Chinese ultramarathon runner Chen Penbin, 37, successfully achieved his goal of running a full marathon every day for 100 days. The journey - exactly 4,219.54 kilometers from China's south Guangdong province to Beijing - was completed on Tuesday.

The campaign, with Lexus as the exclusive partner providing 9 vehicles and Nutrilite as a major sponsor, has really raised eyebrows across China since Chen set off.

Chen's plan for an extreme run was announced at a news conference in Beijing in March. He started at Guangzhou on April 2 and finished on Friday in Beijing. The journey traversed provinces and municipalities, including Fujian, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Shandong, Hebei and Tianjin.

Wearing a T-shirt printed with "Beijing 2022" as a support for Beijing's bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics, Chen ran through nine provinces across the country in 100 days.

"I am so encouraged that many people joined me in the run. On the micro blog and WeChat, I saw lots of people who never ran before trying to follow my steps," Chen said.

"It might be a small step forward. But I believe more people in the country will become running fans. I hope to see that people, maybe 500 million, will join us," he said.

With the marathon challenge behind him, Chen said he will start another journey to India on Aug 22, when another ultramarathon race will be held above an altitude of 3,000 meters.

Last year, he completed a 100-km run at the South Pole and became the first Chinese runner to compete in an ultramarathon on all seven continents.