It was worth all the pain of running four marathons in four months in four different cities for Kenyan Martin Longuran, who won US$100,000 after clinching the individual title in the Greatest Race on Earth (Groe) series yesterday.
'I want to have a long rest now, maybe for the next three months before I start thinking of running a marathon again,' smiled Longuran, who sealed victory with a 2:24:16 effort yesterday.
His time was more than 10 minutes behind the time of men's open champion Samson Loywapet, but the 25-year-old Longuran was not too bothered about that, having bagged the lucrative purse which translates into untold riches in his native land.
'This is the biggest purse of my career and I'm really happy. It had been hard running four marathons in four months, but I guess it has been worth it. The money was the incentive that kept me going,' Longuran said.
His odyssey began back home in late October when he took part in the Nairobi marathon, the first race in Standard Chartered Bank's Groe series.
That was followed by the Singapore marathon and the Mumbai marathon.
He came to Hong Kong with a handy seven-minute accumulated time lead over countrymen Cleophas Rop and Stephen Ndungu.