- Moritz Baier-Lentz, a venture-capital partner, ran the World Marathon Challenge in February.
- The Lightspeed Gaming partner trained for the 183-mile race while working 80-hour weeks.
"If it's not extreme, I'm almost not interested," said Moritz Baier-Lentz, a venture-capital partner who ran seven marathons on seven continents in seven consecutive days in February.
Baier-Lentz is a partner at the venture-capital firm Lightspeed Gaming with over $29 billion in assets under management. After completing multiple marathons, Ironman Triathlons, and ultramarathons, Baier-Lentz set his sights on the World Marathon Challenge.
The challenge is to complete seven marathons in seven days on seven continents.
Participants are required to cover the traditional 26.2-mile marathon distance in Antarctica, Africa, Australia, Asia, Europe, South America, and North America, all within a strict time frame of 168 hours.
"It's been a long time in the making," Baier-Lentz said. He's been long-distance running since 2011.
Despite working over 80 hours a week, including several hours on the weekend, Baier-Lentz still found time to train for what's considered one of the world's most difficult races.
His weekly training schedule consisted of three one-hour strength and conditioning workouts with his coach at the gym, two one-hour runs on the weekends, and one full-distance marathon each month. In the year leading up to the big race, he completed 12 marathons — one a month.
Baier-Lentz shared with Insider his tips for balancing a daunting personal challenge with a busy work schedule.
Create integrated systems that work
Baier-Lentz said he built systems to get everything done throughout his day and week.
He follows the "inbox-zero approach," where he aims to clear his email inbox before the end of each workday. Even during the seven marathons, he checked and answered emails between races.
Baier-Lentz gave his company a heads-up before taking on the race and made sure not to take any meetings during the race days.
While Baier-Lentz said that there were no downsides to training for this race, he recommended adapting your life to meet your goals.
"My wife and I designed weekend getaways around the 12 marathons I ran in 2022 so we shared the time together," he added.
Pick a challenge that doesn't seem insurmountable
Baier-Lentz warned against "falling into the trap of reaching for a goal that is too ambitious and daunting, and then never starting."
He has been running for the majority of his life, having competed in Ironman Triathlons and ultramarathons.
"Before someone runs a marathon, they usually start with running for a few minutes straight, then a 5K, a 10K, a half marathon, and then a full marathon," he said. "All of the people who do these crazy things started much smaller."
He said he knew he was ready for this race after completing the Marathon des Sables, a five-stage 155-mile ultramarathon — the distance of six regular marathons — in the Moroccan desert.
Set a high cost to quitting
When things get tough, like when you're managing a demanding workload and keeping up with life outside work, it's easy to quit. But Baier-Lentz recommended constructing social proof and social pressure so that the bar to quitting is excruciatingly high.
He used the challenge to raise $250,000 through his GoFundMe page to help people with depression. Having this financial pressure meant "you better break your leg or spit blood before you get the idea to call it," Baier-Lentz told Insider.
He also recommended finding accountability partners and building social commitments to reach your goal. Instead of just running 26.2 miles on his own for training, Baier-Lentz signed up for local marathons so that he couldn't back out of those vital training runs.
Spend time with people who push your limits
Races such as the World Marathon Challenge attract a certain crowd, according to Baier-Lentz: people who are hard-working and dedicated.
Baier-Lentz told Insider he tried to "find time with crazy people." His good friend Patrick Renner, who can run a marathon in under 2 hours and 40 minutes, was one of the key people that Baier-Lentz surrounded himself with to push him to do more.
He found out about this race through a targeted Facebook ad but finished it with a lifelong community of high-achieving friends.
"We even created a WhatsApp group among the runners and are still chatting every day since February," Baier-Lentz added.
The best experiences happen outside your comfort zone
The only way you can manage a demanding workload with goals outside work is to push yourself, and Baier-Lentz maintained this mindset during training and the race. "It might sound lame," Baier-Lentz told Insider, "but growth truly happens outside your comfort zone."
He said the highlight of his race was running in Antarctica, where the temperature was -13 degrees Fahrenheit and runners wore as many as five top layers. Drinking water had to be kept in a heated tent to stop it from freezing.
Baier-Lentz said in these kinds of extreme challenges, the "results and stories coming out on the other side are typically worth the pain to get there."
He said that negative self-talk in these situations could lead you on a "downward spiral." According to Baier-Lentz, the best way to avoid this is through meditation training.
"If you notice something creeping into your mind," he said, "immediately distract yourself back to the beauty of the surroundings and the privilege to participate in such a once-in-a-lifetime race."