What was it like running on snow and ice in below-freezing temperatures?
Hands down the Antarctic Marathon was the most difficult task I have ever done. It was a combination of exertion, elevation and the dryness of the cold. Maybe I should have run the North Pole first, because the South Pole is the coldest race. We flew from Punta Arenas, Chile, to the marathon location at Patriot Hills camp in the interior. Everything was delayed because of the weather, but then at 8pm on Saturday night they said: “This is the window, you’ve got to run now.” We didn’t even have time to acclimatize to the 3,000-foot elevation. It was lunar-like. It was miles and miles of ice and snow and cold in 24 hours of daylight. There were 16 of us running the marathon, and three others running a 100 kilometre race. We stayed in tents. They had carved out a path of snow and ice to run on. The first five miles was the most difficult. It was hard to get used to running in the cold. My mouth gear kept freezing up. It was 20 degrees below zero and it felt almost like suffocating. The ten
