'The Most Beautiful Existence': A Couple's Epic 6,504-Mile Run Across South America
Ecologist Katharine Lowrie from Devon, England, and her husband David, a management consultant from Northumberland, ran the length of South America—6,504 miles—in 15 months. Their extraordinary journey is chronicled in Katharine's new book, Running South America: With My Husband and Other Animals.
Starting from Cabo Froward in Chile in 2012, the couple traversed Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, and Venezuela, finishing at Carupano on the Caribbean Sea. As the first couple to run the entire continent without a support team, they took turns pulling a two-wheeled trailer with supplies, covering 20-35 miles six days a week.
Was it a joint decision? "No persuading needed," Katharine shares with Lonely Planet News. "We're both adventure seekers at heart. We married, quit our jobs, and after two years surveying seabirds in the Caribbean, sailed to Chile where the idea took shape."
Raising funds for charity, they visited remote schools for presentations and often ran barefoot. The toughest challenge? "Early arguments from hunger, exhaustion, and doubt," Katharine recalls. "But routines formed, and we laughed through imagined scenarios amid stunning wildlife that fueled our joy."
Key hurdles included crime-prone areas and extreme weather: waist-deep snow in Chile, Patagonia's fierce winds, Argentina's scorching heat melting asphalt underfoot, and humid rainforests.
Standout spots: the little-known hills north of Catamarca, Argentina, and Chile's Carretera Austral. "We were the first to run its full length from Villa O'Higgins to Puerto Montt," she says, describing rugged mountains, glacial rivers, and endless temperate rainforest solitude.
Neither wanted to end it. "The most beautiful, simple existence—running daily, camping, cooking, uplifted by wildlife and strangers' kindness," Katharine reflects. Now in Devon with children Theo (3) and Beth (1), their story inspires in the new book, available here.
