From The Real World to a World Away

You may remember her from her days as a cast member on The Real World Seattle. She was "the sweet one" who rarely got involved in drama. Or perhaps you know her from her time spent as an entertainment reporter for CNN Headline News. Or maybe you recognize her from her current gig as the co-host of Daytime, a syndicated daily lifestyle show that tapes in Tampa and airs in markets across the country. But regardless of how you know Lindsey Brien MacDonald, don't try to say hello to her during a race - she'll blow right past you.

"When I run, I sometimes turn into a different person and get a little competitive," the 31-year-old admits. "I get swept up in the race spirit."

When Lindsay was growing up in Chicago, that spirit was a huge part of her world - her dad was a competitive runner and she, her brother and her mother were fixtures at his finish lines. When her father passed away when she was 14, Lindsay found herself literally following in his footsteps as a way of coping with her loss. "I started running at 15 and haven't really stopped since," she says. "It's my medicine now; if I don't do it, I go crazy."

When Lindsay graduated from high school, she began taking classes at the University of Michigan, where she developed an interest in journalism. She soon learned about an opening at a public radio station in Aspen and decided to take a semester off to give it a shot. "But then one of my friends heard about the auditions for The Real World and convinced me to try out for it," she says. "When the producers offered me a spot, I figured that if I was taking a semester off anyway, I might as well do it."

Lindsay says her experience on The Real World was a double-edged sword. On the one hand, she had to get used to a life lived entirely in front of cameras, but on the other hand, she got to travel to places she never dreamed she'd go. "The highlight of the whole show was going to Mount Everest," she says. "That's beyond anything you think you're going to be able to see, especially in college when you're broke. It spurred a need for adventure inside of me."

After The Real World wrapped, Lindsay finished college and worked as a television reporter for stations around the country. She spent a few years as a co-host of The Bert Show, a popular morning radio show in Atlanta. After that came a stint at CNN Headline News, and then it was on to Daytime, which Lindsay calls an "amazing" job. "I pretty much get to test out anything I'm interested in," she says. "Whether it's deep-sea fishing or Muddy Buddy, I get to meet all these cool people who do incredible things and find out what drives them."

What drives Lindsay is a need to challenge herself, and her internal flames were stoked several months ago when she came across a magazine ad for a marathon in Antarctica. "I knew right away my husband and I had to do it," she says. "When I brought it up to him, he didn't hesitate. He just said, ‘Yep, let's go for it.'"

Without much more discussion, Lindsay and her husband Steve signed up with Marathon Tours and Travel to run the 2008 Antarctica Marathon in March. It would be the second marathon for both of them, and they would need to train for the mountainous course on the pancake-flat streets of Tampa. "Right away, we started running up and down a lot of parking garages," Lindsay laughs.

They also began following endurance coach Jenny Hadfield's Antarctica Marathon training program. Because their work schedules didn't always allow them to train during daylight hours, they bought a treadmill and ran it on a 50 percent incline "as long and as much as possible," Lindsay says. They even took a few trips to Colorado and sprinted up any hill they could find. And although Hadfield's training schedule was designed to prepare them for the glacier-filled 26.2 miles, Lindsay says she and Steve added extra distance and hill work to many of the training sessions to ensure they were totally prepared. "We cut out our social life and became recluses," she says. "It was work, train, work, train."

In order to keep themselves motivated, the MacDonalds created a fundraiser that allowed their supporters to donate a dollar amount for each marathon mile they completed, with all proceeds benefiting the Tampa Bay Technology Forum Foundation and the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. "Over the course of our training we raised about $20,000," Lindsay says. "We were thrilled."

After nearly five months of intense training, the Antarctica departure date finally arrived. Getting to the Earth's southernmost continent was no easy task: it took two flights and a day-long sea voyage through the Drake Passage, widely considered one of the roughest stretches of water in the world. And just a day after the MacDonalds landed on Antarctica's frozen coastline, it was time to run the race. "Thankfully, we weren't very seasick," Lindsay says. "I had been really worried about that."

When the starting gun shot into the clear blue sky, Lindsay and Steve took off. The course led them through pebble beaches, ankle-deep mud and a glacier they had to summit twice. But as grueling as the conditions were, that old familiar race spirit began to trickle through Lindsay's veins. "Steve and I had promised to go low key, but I got a little competitive," she says. "Finally, he said to me, ‘I'm walking,' and I went on ahead. I'm just happy I'm still married!"

Lindsay crossed the finish line in 5:17, and she's quick to add that the Antarctica Marathon "usually takes an hour and a half longer than the average marathon time.

"See? There I go being competitive again," she says.

After the race was over, the MacDonalds spent four days touring the continent with Marathon Tours and Travel, sleeping on a boat with whales singing below them and wandering the coastline next to penguins and seals. When they finally returned home, Lindsay says it took them a few weeks to settle back into their daily routines. "It takes most people a couple of days to get back in the groove after a vacation; it took us a month after Antarctica," she says.

Today, she and Steve take part in local adventure and road races, and they're now determined to join Marathon Tours and Travel's Seven Continents Club, which recognizes athletes who have run a marathon on every major land mass. "We're doing a marathon in Palermo, Italy, in the fall, and we want to do Kenya after that," Lindsay says. "We'd like to fit having a baby somewhere in there, too!"

Lindsay's advice for people who salivate over her story? Get out there and do the same thing. "Running races in other cities and countries is a great way to travel," she says. "You really do earn your vacation. Don't just read about these cool races; go experience them!"

And if you happen to see her while you're there, say hello - but not until she's crossed the finish line.
    

The Lindsay MacDonald File

Birthday: Oct. 21, 1976
Nickname: "Squeezy. I'm short and stocky and my brother and father thought the nickname was funny, but it's not very flattering. My other nickname came in high school, and it was ‘Quadzilla.' One boy started calling me that and it caught on. I don't like either of those nicknames. I prefer ‘Hottie.'"
Hobbies: Traveling, spending time with family, fishing, doing anything athletic, cooking and eating.
Favorite Color: Blue.
Favorite TV Show: "Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations is my current favorite, but I don't watch a ton of TV."
Favorite Food: Spinach, basil and garlic. "I put garlic in anything I eat; anything that has it as a main ingredient wins me over."
Personal Motto: "It's all about respect. Respect yourself, respect others and respect the environment. Respect and common courtesy; it's plain and simple for me."