Sean Cornwell

Completed only one previous marathon - the London Marathon - in a respectable 3:30 eight years ago. He was a student at the time with way too much time on his hands and Sean confesses that the odd jog has been all that he's managed since then. However, he's always looking to add to the 94 countries he has visited (the mythical ton is not far off!) and he started thinking that marathons in strange locations might be a challenging way to do so. When he recently went to the annual World Press Photo Exhibition and came across photos of runners at the Sahara Marathon, he was inspired to combine it with the North Pole Marathon and raise money to combat global warming under the banner 'fire and ice'. He's very glad (and relieved) that he has a few friends from his his time at Insead Business School joining him in this absurdly ludicrous endeavour. Sean is 31, half-Italian, half-English, and works in marketing for Google. Outside of work and his new number one hobby of marathon running in extreme locations, he dabbles in photography, has his own Internet company, and enjoys watching football (switching allegiance to Italy at opportune moments).