He ran a marathon every day in 2022. Much can be learnt from his discipline

For many runners, a marathon is a lifetime achievement. But a British man named Gary McKee took marathon running to another level by running one a day for 365 days in 2022 to raise money for charity.

Not only did he achieve his goal, he ran an average time of just over four hours. Astonishingly, this is faster than the average worldwide marathon time of 4½ hours.

He travelled more than 15,289km in the year (about 1,270km a month) – a distance many of us don’t achieve even by car – and used 22 pairs of running shoes to reach his goal. The distance he ran is something that even many elite distance runners don’t achieve.

Mr McKee spent close to 1,500 hours running in 2022 – about 29 hours a week. That’s more time running daily than the average adult spends watching TV. He did all this while balancing a job and family life.

Given how impressive this feat is, many may be wondering exactly how he did it and what it takes.

Once a day

Completing an ultra-endurance-style event can have profound effects on the body, including suppressing the immune system, changing hormone levels, causing injuries and extreme fatigue, to name a few.

As a result, one of the keys to Mr McKee’s success would have been minimising and managing the symptoms of fatigue during each run and throughout each day.

He would have been battling the effects of significant fatigue in both the muscles and nervous system, making recovery essential to limit the physical and mental effects, such as muscle soreness and emotional exhaustion. If fatigue wasn’t properly managed, it would have made it harder for him to complete his challenge.

Fortunately, fatigue can be managed with proper nutrition. Mr McKee would have needed to consume roughly 5,000 calories a day to supply the energy needed to recover properly – roughly the equivalent of 20 plates of pasta.

He would have needed a good balance of carbohydrates, fat and protein to fuel each daily run and help repair his muscles, tendons, ligaments and bones afterwards. He also avoided alcohol for the year as it can impair sleep and recovery and reduce performance.

Despite doing everything to optimise recovery, he would still have been at risk of several overuse injuries because of the amount he was running without any rest. It’s hardly surprising to hear him say that he was dealing with a hamstring injury, which is common in endurance running because of the type of muscle activity involved.

To overcome this, he would have needed a significant mind-over-matter approach to push through. When talking about his motivation to run, he said: “I find a reason to do it. If you break it down, it is just me against the road and there’s only one winner.” This positive state of mind has actually been suggested by scientists as being able to reduce feelings of tiredness during exercise.

Past experience

It’s also worth noting that Mr McKee has performed many other ultra-endurance feats. In 2021, he completed 110 marathons in 110 days. This past experience may have been invaluable in how he was able to manage and prevent further injury and find the motivation to keep running.

He is clearly a talented athlete, running the London Marathon in just 3hr 10min. This shows us that he was running significantly below his maximum effort during his daily marathons. By starting much slower than his fastest marathon, he was using a sensible pacing strategy.

By running slowly in his early miles each day and in each marathon early on in the year, he was giving himself the best chance of achieving his goal by preventing over-exertion and fatigue.

In fact, he maintained remarkable consistency in his pacing throughout the year, running his first marathon in 3hr 53min, and his last in 4hr 22min. A similar pacing strategy was used by world-record endurance runner Sharon Gayter to run 10 marathons in 10 days.

Personal challenge

But can anyone do this? The answer to this question is undoubtedly “no”. Mr McKee clearly has the perfect combination of genetics, training history, mental toughness and, most importantly, the reason and motivation to have completed the challenge.

Don’t let that deter you from going after your own goals, however. There are many things we can learn from Mr McKee. For example, slowly progressing towards your goal with self-discipline and an iron will may help you achieve more than you think you can.

Mr McKee also shares many psychological similarities with super champions – including a fierce desire to overcome setbacks and set new challenges for himself. Science shows it’s possible to change our own mindsets in a similar way to help us better overcome challenges and achieve our goals.

If you’ve been inspired by Mr McKee and want to undertake your own running challenge, you should start slowly and build up gradually in intensity, number and distance of runs. Many new runners have found success with applications that help to do this, like the Couch To 5K programme. A sensible strategy, along with finding your motivation, will help push you to achieve more than you ever imagined.

Matthew Slater is a PhD candidate at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU). Dan Gordon is an associate professor of cardiorespiratory exercise physiology at ARU. Jonathan Melville is a PhD candidate at ARU. This article first appeared in

The Conversation

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