Spotted on Strava: Epic Tree Planting + World Championship Marathons

From tree planting to bike racing by way of The World Athletics Championships, it's safe to say that we have seen some pretty epic achievements on Strava this week...

The ultimate tree planter

We're going to start with something a little bit different, because if you haven't heard of Antoine Moses that needs to change. Antoine is an ultra runner, triathlete and... professional tree planter. Indeed, back in 2021 he broke the tree planting world record, planting 23,060 trees in the ground in 24 hours. Antoine was back at it last week, planting 4,626 trees in a little over five hours - and creating an excellent track on the Strava map toboot.

Trials on two wheels

Sometimes we get tired just thinking about the activities people are tackling on Strava. So, when we saw three of them in the space of seven days, well we needed a little sit down. Let's start in France, where Nick Deehan set a new record in the Paris-Brest-Paris. For those who don't know, this classic race is a 761 mile / 1,226km 'sprint' from Paris to the Brittany coast and back again. Nick completed the ride in 40:38:26.

FIND OUT MORE: A True Classic: The History of Paris-Brest-Paris

Staying in Europe, you might have noticed that a bike race kicked off this weekend. Yes, the last of the Grand Tours for 2023 is up and running, with Romain Bardet just one of the many cyclists in action in the Vuelta a España. We should say that Wout van Aert isn't there - he was instead busy winning the Houffa Gravel in Belgium (yes, he crushes it on gravel too).

Slightly further, competitors in the Silk Road Mountain Race in Kyrgyzstan started to cross the finish line. The definition of adventure, this unsupported race through 1,118 miles / 1,800km of remote terrain is surely one of the toughest on the planet. Stéven Le Hyaric notched up 94,005 feet / 28,653 meters of climbing on his way to a fourth place finish in 125:10:23.

Marathon and more...

As you probably saw, the World Athletics Championships wrapped up this weekend with the men's and women's marathons. Have you ever wondered what it takes to mix it with the likes of Amane Beriso Shankule and Victor Kiplangat? Check out these activities from Keira D'Amato and Rory Linkletter.

For many, simply completing a marathon is the defining achievement of their year. Not Hugo Farias. On Sunday Hugo completed his own epic challenge: to run one marathon per day, every day, for 365 days - the first person in South America to do so. In total, Farias has run close to 9,300 miles / 15,000km since starting out in August 2022.

And finally, a little video to get the blood pumping. Kudos to Euan Patton who beat a 34-year record running down Tryfan mountain in North Wales. Euan completed the 600m descent in 7mins 21secs - and safe to say that he wasn't running on a nice gentle path...