Mina Guli describes herself as a reluctant ultramarathon runner. But reluctant or not, she is running 200 marathons in the space of a year to raise awareness of the world’s water crisis.

“I was that kid in the corner that no one ever picked for their sports team…I couldn’t run, I couldn’t swim and I was horrible at bike riding,” she says.

As of September 2022, she has passed the halfway mark, running 100 marathons in Australia, Central Asia and Africa since May 2022, and moving onto Europe.

Guli is CEO of the Thirst Foundation, a non-profit organization driving action on water, and a former World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. She will be running in some of the world’s most water-stressed locations, before completing her final marathon in New York on 23 March 2023, World Water Day and the United Nations 2023 Water Conference.

Guli has form running marathons to draw the world’s attention to the water plight - in 2016 she ran 40 marathons across seven deserts in seven continents over seven weeks.

Her latest campaign, Run Blue, aims to inspire companies to take action on water in the lead up to the UN Water Conference.

“Companies currently account for nearly 90% of the world’s fresh water use, which means companies can become the biggest problem solvers for water,” she says.