(MENAFN- The Peninsula) The Peninsula Online
Doha: Qatarresident Pierre Daniel has set off on a run around Qatar to show residents and nationals the power of the human spirit, raise awareness of the country's natural beauty and promote healthy living. The solo event, Alone, A Run Around Qatar (#RunAroundQatar) kicked off today from Katara. Pierre was wished well by family, friends and sponsors and staff at Katara.
Pierre is running the challenge, which includes an official world record attempt and is presented by MBM Transport and with key partners Katara and Aspire, out of his combined love for adventure and Qatar, which he has been calling home for over a decade.
During the course of next 7 days, Pierre will circumnavigate Qatar's border covering over 439 kilometers on foot. During which, on days three to five, Pierre will attempt to set a new official world record for the fastest run North to South in Qatar.
Pierre will be undertaking the challenge alone, receiving no assistance from his support team, who will only be capturing key moments of the run to share the challenge with the public.
Pierre is carrying all his clothing and necessary supplies. However, he must source his water along the way, either from farms or local population he passes, with distances as far as 50km to travel from one water source to another. His entire equipment and food supply for the challenge weighs only 7.515kg (without water) but he will carry at times an additional 10kg of water.
During the next 7 days, supporters can follow Pierre via a unique tracking portal developed by Aspire Zone's IT team, which will show live tracking of Pierre's progress including distance covered, speed, heartrate and more at .
At the start, Pierre commented: ‘I'm very excited to finally take the start of what will be without a doubt a memorable experience. It has been a lot of work to put everything in place but I am so glad to be able to share this moment with people.
'Today will be a bit of a test day. I am going to take it very easy and finishing strong for the rest of the week. I know that the real tough challenge will start on Day three with the 110km that starts the record attempt and that is why I will use the first 2 days to adapt and warm up into it. I will try to take the time to enjoy every minute of it
Pierre started his challenge on 18 February at 7:00am from Katara and will cover the following route.
• Day 1: Katara to Dhakira Port 55km
• Day 2: Dhakira Port to Al Ruwais 60km
• Day 3: Al Ruwais to Zekreet 102km (Day 1 official world record attempt - North to South)
• Day 4: Zekreet to Um Bab 30km (Day 2 official world record attempt - North to South)
• Day 5: Um Bab to Salwa 55km (Day 3 official world record attempt - North to South)
• Day 6: Salwa to Sealine Resort 80km
• Day 7: Sealine Resort to Katara- 60km
Saeed Mohamed Nazeer, Chief Executive Officer of MBM transport, the presenting partner of this challenge said: ‘As Pierre sets off into the desert from Doha today we wish him success. Doing the challenge in such a solitary manner is not only a beautiful demonstration of his love for our amazing country and the human spirit of adventure but also a challenge with real risk and danger. Our staff, customers and management all wish success and safe travel over the coming week.
A Katara Cultural Village spokesperson said: 'Over the coming week, Pierre will see and the photographers and videographers that cover his efforts will capture the beauty of Qatar from the dramatic skylines of Doha to the serene beauty of sunrise in the desert. We are so pleased that the first and last sight of this challenge is Katara, the cultural home of Qatar. We can't wait to welcome Pierre back next Saturday morning and in the coming months host a photo exhibition of images from around Qatar taking during the challenge.
Pierre, aims to finish at 10:30am on Saturday, 24 February and hopes Qatari runners (young and old) will join him for the final couple of kilometres within Katara.
Pierre is supported by MBM transport, Katara, Aspire Zone, Garmin, Xtork and Pro-TV. He can be followed live on or via his Instragram PierreDaniel_Active
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