Thursday, August 29, 2013

Matching set - North Pole Marathon

I had been exploring my options as to which continent marathon I would complete in 2011, there were lots of options I was spoiled for choice. At around this time one of the runners I had run with in Antarctica told me she was planning on running the North Pole Marathon in 2011. This sparked my interest and I loved the idea of sharing the South and North Pole run with a friend. So despite the fact the North Pole Marathon doesn't actually count towards my continent marathons - its a polar ice cap there is no actual land - I decided to sign up.

flying out to the North Pole this afternoon in the advance crew - apparently we get to mark the course and help set up camp. The North Pole camp only opened on April 1, before that there was just ice and snow and a few random polar bears!

unfortunately 30 minutes before we were supposed to land at the North Pole we were informed that the runway had cracked and that the plane was turning around and heading back to Spitsbergen!

Take two - we fly to theNorth Pole tonight after they extended the runway, planning to run the marathon sometime tomorrow! Checkout the link to see the 1m crack in the ice runway http://www.explorersweb.com/polar/news.php?id=20071&amp 

finished the ice marathon in 6h28min, in temps of -32C, ten fingers and ten toes intact - no polar bears! with blue skies and temperatures of -32C. A 2 mile loop repeated 14 times and tough conditions underfoot - very happy girl now :)

just saw a video about the North Pole Marathon 2011, check it out PS my Number is 8 and I am the only one wearing white pants!!
http://tv.eurosport.cz/maraton/tv-videos_vid174892.shtml