Genevieve Pearson

Genevieve is running the full marathon with friends Neil Wilson and Gavin Montgomery, who all met while doing the Great Wall of China Marathon in 2012 - they all hope to join The 7 Continents Marathon Club. She is a geologist and also a (novice) mountaineer who has simultaneously embarked on the 7 summits challenge having successfully summited Mt Kilimanjaro (Africa) and Mt Elbrus (Europe), while a blizzard prevented summiting of Aconcagua (South America) to which she will return. She has completed various marathons over the years (including the 2 Oceans ultra) and this year has successfully participated in numerous extreme mountain trail races in South Africa and summited Mt Damavand in Iran. Genevieve will be the first South African woman to run the marathon on the actual Antarctic mainland in the snow and hopes to achieve the 7 Continents Marathon Club and 7 Summits in due course. She had hoped to do Mt Vinson (Antarctica) this year following the race but will have to come back next year! During the course of her extreme adventures she hopes to draw attention to various causes - the focus this trip is on raising awareness of the illicit wildlife trade and the plight of Africa’s rhino and elephant populations which are facing a poaching crisis.