Antarctica Marathon – Achievement Unlocked

I’m back from Antarctica and I completed the Antarctica Marathon 2014 on Monday, March 10th!

Race Report to come soon, but for now, here’s a video of my Antarctic Adventure (for those of you who just want to watch the race section see 1:17-2:45):

Thank you

And now, a quick shout out to everyone who helped make this happen:

Interex Industries

A huge thank you to Interex industries for their generous sponsorship of products (see below) to help make the harsh environment in Antarctica more manageable.

• Running Yak Trax, for traction on icy surfaces
• Minus 33 merino wool tights, base layer top, toque, neck warmer to keep me toasty
• Darn Tough merino wood socks. No joke, you have to wear thiiiiis many socks to stay warm in Antarctica (for the record it’s 4, worn over Merino wool tights)

• SmartShield sunscreen to keep my skin protected from the harsh sun
• Yaktrax hand warmers which saved my hands, I could not feel my hands after the run, my fingers were useless frozen pieces of meat. Luckily I had my trusty yaktrax hand warmers to thaw out my hands.

Mountain Madness

• A quick thank you to all the people at the Mountain Madness for offering amazing trail clinics. Logging trail runs with 1,600m+ ascents during the Dirty Duo Trail Clinic really prepared me for the challenges of a Trail Marathon in Antarctica.

Peak Centre for Human Performance

• Thank you to the folks at the Peak Centre for Human Performance for telling me what to do helping me create a training schedule. And for encouraging me to run until I want to puke motivating me to run in zone 5 during the Wednesday night speed clinics. The Wednesday night speed clinics really helped me go the distance during the marathon.

Distance Runwear

• Thanks to Dave at Distance Runwear for excellent advice on trail running shoes. The North Face Women’s Ultra Guide GTX were the perfect shoe to wear during the race.  They got me through mud, water, snow, scree and gravel.

One Ocean Expeditions

• To the folks at One Ocean Expeditions – thanks for keeping all of us on the Akademik Sergey Vavilov alive, healthy and entertained while traveling in the harsh conditions in Antarctica.
• Also, a shout out to the expedition doctor, Dr. Wendy for shoving wine gums in my mouth at the finish line – I lost heat really fast once I stopped running and needed simple sugar to keep my body warm while heading back to the boat.
• For the record, I would go on a Polar Adventure with One Ocean Expeditions again in a heartbeat.

So, can I stop running now?