US man close running 7 marathons in 7 days on 7 continents

SAN FRANCISCO — A man is one race away from completing seven marathons in seven days on seven continents.

Tim Durbin is the only American competing in the World Marathon Challenge that started last Saturday and ends in Sydney on Friday local time.

So far, the 31-year-old has run six marathons, each 26.2 miles (42 kilometers), through snow, rain and jetlag in Antarctica, Chile, Miami, Madrid, Morocco and Dubai.

He said in an email that the Morocco marathon was the toughest. It started less than 7 hours after he completed the race in Spain.

He says at one point this week he had slept just nine hours in 48 hours and ran three marathons. He says he's slept mostly on planes.

The other competitors are from Brazil, India, Great Britain, Hong Kong, France, Finland and Australia.