“I decided to discover Qatar on foot”

Scottish theologian William Barclay asserted that endurance was not the ability to bear hardships but to turn it into glory. The exploits of Pierre Daniel, French athlete living in Qatar, embodies the spirit of Barclary’s words for his sheer endurance. Daniel has been in the spotlight for finishing a run around Qatar alone and then completing another round on a bicycle. The adventurer holds the world record for being the fastest person to cross Qatar from north to south on foot.Community recently caught up with the 37-year-old and interviewed Daniel about his achievements and life.“I was born and raised in France. I studied marketing. I am the son of a designer so I have been involved in designing for a long time. A few years ago I moved to London where I started working for Al Jazeera English as a creative designer doing motion designs and branding. That was my first introduction to Qatar.“Then I moved to Qatar, still working with the news channel. Now, I work for Aspire Foundation. I have been living in Qatar for 10 years. I have three kids, all are born in Qatar.”Speaking about how he got the idea of going for a run around Qatar, Daniel said: “I have asked this question many times to myself. I have always been doing sports. I was a professional ice hockey player 15 years ago in France. I was very active as a kid. We grew up in countryside so we spent a lot of time in nature. I was like many other kids on the bicycle all the time. As a teenager, in summer, I would always go for rock climbing and mountaineering in the Alps. I think all that fostered a sort of character.“While working with Aspire six years ago, we were developing a programme called ‘Step into Health’. The idea was to stimulate and engage people for a healthier and more active lifestyle through walking. People were invited to walk for 10,000 steps every day. I developed some challenges for the programme. Some of the challenges were related to different landmarks in the country. One such challenge was that how many steps one can walk around the country. Just like that I decided to walk around the country in 2012.”When asked how he prepared himself for the adventure, Daniel said: “I was not really trained. At the same time, I was missing my biking and hiking days. I really decided to discover Qatar on foot. The pace is different when you are walking. The animals get closer. We get better sense of nature surrounding us. Being alone also helps in that. In 2012, I decided to walk from Corniche to Dukhan. I covered about 90 kilometres in a bit more than 16 hours. Not long after that, I walked from Gharafa to Al Khor. Then, I walked from Al Zubarah Fort to Doha across the desert. For this, I only used a compass and a map. The pieces of the puzzle were coming together. Then I started cycling and did triathlons and Iron Man. After some time, I registered for a 250 kilometre long marathon in Morocco in 2017. I started improving my running techniques. After Morocco, I did another full Iron Man in Austria.”After all these activities, Daniel decided to run around Qatar and his friends told him that no one else could do it. “I decided to do it all alone. I did it in February 2018. I carried all my equipment. I carried a lot of water but sometime it was not enough. When I started, it was an unusually hot day in February. On the second day, I faced strong head wind. The weather made the challenge tougher for me but at the same time it made the story interesting.“I wanted to also demonstrate the human potential and the natural beauty of Qatar. That was the true purpose of the challenge. I made sure that the people follow my adventure.”Regarding his expedition on cycle, he said: “A good friend of mine, a Qatari, pushed me for this. He was organising charity cycling rides. We both decided to have a cycling trip across Qatar. We did it in November last year. We did the tour for raising awareness about road safety. On our way, we went to some schools to raise road safety awareness. We covered around 500 kilometre on our cycles. We met around 1,000 kids in four days. As far I know, we are the only ones, who have crossed the country on cycles. We also exhibited our true friendship, Qatar and France. It was also our way of being in the community.”Explaining his sense of achievement, Daniel said: “I think it really made me want to be useful in the community. I am really attached with Qatar. I feel very close to Qatar’s national vision of 2030. There are lots of values that are also my personal values like sports, healthy lifestyle, art, education and healthcare. I am also a coach training endurance athletes.”When asked how Qatar has helped him in achieving all this, he said: “This country is actually full of positive energy. This is the one reason I went for the adventure. There is a sense of sharing and sense of helping. The culture is very welcoming. We are very privileged to live here. There are lots of sport activities. They always love sports. It was a perfect match. My envy for doing sports and the availability of the resources were a perfect match.”Speaking about his plans in future, he said: “There are many projects that I want to do. I am also planning to write a book about my experience of running around Qatar. I will tell a full story with all details. It is going to have pictures, my running selfies, and how I made sure to achieve such a thing without affecting my family. The adventures need real courage and one has to go out of comfort zone.”About the world record, he said: “The idea was not for me to be the best at anything. The idea was to create a legacy after the run around Qatar. The idea was to motivate others to go out and challenge themselves and explore Qatar. This is the world record that has to be broken in Qatar. The record was made during my run around the country. I covered 215 kilometres in two days and 21 hours.”Regarding his stay in Qatar, Daniel said: “It is an extremely safe place. We are privileged to raise our kids here. People in other countries are envious of safe Qatar.”