In February, Dubai resident Michael Logue ran across all seven emirates, breaking a Guinness World Record in a gruelling journey that left him with sunstroke and infected legs – and 5kg lighter.
Six months later, Logue, 33, is preparing for something even bigger: to run across all six GCC countries.
"After the first one, I said I would never, ever, ever, ever do anything like this again," he tells The National.
But Logue, a former Royal Marines commando, knew that if he was going to take on another extreme challenge, he wanted it to remain connected to the region he now calls home.
"I've had loads of incredible opportunities in the three years that I've been in the UAE," he says. "I wanted something that was again something from the region."
The result is Project GCC, an attempt to run between 1,600km and 1,700km across Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE and Oman in less than 20 days.
Logue plans to start his journey in February at Kuwait's border with Iraq and, if everything goes to plan, end on the coast of Oman at the Strait of Hormuz.
It is a considerably bigger undertaking than Project 7Emirates, the challenge that this year earned Logue his first Guinness World Record.
And it was not even his idea.
"It was actually my girlfriend who came up with the idea to potentially do something along those lines," he says.
Logue took the proposal to his friend and former colleague from the Royal Marines, Chris Taylor, who organised Project 7Emirates and has experience in working on world record attempts, to see whether it was feasible.
Taylor then approached Guinness World Records about the attempt.
"Once he got the green light from Guinness, then, yeah, I was like, 'Well, let's do it'."
Running across six countries
The route illustrates the scale of what Logue is trying to achieve.
He will begin at the Kuwait-Iraq border and run through Kuwait before crossing into Saudi Arabia and making his way towards Bahrain.
After running into Bahrain, the team hopes to use a passenger ferry to reach Qatar. If that is not possible, his support crew will have to travel around by road, with Logue resuming the run from the Qatari coast.
He will then run through Qatar and back into Saudi Arabia before eventually entering the UAE. That section, at least, will be familiar.
But this time he will continue beyond it, crossing into Oman and eventually heading towards the Strait of Hormuz, where the challenge is due to end.
The exact distance remains difficult to calculate. "It's going to range between 1,600, 1,700km," he says.
The team has mapped as much of the journey as possible, including using satellite imagery, but some stretches cannot realistically be inspected before Logue arrives.
"A lot of the other stuff, it'll be the first time I've actually ever been there," he says.
From Royal Marine to Dubai gym owner
Originally from Manchester, Logue spent five years in the British Royal Marines Commando as a reconnaissance operator and mountain leader. Running has been part of his life since childhood and continued throughout his years in the military.
He moved to Dubai about three years ago and founded Athlete Fitness, a functional fitness centre in the emirate. It was here that Logue began thinking about using extreme physical challenges to encourage others to test their limits. That eventually led to Project 7Emirates.
The previous record was five days and 11 hours. Logue completed it in five days and eight hours.
Part of his motivation was to show that taking on something difficult can change people's perceptions of what they are capable of.
"It was kind of to do something obviously of extreme nature, but that would hopefully kind of inspire people to then do that a little bit more, whether it be that they run their first 5k, run their first 10k, or something like that," he says.
But it was considerably harder than Logue had expected.
'I couldn't physically stand up'
Logue began Project 7Emirates on February 21 and was covering more than 120km a day.
On the first day, he suffered sunstroke.
"I basically couldn't eat anything. I couldn't keep anything down," he recalls.
But he continued running. By days three and four, simply getting out of bed had become a challenge.
"There were days when I would get out of bed, I couldn't physically stand up, and then an hour later I was back out running again."
Towards the end of the challenge, Logue says he was spending between 16 and 20 hours a day on his feet.
A support vehicle would travel about 8km to 10km ahead and wait with food and any treatment he needed. There was also little room for a carefully controlled athlete's diet. Much of what Logue ate came from petrol stations or fast-food restaurants along the route.
"It was like fast food, McDonald's, Burger King, pizza. To be honest, anything that you can kind of eat," he says. "I don't think I particularly enjoyed any food after day one, unfortunately. It was a case of just using it for fuel to get through."
By the time he finished, Logue says both of his legs were infected. He estimates he had lost about 5kg in five days and describes himself in the weeks afterwards as "a bit of a shell of a man".
Yet the experience also reinforced something he had learnt during his years in the Marines and fitness industry: the body can often endure considerably more than the mind expects it to.
"If you can take one step, then you can kind of take another step, and you continue on that path," Logue says. "You can do extremely hard things and your body's way more capable than you realise."
Project GCC will push that belief considerably further.
A bigger challenge
Crossing six countries presents challenges that have little to do with Logue's ability to run.
Project 7Emirates cost between Dh80,000 and Dh100,000 to stage. Logue estimates Project GCC could cost about Dh400,000.
The previous attempt already required a sizeable support team, including Taylor, two drivers, two videographers, a photographer and a sports therapist, as well as Logue's partner and another person handling administration.
The next expedition will be longer, more remote and far more complicated.
Some sections, particularly in Saudi Arabia, will take the team through sparsely populated areas with few places to stop. They are considering travelling with an RV so Logue can sleep as and when necessary on the road.
There are also six countries' borders to negotiate with a support team made up of several nationalities.
Logue says the team is exploring whether the planned unified GCC tourist visa could simplify that process if it is introduced in time. Otherwise, visas and entry requirements will have to be dealt with for each country.
Then there is the security situation. The planned finishing point near the Strait of Hormuz means regional conflicts could ultimately affect the route. Logue says the team will assess the situation closer to February and make changes if necessary.
"We won't take unnecessary risk with any of the stuff that we do," he says. "Who knows what the future holds come February? We could potentially be in a position whereby the environment in the region is completely and utterly changed.
"We will just have to play it as we see it, and then make a decision based on that."
Showing another side of the GCC
For Logue, the ambition goes beyond breaking another record. Project GCC is also intended to draw attention to the region where he has spent the past three years building a new life.
Before moving to Dubai, he says, his own understanding of the UAE and the wider Gulf was limited.
"I don't think a lot of people from outside understand what the GCC is as a whole," Logue says.
His experience during Project 7Emirates also showed him how much the people along the route could become part of the journey. Logue says he and his team were repeatedly helped by people across the country, including residents, hotels and police.
He hopes Project GCC will offer the opportunity to display not only the landscapes he runs through, but the people he encounters along the way.
"People have a very narrow-minded view of what the UAE, the GCC is," he says. "But it's an incredible place that offers so much opportunity to people coming from different countries."
Project GCC is also expected to have a charity target, although Logue and his team are still finalising the details.
For now, his attention is firmly on February. Completing it, he acknowledges, is far from guaranteed.
"It is going to be very difficult," he says. "Nobody's ever done this before, and there's probably a good reason for that."
