Lone Star College Biology Professor Adam Eiler started running in his late 30s as a fitness goal. After completing a 5k, he added running a marathon to his bucket list to complete before turning 40. When he signed up for the Houston Marathon he distinctly remembers telling co-workers, friends, and family that this would be one-and-done for marathons and continued running smaller races. But after some friends returned from Ireland, Adam had the realization of how fantastic and fulfilling destination races would be. His second-ever marathon was the Athens, Greece Marathon. “My first goal was to run the Abbott World Marathon Majors (New York, Chicago, Boston, London, Berlin, Tokyo). Once I completed that goal, I had already completed three continents so I figured I was nearly halfway there,” says Adam.
Adam first learned of the Seven Continents Club®️ while running the Rio de Janeiro marathon with the tour group Marathon Tours and Travel; one of the few tour operators to organize an Antarctica marathon. It was at this point that Adam decided that the Seven Continents Club®️ would be his next goal, with Antarctica being the last continent. His first trip was amidst the pandemic and he made it as far as Chile when the race was canceled. While some may have given up at that point, Adam persevered knowing how close he was to reaching his goal. “I feel so fortunate and grateful to have the ability to run and see the world; something I try to not take for granted,” Adam says. It was another fifteen months before Adam flew to Ushuaia, Argentina (the world’s southernmost city), took a boat across the Drake Passage (where the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans meet), and was dropped off on King George Island to finally accomplish his goal in Antarctica. There is a multi-year waitlist for the Antarctica Marathon. It took not only dedication, drive, and persistence to press on towards his goal, but also years of planning and preparation. Achieving this goal is even more special because so few in the world have completed it; only 578 men and 305 women hold this title.
Adam shares how he anticipated Antarctica to be breathtakingly beautiful but it exceeded all of his expectations. “It is difficult to describe all the shades of blue seen in the water, icebergs, and sky that pictures fail to capture. I felt almost as though I was the first explorer to this land since everything is so pristine.” Adam says “Our tour guides took tremendous effort to make sure we respected the environment to be conservators of the land. Our clothing was vacuumed before landings so we didn't leave so much as a clothing fiber behind. I was unaware prior to my travel but tourists are limited to 100 people on land at any time. This again helps minimize human disruption to this fragile ecosystem.” Before teaching, Adam worked as a small-animal veterinarian in the Houston area and continues to enjoy veterinary relief work in his free time. “I won't soon forget the penguin who attempted to jump into our zodiac boat a few inches away from me or the orca calf that swam alongside its mother just beneath me.”
Adam is yet to set his next goal, but considerations include running races in each of the 50 states and he still has a few destinations on his wish list to check off; The Great Wall, Cairo, Paris, and Rome. Adam draws inspiration from elite athletes like Eliud Kipchoge and Tom Brady and admires how they push the limits of the human body, but his real inspiration comes from his fellow competitors; “At every race, I see a variety of everyday runners that inspire me,” Adam says “the 80-year-old completing a 5k (who I hope is me one day); the visually impaired runner with their guide and the hand-cyclist overcoming tremendous obstacles; the runner with their family member's picture on their shirt supporting a charitable cause; the family running together with the stroller in tow; the final runner to cross the finish line because despite what individual challenges they face they persevered and completed it.”