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Brit running 7 marathons after heart attack
LONDON, England (Reuters) -- British explorer Ranulph Fiennes has set off for the Antarctic to start his latest challenge -- running seven marathons in seven days on seven continents -- less than five months after suffering a near fatal heart attack. Fiennes, 59, and Dr Mike Stroud, 48, left Britain late Tuesday for the wilds of Antarctica where they will start the challenge on October 26 before, weather permitting, finishing 168 hours later in New York's Central Park. After Antarctica, the two men plan to go the 26.2 mile distance in Santiago, Sydney, Singapore, London and Cairo before arriving in New York to join the thousands of runners in the city's annual marathon November 2. "I don't think it's a crazy idea," Fiennes told reporters as he left Heathrow airport. "I think it is probably OK, as long as you keep your heart beating at what the doctors say is the maximum and not more." The explorer and former special forces officer underwent emergency double-bypass heart surgery after collapsing June 7, prompting his doctors to set a low heart-rate limit for each marathon of 130 beats per minute. Fiennes had already started training for the challenge when he collapsed and was prevented from returning to training until mid-August. "They stitched my ribcage up with wire, so for two months it was no driving, no exercise of a taxing nature," Fiennes told the Guardian newspaper on Tuesday. "Even a brisk walk was out. So that left only two months in which to get from a vegetable-type state to what we're trying to do now." Stroud will carry a small defibrillator machine at all times but said he was not expecting to use it. "A lot of things could go wrong but I don't think Ran's heart will be a problem," he said. "He's got a big strong heart, he's a good athlete and he's exercised hard." Fiennes -- who has already survived the torment of gangrene at the North Pole, dodged bullets in the Middle East, trekked across the Andes and canoed up the Amazon -- became one of the first men to reach both Poles on foot on his Trans-Globe Expedition in 1982. Eleven years later he and Stroud became the first men to cross the Antarctic unsupported on foot. The two men will donate the money raised to the British Heart Foundation. Copyright 2003 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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