Seven marathons. Seven days. Seven continents.

For Morgan Leh, a Yardley physician assistant who has spent more than a decade chasing finish lines around the globe, that’s not a bucket list fantasy; it’s her next race, writes June Portnoy for Yardley Voice.

This November, Leh will compete in the Great World Race. Known in endurance circles as “777,” the feat is one of the most audacious athletic challenges on the planet.

Competitors fly by charter plane across all seven continents, touching down just long enough to run a full marathon before boarding the next flight. Runners begin in Antarctica before moving on to South Africa, Australia, Singapore, Portugal, Colombia, and finally Miami.

Leh arrives at this challenge just months after completing something most runners only dream about: the Six Star Journey, earned by finishing all six Abbott World Marathon Majors — Boston, New York City, Chicago, London, Berlin, and Tokyo.

Leh’s journey began in 2013. After the Boston Marathon bombing, Leh watched the running community pull together in a way that moved her deeply.

“Seeing that sense of unity and how the running community supported each other through something so tragic — that’s what made me want to be a part of the sport,” she said.

Later that year, she ran her first marathon in Philadelphia and qualified for Boston by a single minute.

A Villa Joseph Marie High School graduate who has called Yardley home for nearly three decades, Leh still does much of her training close to home: along the canal, through Lower Makefield, and with the Bucks County Roadrunners at Tyler State Park.

When asked what pushes her toward challenges of this scale, Leh’s answer is simple: “If not now, then when?”

Learn more about Morgan Yeh and the Yardley resident’s upcoming marathon challenge in Yardley Voice.

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