butter
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