Sandy Lehane, shown running in last year’s Boston Marathon as part of the Michael Lisnow Respite Center’s Michael’s Miracle team, soon will embark on a global journey to run seven marathons in a week.

Sandy Lehane blames it all on her dad — kiddingly, of course. A runner in high school, Lehane had hung up her running shoes when her father told her in 2011 that he would be “so proud” to see her run the Boston Marathon.

“I should have been glad that he didn’t say he’d be proud to see me go to the moon,” Lehane said.

What she is about to tackle might sound just as wild as taking off in a rocket ship. After running 14 Boston Marathons, Lehane in January will tackle the event known as the Great World Race. It’s seven marathons, in seven days, on seven continents.

“Either you think this is the craziest thing ever, or you immediately feel like you have to do it,” Lehane said.

For her, it was the latter. The event also is a chance to continue to raise funds for the Michael Lisnow Respite Center, a Hopkinton nonprofit that serves individuals with disabilities and their families.

“They are such a small organization, I didn’t know what they would say, but there is no other organization I would want to run for, no other organization that would be my purpose or my ‘why,’ ’’ said Lehane, a longtime employee of Dell Technologies in Hopkinton. “Within 10 minutes of asking, they responded and said yes. We’ve been off and running ever since.”

Lehane’s journey will start in Antarctica Jan. 31. A cargo plane is set to fly her and the other participants from Cape Town, South Africa, to Antarctica for the first 26.2-mile run. After they finish, the same plane will fly them back to Cape Town, where they will run the second race the next day. After that, it’s a private plane to Perth, Australia, then onto Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, the Spanish capital of Madrid, Fortaleza in Brazil, and back to the United States for a final race in Miami.

“You are on a plane the entire time,” Lehane said. “You land, you get on a bus, you get transported to the site of the race, and then you’re back on the plane again.”

Lehane has been working with a coach, Carmela Tavares of Sole Sisters Running Club, along with Dr. Mark Messinger of Messinger Chiropractic and Tracy Moynihan of Choice Fitness — all of whom are expected to cheer her on at the Miami race — and the goal has been to get used to doing long runs with very little rest. It’s a challenge, even for someone who is an accomplished and annual runner of the Boston Marathon.

“It’s more miles than I have ever done,” she said. “It’s really about paying attention to your heart rate, that’s what truly helps you recover. I have to slow my pace down to bring my heart rate down.”

Some training days for Lehane have included running 10 miles in the morning and 10 more at night. Other times, she will wake up at 3 a.m. to run 15 miles ahead of a quick 5-miler later in the day.

At the peak of her training, Lehane was running upward of 80 miles per week. It’s a lot, but well short of the 183.4 miles she’ll cover during race week. By the time she laces up in Antarctica, Lehane will have logged more than 2,000 miles over the past year. However, she said she is most nervous about the fundraising.

“I have committed to raising $100,000 for the Respite Center, and I am happy to do it,” said Lehane, who through mid-December had raised about $37,000 through her fundraising page (givengain.com/project/sandra-raising-funds-for-michael-lisnow-respite-center-103175). “I am their biggest advocate, cheerleader, champion, and once we get to that goal it will be a big sigh of relief.”

As for the race itself, Antarctica presents the most unknowns, but training in the cold weather in November and December has been helpful for Lehane. She also had the chance to train in an indoor climate chamber to simulate the different temperatures she is likely to encounter as she makes her way around the globe.

As for her father, the one whose words sparked this years-long obsession, Lehane said he and her mother probably are a little nervous. But her family is proud and excited, including her two sons who are both in their 20s.

“They think it’s the coolest thing,” Lehane said. “Their old mom is still doing this.”