Great World Race Inspires Lisa Warner’s 7 Marathons of Hope

Our Clip Out teammate takes on the Great World Race, running 7 marathons on 7 continents to raise suicide awareness

Lisa Warner, a Baltimore runner and member of The Clip Out team, starts the Great World Race on Sunday, November 15, at Wolf’s Fang in Antarctica. Over seven days, she will run 7 marathons on 7 continents, finishing in Miami Beach on Saturday, November 21, while raising money for Widdy’s Work, a nonprofit focused on suicide awareness.

Lisa, who describes herself as a runner, traveler, coffee lover, and Peloton fanatic, is running the Great World Race to celebrate turning 50. The week covers 183 miles on foot, and her goal is simple: enjoy it and finish.

People have asked why she would take on the Great World Race at this point in her life. Her answer: “I believe our biggest adventures don’t have an expiration date.” Instead of looking back and wondering what she wished she’d done, she wants to look forward and ask what she can do that matters.

A Runner’s Road to the Great World Race

Lisa started running in college. She walked and ran her first marathon in Portland in 1999. After moving to Dubai in 2007, she used running as a way to meet people, and in 2011 she signed up for her first Ironman.

Her résumé now includes more than 20 marathons, six World Marathon Majors, ultras, Ironman triathlons, and Hyrox. The TCS New York City Marathon, with its crowds, is her favorite. Her hardest race was the 2021 Ironman, run in heat over 100 degrees. Lisa shared more of her running story in our podcast interview with her.

Lisa spent more than 20 years as a school counselor. Today, she is an RRCA Certified Run Coach and a Timonium Marathon Coach with Charm City Run, where her coaching centers on helping runners build confidence and resilience.

The idea took hold while she watched Peloton instructor Becs Gentry run the first Great World Race. About a year ago, Lisa committed to running it for her 50th birthday, and her training plan spans 44 weeks.

Running for Widdy’s Work

Why would anyone run 7 marathons on 7 continents in seven days? “It’s not because I love suffering,” Lisa wrote. “I’m doing it because I love people.” Running has given her belonging, friendships, confidence, purpose, and a community that shows up on hard days and great days. She calls them her people.

Her years as a school counselor shaped the cause she chose. “You never know what someone else is carrying,” she wrote. “The strongest person in the room might be fighting the hardest battle.”

Lisa is running the Great World Race in honor of Reese Widman, a good friend of her nephew and his teammate on the baseball field. Reese died by suicide in January 2023 at 17. He left behind a message that became his family’s mission: “Do what I couldn’t do; get help.”

His parents, Corey and Kelly, and his brother, Rob, founded Widdy’s Work to raise suicide awareness, break down mental health stigma, offer resources, and give hope to people who are struggling.

Lisa’s fundraising goal is $7,770, a nod to the race’s 7-7-7 format, and 100% of donations made through her GoFundMe go to Widdy’s Work. As of November 11, she has raised $3,385, about 44% of her goal. Her message for the week: “Every mile starts a conversation.”

For anyone who can’t donate, she asks for something else. Check in with a friend, family member, or coworker, ask “How are you really doing?” and then listen. As Lisa put it, “No one should face life’s challenges and hardest moments alone.”

How Peloton Fits Into Her Great World Race Training

Lisa calls herself a Peloton fanatic, and her training shows it. Peloton classes run through nearly every part of her preparation, from long runs and strength work to yoga, meditation, and sleep.

Her Peloton connection goes beyond the screen. Lisa has visited Peloton Studios New York several times, and I got to meet up with her at the studio in May. She has also covered Peloton’s New York events for The Clip Out, including the APIHM Run Club 5K with Aditi Shah.

Running With Becs, Mariana, and Susie

For running, she relies on Mariana Fernandez and Becs Gentry, along with Susie Chan and many others. Becs holds a special place in this journey: watching her run the first Great World Race is what put the idea in Lisa’s head.

Mariana has become a source of community, too. During a 90-minute run, she gave Lisa a shout-out mid-class after hearing she was running the Great World Race. “Mariana creates the type of community I didn’t know I needed,” Lisa wrote. “It is presence, it is connection, it is heart.”

Eleven days before the Great World Race, Lisa took Becs’s 60-minute Endurance Run class as one of her training runs, and it brought her to tears. During the class, Becs told runners she would forever be in their corner, whatever they decide to do. Lisa shared the moment with a three-word approach to the week ahead: “Strong not fast.”

Strength, Yoga, and Recovery

Early in her training block, she added strength for runners classes from Becs and Matt Wilpers. Ahead of the TCS New York City Marathon, she took Logan Aldridge’s in-person class at the NYRR Run Center and shared her Strength for Runners recap. She also takes Run + Flow classes, wrote about Mariana’s Peloton Run and Flow event in New York, and on Fridays follows her last run of the week with yoga for runners.

Recovery content carries real weight in her week. Meditation and mobility often add up to more than six hours in a single training week, and daily Peloton meditation and sleep classes are part of her routine.

Mental Training With Kirsten Ferguson

Lisa says training for the Great World Race means putting in a lot of miles, but the other part is mental training. Kirsten Ferguson has been a major inspiration on that side, and Lisa took her 45-minute Intention Setting Walk as part of her physical and mental training.

During TCS New York City Marathon weekend, where Peloton is the official connected fitness partner, Lisa ran into Kirsten at the Peloton Shakeout Run in Central Park, a surprise she called awesome. She also snapped photos with Matt Wilpers and Hannah Frankson at Peloton’s marathon events, which she says she loves.

Building a Base for 7 Marathons on 7 Continents

Lisa trained for the Great World Race over 44 weeks with two coaches: one offered through the race and her own. The first goal was a solid base. About five months ago, she moved to two long run days a week, then built up to five days of 20-mile runs.

She follows what she calls perimenopause-informed training. Her race simulation week stacked back-to-back long runs: 20 miles on Monday, 22 to 24 on Tuesday, 20 to 22 on Wednesday, and 18 to 20 on Thursday. Recovery filled every gap, including acupuncture, cold plunges, massage, chiropractic care, PT, sauna, foam rolling, runners yoga, and yin yoga.

The biggest gains were mental, she says. On the final day of that build, she ran her strongest and fastest time.

Her mileage added up quickly. She logged more than 500 miles on one gym treadmill in three months. One peak week included 108.5 miles of running, 56 minutes of cross training, 49 minutes of strength training, more than six hours of meditation and mobility, over 16 hours of recovery, and an average of 8 hours and 48 minutes of sleep per night.

Recovery boots, stretching, eating, and strength work were all part of the plan, and she watched her heart rate to keep training low and steady. Sleep mattered most.

Race week looks very different. Easy runs of three to six miles pair with mobility, light core, and runners yoga, ending with a shakeout run the day before her first Great World Race marathon in Antarctica.

A Test Run in Cappadocia

In June, Lisa paused Great World Race training to run MDS 120 Cappadocia. Over that week, she covered 68.41 miles hiking and running, spent 21 hours and 8 minutes on her feet, climbed 10,218 feet, and carried more than 20 pounds on her back.

She came home with a new perspective: she was training her body, but what she was really training was her mind. “The days hurt,” she wrote, “but the nights I felt so proud of what I accomplished.”

Heat, Cold, and a Carry-On

The Great World Race swings between extremes. For heat, Lisa trained through an East Coast summer and followed a PT and sauna protocol, sitting in the sauna after runs. The courses run in loops, which brings runners past aid stations with ice buckets. Cold is the part she admits she prepared for least, relying on layers.

Each Great World Race runner gets a checked bag, a carry-on, and a personal item, and travel between continents is by private jet, where recovery boots are allowed. Checked luggage isn’t available at every stop, so her carry-on holds gear for the current race and the next one, plus everything she needs in between.

Her plan for fuel and rest is direct: “Eat when they say eat and run when they say run.” To manage jet lag, she ignores the local time and follows a written routine. She calms down, eats a meal, has tea, puts on her recovery boots, and keeps her daily Peloton meditation and sleep classes.

The Travel Behind the Miles

The running is only half of the Great World Race. Lisa will cover about 26,156 air miles and roughly 58 hours of flying, including a fuel stop in Cairo between Singapore and Portugal. Added together, her body clock shifts 19 hours over the week.

Most nights are spent on the plane. Each course is run in loops with an eight-hour cutoff, starting on a blue-ice runway in Antarctica at about 3,707 feet of elevation. In Cartagena, the marathon starts at midnight local time. After that leg, she flies to Miami and finally sleeps in a bed before the last start.

The Great World Race Schedule and How to Watch

Every Great World Race marathon streams live on Twitch. Here are the stops with Eastern start times. Organizers note that times are subject to change.

• Nov. 15, Wolf’s Fang, Antarctica: 4:45 a.m. ET on Sunday, Nov. 15
• Nov. 16, Cape Town, Africa: 10:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, Nov. 15
• Nov. 17, Perth, Australia: 7:30 p.m. ET on Monday, Nov. 16
• Nov. 18, Singapore, Asia: 5:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Nov. 17
• Nov. 19, The Algarve, Europe: 3:00 a.m. ET on Thursday, Nov. 19
• Nov. 20, Cartagena, South America: 12:00 a.m. ET on Friday, Nov. 20
• Nov. 21, Miami Beach, North America: 7:00 a.m. ET on Saturday, Nov. 21

Lisa also built a race tracker that lights up her route as each marathon is finished, with a fan zone where anyone can leave cheers for every leg. In Miami, the final course runs along the boardwalk between 39th and 53rd Streets, and fans who want to match Lisa can wear pink or Miami Vice colors.

Mindset for the Final Miles

Antarctica makes her most nervous because no one knows what the weather will bring. Miami is the Great World Race stop she is most excited about. Family, friends, and the families of the runners she has met along the way will be there.

By now, Lisa’s family has learned not to be surprised by her big goals, and the Great World Race is no exception. She almost kept this one from her mom, who tends to worry, but the news came out anyway. These days, her family’s belief in her runs even deeper than her own. When she reaches Miami, her mom and sister will be there, handing out race day swag to the friends who come to cheer her across the final finish line.

When the miles get heavy, she leans on two phrases, “Strong not fast” and “Do it anyways,” and a reminder she wrote for herself: “When things get hard, I’ll remember my why.” Her playlist runs on girl power songs, and when Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer” comes on halfway through, she knows she can do this. After months of eating to fuel training, she is tired of food, but chips, salsa, and guacamole will still make the cut after Miami.

The race has already changed her. She has met the women racing, joined their monthly calls, and built relationships that helped her believe she can finish. “The finish line isn’t the most important part,” she wrote. “The people I meet along the way, that’s what’s making a difference.”

Cheering Her On From The Clip Out

Her advice for anyone considering the Great World Race is to do it and be ready for the best time of your life. Soak up everything other runners and coaches can teach you, but remember it is your race, and focus on the basics. She cried more than once during training and wouldn’t change a thing.

The whole Clip Out team will be following every Great World Race stop on Twitch and cheering Lisa from Antarctica to Miami Beach. Track her progress and leave a cheer on Lisa’s race page, follow her on Instagram at @warnerwellness_ig, and support Widdy’s Work through her GoFundMe.

If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, available 24/7 in the US.

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