Michelle Khare spoke to PEOPLE about the intense preparation behind the Great World Race, including seven months of training for extreme, unpredictable conditions
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The 33-year-old YouTuber explains how a last-minute schedule change forced her to run the Antarctica leg of the challenge just 14 hours after completing a full marathon in South Africa
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For Khare, the experience ultimately underscored that adaptability mattered more than all the scenarios she had planned for
For most people, running a single marathon is the result of months of focused training, careful planning and a full day of sustained effort — but imagine doing that seven times over, on seven consecutive days, across seven continents, each one presenting its own extreme and unpredictable conditions.
That’s exactly what Michelle Khare set out to do in November 2025 atThe Great World Race. But just as she prepared to begin with the most daunting leg in Wolf’s Fang, Antarctica, everything changed overnight.
“Even though we had seven months to prepare and think really critically about everything that could and would and will go wrong, you can't predict everything,”Khare tells PEOPLE exclusively. “And that attitude is really what's so important.”
When Khare, 33, made the decision to enter the race, she didn’t do it lightly.
With more than 5 million YouTube subscribers and a reputation for immersive, high-stakes challenges, she spent months preparing for what fewer than 300 people in history have ever completed.
Starting in April 2025 at the Red Bull Athlete Performance Center, Khare trained closely with David Kilgore, a seasoned ultrarunner who was also gearing up to take on The Great World Race for the third time.
Unlike Kilgore and many of the other racers who had already previously experienced the grueling demands of the race, Khare had only ever run two marathons in her life: the 2017 Los Angeles Marathon and a 2022 ultramarathon in Death Valley. And although she knew training for this challenge would be difficult, she had no idea just how much physical and mental preparation it would require.
To simulate Antarctica’s brutally cold temperatures, Khare trained inside a storage freezer set to 5 degrees Fahrenheit in downtown Los Angeles, running on a treadmill while dialing in every detail.
“We went into the freezer, we made sure all of the gear worked,” she explains. “For example, as I was training on the treadmill in the freezer, I went to take a swig of my water and the cap had frozen to the plastic, or even the [energy] gels would freeze if they weren't on my body directly.”
Those small discoveries became critical. It wasn’t just about staying warm; it was about ensuring her fuel, hydration and gear would function in extreme conditions.
Her preparation for the race, however, wasn’t done in a vacuum. Khare had to balance training with a full production schedule, often logging miles in cities like Vienna, Austria, and Paris, France, while traveling for work.
By the time she arrived in Cape Town, South Africa, on November 15th alongside 59 other competitors, Khare had already mentally mapped out how the week would unfold — or so she thought.
Traditionally, the race is set to begin in Antarctica so runners can tackle the most difficult course on their “freshest legs.” But the night before takeoff, everything was flipped upside down.
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In an email to the runners, race director David Kelly revealed that, “Due to changing weather conditions at Wolf’s Fang, we are adjusting the race schedule for safety reasons. We will now run the Cape Town leg first, then fly to Wolf’s Fang tomorrow evening [via private chartered jet] to complete the second marathon in Antarctica.”
“And so, right off the gate… we were being challenged to [be] willing to be malleable, and roll with it,” Khare says.
After finishing the Cape Town marathon in under five hours — which was part of her broader aim to keep each race under that mark — Khare had to prepare herself mentally to run again, but this time, on ice.
When the runners landed in Antarctica, temperatures hovered around 12 degrees Fahrenheit, with winds reaching 25 knots. The course itself was a slippery expanse of blue ice and snow, requiring glacier glasses to combat the blinding UV reflection.
Still, the worst part was that there was no margin for error. According to Khare, the plane would only remain on the ground for eight hours, meaning every runner had to finish within that window or risk being pulled from the course. And, at one point, that’s exactly what happened. Slower runners were picked up by sled to ensure they made it back in time.
For Khare, however, the experience was as mentally grueling as it was physical. “It was so cold… and the thing about running a marathon… when you go to run a marathon in Antarctica, it's you and yourself. You, yourself and your thoughts,” she emphasizes. “I really struggled being alone, and just being in that grind headspace.”
Unlike city marathons filled with energetic spectators cheering runners on, Antarctica offered only silence and the constant battle to keep moving forward on unstable terrain. At one point, Khare says the endless white landscape felt “never-ending.”
Yet even in isolation, the race’s sense of community carried her through. Khare points to fellow runners, including 84-year-old participant Dan Little, as a source of inspiration.
“I think that this race teaches you far more about attitude and patience than it does about anything else,” she admits.
By the time Khare left Antarctica, she had effectively completed two marathons in less than 24 hours — a mentally and physically draining feat layered onto an already extreme challenge. But it also reinforced the central lesson of The Great World Race: adaptability.
“Imagine walking off a plane, into the baggage claim, and being told you have 15 minutes until the race starts: GO,” Khare tells PEOPLE. “That really encapsulates the chaos… and that this is a lesson in being able to adapt… It becomes far more about the journey than the time, or the number, or the medal.”
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Episode oneof her three-part series documenting her journey through The Great World Race premiered on YouTube at 7 p.m. PT on April 18, with the first installment focusing on both the South Africa and Antarctica legs of the race. The second episode is now also available to stream, followed by the final chapter, which is set to be released on May 2.
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Michelle Khare spoke to PEOPLE about the intense preparation behind the Great World Race, including seven months of training for extrem...
