The men behind The Great Wall Marathon and the subsequent races, which later became known as Adventure Marathons, are the trio Thomas Thomsen, Søren Rasmussen and Peter Fredberg. As the representative of the Danish Athletics Federation, Thomas has been responsible over the years for the technical implementation of the run and stood at the end of the run rewarding participants with medals. The two other members of the dynamic trio have felt the rigours of the race on their own feet.

Søren Rasmussen with race number 39 and Peter Fredberg with number 38

Søren was born in 1952 and studied molecular biology at university. He was a co-founder of Albatros in 1986, but soon became sole owner of the company which has grown steadily over the years and now has more than 100 employees. Albatros specialise in distant and often exotic travel destinations and, as is relevant here, marathon trips. With his considerable knowledge and great love for the World’s second largest continent, Søren wrote a book in 2011 with the title “In the beginning there was Africa…”. Søren has travelled the world and guided more than 100 safaris, especially in East Africa. With his background as a biologist, Søren is extremely knowledgeable. He can seem a bit devil-may-care in the positive sense, but he’s always genial and makes good company.

Like myself, Søren is not a “proper” marathon runner, and he also had this crazy idea of making his debut in this classic distance on the Wall in 1999. Since then he has run a number of races, particularly the first four Great Wall Marathons. Unfortunately, however, poor health put a stop to Søren’s long-distance running, with a replacement knee and lung problems throwing a spanner into the works. Indomitable Søren has, however, kept on running shorter distances, as well as kayaking. After many years as managing director of Albatros Travel, Søren took over in 2011 as the company’s board chairman.

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