TV Worker Becomes First to Finish 6 Ultra Races in Year

A podcaster who only started running three years ago just became the first person ever to complete six grueling ultra marathons across the world's harshest terrain in a single year.

Ioana Barbu, 37, ran more than 800 miles through Swedish Lapland's Arctic Circle, Peru's Amazon rainforest, Kyrgyzstan's Tian Shan mountains, Namibia's desert, Kenya's wilderness, and Scotland's Highlands in 2025. Each race stretched between 100 and 140 miles, taking multiple days to complete while carrying all her own supplies.

Her journey into ultra running started casually in 2022. While working as a TV producer, she took a break from recording Spencer Matthews' podcast and mentioned his upcoming jungle marathon sounded exciting.

"I said, 'I'd love to do something like this someday,'" Barbu recalled. "He just looked at me and said, 'I'm two months older than you. Why not now?'" She signed up that day, giving herself seven months to train.

The challenges went far beyond distance. In Kyrgyzstan, temperatures plummeted from 95 degrees to 50 in minutes as a massive storm hit. High winds scattered course markers, leaving runners lost in the mountains at 10,500 feet.

That's when a wild dog bit Barbu's leg. Instead of stopping, she used her hiking poles to fend off the animal, alerted race medics via GPS, and kept running the final three miles. "The dog did me a favor because with adrenaline kicking in, I did not mess about on this uphill," she joked.

To prepare, Barbu trained like a professional athlete while working full time. She took ice baths to acclimate to Arctic conditions, used heat chambers for jungle humidity, and did fortnight-long altitude treks. She also worked with London Southbank University researchers studying human adaptation to extreme conditions.

Why This Inspires

What makes Barbu's achievement remarkable isn't just the physical feat. Many experienced athletes had attempted this challenge over 12 years and failed, though she didn't know that when she started.

"Ignorance is bliss, because had I known that, would I have backed myself less?" she wondered. Her approach was unconventional too: using each race as training for the next, rather than the typical year-long preparation for a single event.

She prioritized mental health as much as physical training. "A third of racing is your physical training, a third of it's your mental game, especially when you're 60 miles in and everything hurts," she explained. "And then a third of it's just your admin and knowing your kit."

Barbu made the podium in five of six races, with only the dog bite incident in Kyrgyzstan slowing her down. Her accomplishment proves that extraordinary goals are within reach, even when you're starting from scratch and working a full-time job.

"It's taught me I'm so much stronger than I thought I was," she said. "There's a lot of power in setting yourself a goal and working towards it."