7 marathons, 7 days, 7 continents and one man with Parkinson’s. Can he make it?

Bret Parker reacts as family members and friends greet him before one of the events in the 2018 World Marathon Challenge. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

By Amy Gardner February 11 at 8:00 AM

During the first marathon, Bret Parker felt great — for the first 15 miles of ice and snow.

“I was chugging along, and I had no symptoms,” he recalled the next day. “I was running a good pace. I said, ‘You got this.’ ”

He paused. “And that was the kiss of death. I started slowing down. It got colder. It got windier.”

It was Jan. 30, and Bret was running a marathon on Antarctica. It wasn’t actually that cold for most of the race — about 20 degrees. But it was windy. And Bret has Parkinson’s disease. Like the 50 or so others on this adventure, he wore ski goggles and trail shoes and lots of layers. Unlike them, he carried a tiny plastic bag of pills that he was regularly popping to keep the stiffness, cramping and tremors of Parkinson’s at bay.

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