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World's coolest marathon. Literally.
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Why would any New Yorker strap on snowshoes to run along the (snow-free) beach in Coney Island? Because he's training for a marathon, of course. A marathon on the North Pole. The other day the New York Times reported on three such New Yorkers, all training for a race founding by Richard Donovan, of Galway, who did a solo run in 2002 and, uh, enjoyed(?) it so much he decided to make it an annual event.
This year 36 people of equally sound mind and body will join in the race, at a whopping $15,000 a person. The race takes place on April 7, a date chosen because it falls during the North Pole's period of 24-hour daylight and optimal ice conditions.runners. But don't let the words 24-hour daylight fool you. The sun will seemingly do nothing to thaw that subzero temperature, which is likely to feel as low as 27 degrees below zero.
The runners, who represent 13 different countries, meet in Longyearbyen, Norway, where they will be transported to a North Pole camp, Barneo, in the Arctic Ocean. They will run a 2.62-mile course 10 times to reach the marathon length of 26.2 miles. It's also, of course, made of six to 12 feet of frozen water (beneath which lies 12,000 feet of Arctic Ocean)!
Why subject yourself to such conditions? There's the old adage of personal challenge, but I'm not sure I'm buying it. It's also an attempt to call at call attention to global warming, since, Polar Running Adventures is the first business to completely neutralize the CO2 effects of all its flights to the North Pole, through partnership with the CarbonNeutral Company to offset the impacts with forestry development projects. Then of course, there's that once in a lifetime chance to be (literally) on top of the world!
Registration is open for April 7,2010. Are you brave enough? Watch the video of 2007's race.
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