He has run hundreds of miles in literally, every corner of the world. And he has done it multiple times. In doing so, this adventure-runner has achieved ten Guinness World Records in long-distance running.
He is also the only athlete in the world to complete an ultra-marathon, full marathon and half marathon on each continent. He is a member of the elite seven continents marathon club, having completed the circuit five times.
And Ziyad Rahim, a Pakistani-Canadian expatriate, has no plans to call time on his adventures any time soon. Amid his running spree, he has now set out to create adventures for others, inspiring them to attempt the same feat he has achieved.
The latest of such escapades is the Qatar Running Series, 6 marathons at 6 locations in Qatar, which concluded this Friday with over 300 people from 38 nationalities participating in it. Among them, many attempted their first marathon ever. At least six of those runners are now aspiring to attempt a full marathon outside Qatar.
“There are a lot of runners here who wanted to run races and for that they have to go outside, which is very expensive. So, I thought what if I arrange something here. I charge only QR100. For QR500, people can run six marathons,” Ziyad tells Community about the idea for the series he launched last year.
In his seven years of living in Doha, he says, he has not seen many running events. He created a one-of-its-kind event which comprises all races including 42.2K marathon, the half marathon, the 10K and the 5K.
People attempted the 5K, received encouragement and went on to do the full marathon.
At the end of each race, they would get a pizza slice-shaped medal. Winning all six of them would complete the pie. Every race would give participants points. Winning a race would come with extra 10 points. The top scorers took trophies home at the grand finale held at Qatar Foundation (QF) Recreation Centre in Education City on Friday.  
The response to the first series of the initiative has been “massive.”
“When people started signing up, I found out that there are clubs in Qatar which are not in the mainstream. There are Filipino, Malaysian and French community running clubs, for instance. When they found out about these races, they all signed up,” reveals Ziyad.
He was particularly surprised by the Filipino community’s participation. Ziyad says he would prefer to keep the event small as it is easily managed, more accessible to people and let them have fun in a homely environment where everybody knows everybody else.
As a “one-man army,” he has been organising it all by himself besides getting some help from the corporates. Frist to come on board was QF and they were so impressed, they decided to do the finale as well. However, Ziyad particularly praised The Next Generation (TNG) School for its participation.
Riyaz Bakali, the Director of TNG, immediately came on board when Ziyad shared the idea with him.
“And it was amazing because his people did not have any prior idea what a marathon is but the way they planned it and the way they helped me out, it looked like they were professionals,” acknowledged Ziyad.
The record-breaking marathon-runner says the race series inspired many people to attempt their first ever marathon run and change their lifestyles for good.
“These people never thought they could run a marathon. And now when I announced that I was about to do a Spring Series as well, they said they couldn’t wait,” says the organiser, who is planning to start the second round in April this year which will end with May.
While he plans to increase the number of races, he intends to keep the number of participants small. And he does his races on short courses. If it is 42.2K race, he doesn’t mark out a 42.2K course; he marks 5 kilometre or even 3 kilometre so that people who go for 42K have to do it in multiple rounds.
This way there would be minimum disturbance to routine life and flow of traffic in the city, and the participants of the race see each other and encourage each other every time they cross paths.
And he got many globe-trotters world record holders to his races to encourage the participants. For the grand finale, Peter Bennett and Yen Nyugen, a couple from the US, came down to Doha for their 96th country-run marathon.
Dr Klaus Westphal from Germany ran in Qatar for his 111th . He holds the top spot in the Marathon Globetrotters for most countries.
“I want to keep it like this, completely not-for-profit in future as well. I want to keep my expenses down so that I charge people less,” Ziyad vows. And he does not want to promote it globally either as it involves a lot of moving parts.
“I do it as a hobby. I have a full time job and I have a family, so I cannot do that (global promotion). However, I arrange cruise marathons all over the world. I try and create events that have never been done before,” says the marathon runner.
He had created the Triple Seven Quest and 15 people got Guinness World Records because of it. Cruise Marathons is also a unique idea.
Right now, he is working on two more ideas, a marathon in Arctic Circle in Finland and the highest ultra-marathon in the Northern areas of Pakistan. Working with Pakistani mountaineering sibling giants, Samina Baig and Mirza Ali, Ziyad intends to do the first leg of the marathon with local athletes before opening it for international runners.
“I have been working on this idea for years and now I am working on it with Samina Baig and Mirza Ali whom I met while returning from Antarctica while they were on their way back after climbing Mt. Vinston in Chile. They are great people. We are going to make this happen,” says Ziyad.
Ziyad says many people do not know what a marathon is. A 3K is not a marathon. It is just a start. His series introduced many in Doha to the idea of a full 42km marathon for the first time. And his motivation is not monetary.  
“Just like I want my children to have a healthy lifestyle, I want others to have it too. I love to be around healthy people and that is my motivation to create such events,” says the record-holding athlete.
He has also launched a new initiative, a 30-day Challenge, where people from all over the world can participate. All you have to do is to go and run and at the end send Ziyad an e-mail with your distance and a screenshot of your GPS.
For every 100 kilometres you run in a month, you get a medal. There is platinum for 700 runs. People have already signed up to it and Ziyad has started receiving e-mails from runners.