WINONA LAKE, Ind. - Grace's men's soccer team took their final steps on Wednesday, completing a monumental seven-day marathon.

The Lancers took turns running for seven consecutive days in shifts, all to raise funds for COVID-19 relief. The event raised over $12,000 as of Wednesday afternoon with more expected to be donated. On Friday, the Dane and Mary Louise Miller Foundation donated $8,000, bringing the total amount fundraised to more than $20,000.

All of the money will go toward several organizations, including Salvation Army (Warsaw), IMA World Health and Elkhart's COVID-19 Community Response Fund.

While the event was originally scheduled to last for two days, the outpouring of donations and community response was too good to cut short. Grace extended the 48-hour run to a full week, resulting in 168 consecutive hours of remote running. Other members of the Grace community, notably the Lancers' cross country team, joined in the combined herculean effort.

"I'm very proud of the guys. This event really took off. To go from a few days of running to a week is a huge feat," said Grace head coach Arron Patrick. "We wanted this event to be hard and physically challenging, but we also hope it inspired others to give back and make a difference in their communities."

The seven-day marathon was worldwide; Lancers from four continents joined the event, running their shift from countries like Portugal, Brazil, Germany, New Zealand and England.

The race inspired national attention. In the past week, Grace's marathon picked up reports and tweets from the several TV stations, as well as regional and national media members.

"We initially thought if we raised $1,000 it would be incredible," Patrick said. "It's been really unique to see how God blessed us through this experience, and he's blessing now these people we can pass these funds over to."

The race symbolically began and ended at 1st Source Bank Field, Grace's soccer stadium. Marcus Moore (Grace's Athletics Recruiting Coordinator) started the seven-day run from the stadium, and Cole Voss completed the final leg in the center of the soccer field on Wednesday at 12 p.m. (ET).

"It's amazing to be on a team that inspires each other like this to help the community. We wouldn't have been able to do this without the community support, without the team support," Voss said. "I'm blessed to be part of this community. [Coach] AP is a coach who's always pushing, and that really got us to where we are at."

GIVE NOW TO GRACE'S GOFUNDMEPAGE

WATCH/READ THE NATIONAL, REGIONAL MEDIA ATTENTION FROM THE RUN

READ THE INITIAL PRESS RELEASE FOR THE 48-HOUR RUN