Ironman takes seven-continent marathon challenge to an extreme.
Sometime by 2030, Matthew Krivanek expects to cross a finish line in Australia or South America and complete a marathon on each of the seven continents.
But the Sandy Springs resident has an extreme twist on the seven- in-seven challenge: He prefers the marathon as the last leg of an Ironman triathlon, which first requires a 2.4-mile swim and a 112- mile bike ride.
Krivanek first heard of the Ironman while training with Operation Boot Camp around 2007. His first reaction was that it was impossible. His second: “I’ve got to do one.”
The University of Georgia grad built up slowly. He completed a sprint triathlon in 2007 and ran marathons in Philadelphia and Chicago in 2009. An Olympic-length triathlon, ending in a 10K, led to a couple of half-Ironmans in his hometown, Augusta, before he was ready for a full Ironman in 2012.
“I said to myself, ‘If I’m damn near going to kill myself to do this crazy race, I might as well do it somewhere epic,’” he says.
He chose South Africa’s Indian Ocean coast. He planned the trip himself, from a couple of days to acclimate before the 14-hour race to a week and a half afterward backpacking, waterfall rappelling, cliff diving, swimming with sharks and doing the world’s highest bridge bungee jump.
“For me, there’s two types of travel. There’s leisure travel, and then there’s eye-opening, see-the-world travel,” says Krivanek, 44, a marketer and tech entrepreneur who co-founded education management company Incident IQ. He prefers adventure about 70% of the time. Sometimes he picks a destination then looks for a race. Other times he travels for a race and makes a vacation of it. “There’s a gratifying feeling in the front part of your trip to do a great race, and then it’s like, ‘OK, now I get to play for the rest of my trip.’”
His European marathon was the Challenge Roth, an Ironman-length triathlon near Nuremberg, Germany. The Atlanta Tri Club organized that trip, which toured France and Spain after the race.
Krivanek accounted for North America with his 2009 marathons and ran an Ironman in Louisville, Kentucky. In spring 2025, he opted for a marathon rather than triathlon in Asia, but it was China’s grueling Great Wall Marathon, a six-hour run including the equivalent of 460 flights of stairs. Marathon Tours handled the arrangements, including a two-week vacation with his then-fiancée, Jenna. They wed later in 2025 and are proud parents to a newborn daughter.
He intends to run a marathon while visiting friends in South America and an Ironman in Australia. But before those continents, he wants to conquer “the daunting one,” Antarctica.
A triathlon is not an option. The only marathon opportunity comes each March with temperatures in the mid-20s. “For running weather, you bundle up a few layers,” he says. “It’s not insane.”
But leaving an infant daughter would be crazy, so Krivanek is targeting March 2028.
An Ironman requires 18 to 24 months of training up to 20 hours a week, whereas he can prepare for a marathon in four to six months. But while he’s a lifelong cyclist and finds swimming meditative, he merely tolerates running.
“I’m a very goal-oriented person, so I put in the work to achieve the goal,” Krivanek says. “I love travel, and I love endurance sports, so I’m kind of merging the two of them.”
