Runner Erin Sprague hopes to break marathon world records
BY MARY LANCASTER INDEPENDENT WRITER
In the name of humanitarianism, 23- year-old runner Erin Sprague has her sights set on being the youngest person to run a marathon on all seven continents. The current age record for women is 30 and 25 for men.

Erin Sprague at the starting line of the Beijing Marathon. COURTESY OF ERIN SPRAGUE

Sprague and her boyfriend Dana Worth, the grandson of islanders David and Laura Worth, and a consultant with the Boston-based firm Axia Ltd., last September founded In The Running, a nonprofit that raises money for international grass-roots charitable organizations. As part of that effort she and five members of her Harvard running team will enter Nantucket's Aug. 4 Rock Run as representatives of In the Running (ITR), and follow the event with a fundraiser upstairs at Nantucket Brand on Main Street.

Other members of In the Running include summer residents David Anderson, a director at the Massachusetts-based software company Biscom, Inc. and board member of ITR, and Celene Menschel, who is in the financial sales training program at New York's Bloomberg LP, ITR's chief operating officer and whose father is on the board of the Nantucket Conservation Foundation. Five people from the business, academic and/or athletics fields make up the board of directors. In the Running also has a chief financial officer and director of design. All positions are volunteer.

COURTESY OF ERIN SPRAGUE Co-founders Erin Sprague and Dana Worth in Madaket this past December.

Sprague, who lives in Manhattan and is an analyst in the alternative asset management division at The Blackstone Group, has spent as much time on the island as possible since meeting Worth three years ago. She started traveling after college and realized no one her age had ever run the established seven continental marathons.

"I began combining travel and running as a personal challenge, then Dana and I recognized we could make that into a charitable mission," said Sprague.

No administrative or travel costs are deducted from funds raised for In The Running, to which contributors may give either an unrestricted donation or ask that it be dedicated to a specific cause. Sprague has already completed four of the marathons, beginning with the Bejing run in October 2006, then the Walt Disney World run in Florida in February, the Kilimanjaro marathon in Tanzania in March and the Sao Paulo marathon in Brazil in June. The remaining marathons are in Ireland in October, Antarctica next February and the last in July 2008 in Australia.

Co-founders Erin Sprague and Dana Worth on the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro, following In the Running's Africa marathon for the cause of HIV/AIDS.

"Dana will run the half-marathon in Antarctica," said Sprague.

The charities are given a donation from In the Running when each continental marathon is finished. The organizations were chosen after extensive research indicated they met criteria including serving a cause representing a formidable humanitarian or environmental challenge or crisis, focus on making a local impact, allow donor input and demonstrate appropriate infrastructure and management. They are: •U.S. Girls on the Run, supporting youth fitness

• Asia The Polaris Project, fighting slavery

• Africa KENWA, a women's AIDS network

• South America A Drop in the Ocean, an anti-poverty organization offering low-interest loans to assist people in opening businesses

• Europe Cooperation Ireland, promoting peace

• Antarctica The Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition, an environmental organization

• Australia The Silver Lining Foundation, helping

educate the disadvantaged in job skills. I More information is available on Sprague's Web site www.intherunning.org.