Man who ran a marathon every day for a year reveals shocking impact it had on his body
If this isn't inspiration to get your running shoes on, nothing will be.
Even if it was one of your New Year's resolutions to get up off the couch and pound the pavement with a daily run, we doubt many (if any) will have taken on the 'marathon' mission of running 42 kilometers every day…for a year.
This was the seemingly mad endeavour of Gary McKee, who unsurprisingly earned the name of 'Marathon Man'.
We've already seen the benefits of what running for just 10 minutes a day can do for your health, while upping it to a daily 5k run is even better for you.
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Still, just like some of us have likely already abandoned our resolutions, the idea of keeping it up for a whole year is a daunting one.
Making the guy who did 100 pushups a day for a year look like an easy feat, McKee stuck to his plan of running a marathon every day for a year in 2022.
On December 31, 2022, the BBC reported how McKee had raised a jaw-dropping £1 million after completing his 365-day marathon mantra.
After a year of running, McKee had burned through 30 pairs of trainers and covered an unprecedented 15,300km. Celebrating crossing the finish line as thousands lined the streets, McKee confirmed he'd crossed the £1 million milestone, with the proceeds being split between Macmillan Cancer Support and West Cumbria Hospice at Home.
For those who are wondering what goes through your mind, and the kind of strain it puts your body under, McKee told Defiance: "With the right attitude, anything is possible."
Reflecting on his experience in 2025, McKee explained how he took such a shine to running because it gives him a chance to clear his head, letting him switch off and just be with himself and nature.
He admitted that he picked up little injuries along the way, but ultimately, he was reminded that he was doing it for people with cancer diagnoses or being placed into hospice care, who arguably had it worse: "I always thought that whatever I was going through was nothing in comparison to the people for whom I was raising funds to give them the support that they needed."
Amazingly, McKee juggled his job on top of running 365 marathons, typically running in the morning, having a shower and some lunch, then going to work.
Speaking up about his hardest day, he says he was prescribed naproxen (a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug to deal with inflammation) by his doctor and actually ended up in the hospital.
Having to cut the day's marathon short, McKee amazingly discharged himself and continued his run: "So I finished off that night at 8pm. My hamstring was mental. I was getting treatment three times a week.
“The physio was doing a remarkable job. I was strapped up and always wore compression pants and shorts; I didn’t want to show anyone I was injured."
A local brewery had made a beer in McKee's honor, which he said he especially enjoyed after a year of not touching the stuff.
While we imagine running 365 marathons in 365 days would put most people off running for life, McKee said he was quickly back to running and wanted to 'reduce' his regime to just 100 miles a week.
Sadly, he hit a bit of a bump in the road when he contracted COVID-19: "I’d run over 9000 miles, and I’d never experienced anything like COVID. It came at me like a train. I was floored. I didn’t go out of the house for a few days."
Summing up his amazing accomplishment, McKee says it was more than just about running marathons: "It changed people. It changed their outlook on life. The word 'only' was used in a new way. People would say, 'I’m only doing 20 miles today because I’m going to work.' When they’d only ever done five before."