In The States

Not the way I prefer to spend Xmas morning, waking up on the plane, drooling, with Mikes head on my shoulder, but at least we are back in the states. We switched airlines in Atlanta in order to avoid a connection and to save time. Mike came through with a new flight, however our luggage will be going on our origional flight through Cincinatti, oh joy.... Hope our Antartic snow doesn't melt (we put some in a thermos).

Just talked to Zac and Sophia, Zac was thrilled that he didn't get coal... Sophia had no such fear.

Should be in KC by noon.... Yippe

Time on my hands

Posting a few images while waiting for plane.

Took my camera on race, got a lot of pictures. Here is an example of the whiteout, Adriano was in front of me, he was the only thing I could see. Trail was virtually invisible.
















Me and Adriano (from Brazil) approaching finish line. I was pretty spent at this point.

















Left to right - Irish Mark, Bernando, James, Mike and me. We were up all night again supporting the 100k runners, they were in bad shape at this point.


















Took a self timed picture when we reached the top of hill (mini mountain). The amount of snow here cannot be put into words. The vast amounts of snow do drift, but against mountains. It is really odd to see snowdrifts as high as mountainss. Here we are standing on a drift, turned to ice, and is over a thousand feet deep. Took several hours to climb this (I am on right). Brutally cold and windy up there. There were huge blue ice fields we had to cross. They were incredible, they would have huge waves of ice hundreds of feet high and thousands of feet deep. Was like a frozen ocean.


















Self photo. Looking grizzly now. The camp can be seen way off in the distance (dots on the field of white. The air is so clear you can see further than I have ever experienced. You can also see parts of the ice runway that was being cleared. The plane cannot use brakes on the ice so it has to be long, and free of drifts, 36-72 hours are required to clear it depending on wind etc.

You can also see some of the undulating waves of ice. These are created be the high winds sweeping off the mountains. The ice adds layers every year. It is difficult to put these to scale, but take my word for it, they are intimidating to see, really makes me realize just how puny we are.














Really wish I had skis or a sled when I was up here, could have taken a ride down and saved an hour of walking.


Sat on top for a while and pondered life.... result, life is good.

Flight Update

Looks like we found a quicker, direct flight home, will be able to skip the connection in Cincinatti, whew, won't save a lot of time, but every minute matters. Gonna keep our existing flight in case we are delayed in customs and miss connection.

Satellite phone giving us problems so will try and update this with futher details.

Got room across street from airport, resting here.

Journey Home

Have many stories and images yet to share. We have successfully left the ice, went back to our purgatory of Puenta Arenas for yet another night (saw my first darkness in a week, an odd thing darkness).

We are now sitting in Santiago waiting for our late night flight. Both of us are mentally beat with all the frantic travel plans, all our efforts will not accomplish our goal however, as we will both miss Xmas morning with our families (a crushing defeat).

We had to leave quickly this morning and could not wish a proper farewell to our new friends, Irish Mark (whom owes me pesos from cards), English James (whom also owes me a lot of pesos), Raj (who was smart and did not play cards), Neil - from the UK, and most of all William, whom set the world record in his wheelchair and who has raised a lot of money for the same cause I am doing this for. I can only hope we get a chance in Santiago to say our goodbyes.

On the flight in from Patriot Hills, I was able to look out the front windows of the Aircraft and see the ice pack stretch on for miles, it was incredible and inspiring, I can´t wait to share the images I captured.

I will do my best to post many of the images of the amazing continent of Antartica as well as catch up on many of the stories of the trip. It is good to be back, it will be better to hug my kids again.

I am tired now, so I will find a bench to rest my head, will post more later.

Leaving Antarctica

We are on our journey back home. We arrived in Punta Arena at 8pm KC time. Not able to make connecting flight to Santiago. So, we will finally have a needed shower (after 5 days) and sleep in a bed. Tomorrow, we will travel to Santiago then home!!

We should arive in KC on Christamas Day.

Mark

Marathon - Mark details on his run

Finished run today. Very, very, very tough. The packed
snow trail was very difficult to follow due to whiteout
conditions, fear of getting lost was a very real
possibility. Now, before I go on,I must explain the
weather. We had moderate winds, a light snow,
and low cloud cover. This means that everything, I
mean everything was white. The sky the ground, the sides,
everything was white. The sun, while out (as it is 24
hours a day here) cast no shadows and only served to
cast a gloomy white glow to everything. It was like
walking in clouds with no sense of up or down
(more of this later).

My words can not do justice to fully paint an accurate
image of a whiteout, but I must at least try.
Running (with any speed)was possible for short stretches
only as every attempt to move quickly caused you to loose
the trail. It was odd actually, the whiteout felt
smothering, yet occasionally you could see another
runner, miles in front,or behind. The visibility wasn’t
altered as you could see any colors at a great distance,
it was just that everything was white. I spent most of
the race looking at my feet in order to keep on the packed
snow trail.

The orange flags marking the trail appeared to glow as the
only visible color for miles. It would appear as if they
had an aura surrounding them, as if your eyes were
thirsting for any color at all. If you would turn around,
you would lose all sense of up or down and feel as if you
were falling, was really odd.

It was one of the greatest experiences of my life!!

Stayed awake all night again waiting for the 100k runners
to return, it was the right thing to do. I am glad I was
not able to do the 100k (we could only do one, not both
due to scheduling).

Walked a few miles out onto the snow plain when the weather
cleared after midnight with Irish Mark and experienced a
gorgeous midnight sun on a sea of unending snow. I under-
stand now why many arctic explorers would return here over
and over again. Got some great pictures that I will
post soon.

Caught up with Adriano, from Brazil during run and ran much
of the race with him. We crossed the finish line together.


Mike on the other hand, assisted our 71 year old competitor
early in the race for several miles (Anry from France).
Anry could not see very well because of conditions and had
to drop out. This put Mike way behind the field, and thus
ran most of the race alone. He lost the trail several
times wandering in waist deep snow with visions of
spending Christmas for the next thousand years as a
statue of frozen flesh. A permanent reminder to all of
mankind of his failure to complete the marathon and a
startling warning to runners of future generations of
the dangers of wandering off trail. Mike finished the
race and is OK. He is now sleeping after using his
affective sleep aid of trying to prepare for trial.

Had to express some of this so I apologize for the lack of
logistical details (hopefully Mike will cover those).

Weather bad now, waiting for it to clear so we can leave.
Plane will not be in today, and are hopeful for a better
forecast tomorrow.

Oh, remind me to get the book ‘Beyond the Poles’ when I get back.

As someone on Scotts fateful expedition said; “gonna take
a walk now, will be a while”.




Mark

Living in Antarctica

Here is a picture of out tent. It is quite comfortable. Of course, I have made my area very efficient and organized. And Mike, well he has been neat.

It is about 50-58 degrees in the tent. COLD!! I have to sleep with an eye mask. It is bright daylight 24/7. We spend very limited time in the tent. I have been either at the main camp tent or out hiking.

Marathon in Antarctica a Success

In a very suboptimal course, cold, and white out blizzard conditions. I completed my goal of finishing the Antarctica Marathon in 7 hours. Mike Ketchmark completed the race in 10 hours. Many marathoners went off course during the race due to the weather. What an experience!!
We both are doing well and are looking forward to Christmas with our families.

We are planning on catching the next flight out. It all depends upon the weather. It is snowing and windy.

Mark

Bottom of world

We made it!
The immensity and vast loneliness of this place is beyond words. Take a swath of land as big as the US and Mexico combined, add a few hundred people, and you have a frozen, empty place that is as grand and devoid of life as anything you can imagine.

Flying over I had thoughts that reminded me of when I was a kid (or adult for that matter) of when I would try and visualize the size of the universe... I could never seem to wrap my mind around the concept of such immense size and unexplored territory. Yes the size and emptiness of Antartica is as difficult to comprehend.

I suppose it is like Zac (my son) insisting that there must be a last number because he cannot wrap his mind around something that doesn´t end. So Zac, imagine infinity and you will capture the feeling that this place invokes.

Sorry to get all deep there, but it is really difficult to paint a proper picture of a place that we humans know so little about. As Jodi Foster said in the movie Contact "They should have sent a poet".

Temp Home

Marathon hopefully in 24 hours, once trail is made again. Up all night (or day... can't tell with no darkness) helping William set world record for wheelchair marathon - 7 continents - 28 days. He is incredible. I am very tired and cold.

News Update

It was like the old 1950 movies where a big story broke and all the reporters ran to the limited phone booths to call in the story. Mike and I were first to the computers to report the news. In short, if the runway was clear, we would be flying now. But it is not, so we are told that we should be flying anywhere from 6pm tonite onward. Pretty fired up now, will try and stay positive until we leave... hopefully next post will be from much further south.

Rumors Everywhere

OK, there is a current rumor that the bad weather has left the area, the ice is being cleared and internal flights have resumed on Antartica. This is good... We think (through the rumors) that we will leave tonite or in the morning. We are all crossing our fingers that this is true and that we will be on our way. There is a 3PM briefing, so I hope I will not have to come back and post that we are delayed yet again.

Will post more after the briefing.....

Hopefull Speculation

It is my guess that we will be finally on a flight early this week. It sounds like weather is clearing and the wind is shifting. Call me optimistic, but I have a feeling.

Talked to kids today on video phone, wow, what a way to recharge the batteries. Had to make the video call from the hotel lobby, so I could not hear them too well, but was good to see them.

Will update as I can on our departure date.

Patagonia

As promised some images of our recent outing.

The below image struck me as cool as the road we had to take stretched on for quite a ways, it lead us to the mountains. There was one cafe along the way that served one thing, ham and cheese sandwiches. It seems to be a specialty here in Chile as everwhere you go they have ham and cheese sandwich on every menu. Some places have a variety - hot ham, cold cheese on bread - hot ham, hot cheese on bread - and the fancy one - hot ham, hot cheese on hot toasted bread.

Anyway of all the places we ate in Chile, I liked this one best as they made a great Hot Ham, Hot Cheese on Hot toasted bread sandwich. We tried to stop there on the way home, but there was a note on the door stating they were in Punta Arena for the day.

Here is an image of me and Mike in front of some guanacos, they are a llama like animal roaming Patagonia. Mike suggested that we convert one of them to our dinner plate as we only bought cookies for our camping trip.

Here is a picture of the group of us (I am getting good at the self timed pictures).

From left to right, Fred from Sweden, Mark from Ireland, James from the UK, Mike from US, Raj from the UK/India, and me. You can kind of see the towers in the background.

Here was where we saw the first icebergs. The Grey Glacier is quite a few miles behind me (as I took the image). We had to hike a long way before coming to the top of a cliff and seeing this, was pretty neat.

Here is the first view we had of the Grey Glacier. It looks like it is right down the valley, but I would estimate it being at least 5-6 hours of solid walking through rough terrain to get to it from where I was standing. It is a testiment to the size of the glacier to deceive the eye so much.

Here I am early in the morning on my way to look at the glacier. The sky is light pretty much 18-20 hours of the day due to the southern location. In fact the sun tracks in a circular pattern through the sky rather than an arch over the sky. Anyway, I would guess that I was still a few miles from the actual Glacier. After I took this photo, I had to scale some pretty high cliffs to go on and that is when I realized that it was not a good idea to be climbing around out here, in the middle of nowhere, so I turned back.

Here is another view of the Glacier. We got there after climbing for 2 days and shot this picture. The glacier is formed a dozen or so miles into the mountains and as snow accumulates, it compacts the snow into ice. The ice becomes so deep that it starts to squeeze out the ice through the weakest point. The image here is where the ice meets the water and where the icebergs break off.

I tried to post a video but was unable to upload the entire thing.

Another Day

We spent the day in the most beautiful part of the world that I can describe. Pantagonia is a beautiful, rugged area that has deep woods, high mountains and stunning glaciers. I will be posting images as soon as I can get reliable access. Oh, by the way, access is limited here so if you do not see an update, check Mikes blog as we both want to keep our families updated.

OK, now the bad news, it looks like it is the worst snow storm to hit Patriot Hills in a very long time and because of this storm, we will not fly out till at least Monday. We are all frustrated and tired here and the current residents are very anxious to get back (as they have been stuck there as long as we are stuck here).

From the sounds of things, we will not get out of here until Monday (hopefully) so we will have more then. Talked with family today about the choices we will be facing if this wait goes on and am feeling better now. It is pretty tough to be told to wait in line for over a week, but, it is the Artic and is supposed to be exptected.

Back to Pantagonia, we went out and bought tents and sleeping bags several days ago and went back up to Torres de Paine (Towers of Pain - sorry if spelling is off). This is a huge area north of Punta Arenas that has huge mountains, glaciers and forests, to hike the entire trail would take approx. 6 days.

The hike into the Torres de Paines forest was neat, we had to drive to a point in the park (in a rented van - we had a driver last time that didn't work out so good). At that point, we had to catch a ferry (it only ran 3 times a day). This ferry would drop us, and another half dozen or so backpackers, at a remote area of Pantagonia, at that point we were on our own. It was cool....

We had to hike quite a few miles before it would get dark to a campsite near a huge glacier (we took the last ferry and that didn't drop us off until about 6pm). The entire hike took 3-4 hours and was up some very rugged hills.

During the hike we saw icebergs, wild dear and some of the most beautiful scenery that I have ever witnessed.

Elysia, you said you were studying glaciers, I have some incredible pictures of glaciers. I hiked over the past two days (over 20 miles) to get some pictures for you. I was woken up last night by the giant sound of the glacier snapping off an iceberg. I would try and describe the size and immensity of this flowing ice river, but my words would not do it justice. It was a very long hike to just see the glacier, it was much longer to get close to it.

This morning I woke up early (everyone knows I hate mornings) and I didn't want to wake anyone else up so I got out of the tent and went on a 2 hour walk up to the glacier. Now, let me say that I saw the glacier from a distance while walking in, but, I was not expecting to see what I saw that morning..... The size of that thing was beyond description. I climbed some cliffs and scaled some trails to get there, but the view was worth it. I kept trying to get closer (I was at least a mile away) but the wind, and the fact that I was on a cliff made me realize that I was making a headline news mistake... Climbing in a dangerous, remote area, without telling anyone where I was at, so, I sat down on the cliff, took some pictures, and pondered life. Once done, I hiked the hour or so back to camp and went back to bed, feeling complete (until Mike decided I slept enough and took the tent down on top of me and Mark from Ireland).

We went back later that day after some worries about logistics with the Antartic trip (see Mikes Blog). The return trip to the glacier took another 4 hours (2 hours out and 2 hours back). This got us (me, Mark and Raj) to the high camp, just above the glacier. The view from there was incredible as we could see many crevasses (sp?) and holes in the glacier from the melt. We wanted to hike all the way down to the glacier, but we figured it would take at least 2 hours more to get down there and 2 to get back (and another 2 to get to our camp and 4 to get to the ferry), and we only had 6 hours left to get back to the ferry in time for the last departure, so we did not make the trek to walk the glacier. We then walked back from the high camp to our campsite (2 hours), met the rest of our group (who left on our arrival) and then ate some lunch at the backpackers place (a remote cabin that backpackers sleep in). We then hit the trail trying to catch Mike and the rest of the group for a 4 hour, very steep and taxing hike.

I got some great pictures of the icebergs and glaciers but it will take a day or so to post them as we aren't back in Punta Arenas yet. I know that all the hiking and walking we have been doing is not good for marathon training, but we are all going stir crazy here and the walking helps release this pent up explosion. It is sometimes comical being told to wait in line with a bunch of other marathon runners.

Will post images as soon as we have a reliable connection.

Oh, by the way, my kids both said I looked angry on my pictures, keep in mind, I am taking most of these by myself, and, as I will categorically admit, I hate posing for pictures. (they have never seen me with a partial beard so it is new to them too)

Gut Check

These delays are starting to make us think about xmas, and what we would do if this race conflicted with the holiday. The weather sounds as if it will be bad for a while yet which will put our departure date early next week (I think it will be Sunday).

We (Mike and I) have decided to set a cutoff date for a departure. Wasn't easy to set the cutoff date as the reasons for doing this transend a simple race, but, neither of us could justify missing Christmas with our families regardless of the reasons or money being raised etc. Hopefully the weather will clear making all this a mute point.

We also modified our departure date by one day to eliminate any risk of delay in getting out of Punta Arenas.

We spent the day getting camping gear (tents etc) as tomorrow we are going to find someplace to hike to and camp. We have decided to put all the local National Parks, within a 5 hour radius, into a hat and chose one. This could send us to the southernmost point on the continent, to Argentina, or to Torres del Paine. Either is good for me. Figure we can eat penguin or seal if we have to.

Front Page News

Don´t like to toot my own horn, but there was a front page story in the local paper, the image was the entire top fold of our group.

http://www.laprensaaustral.cl/lpa/noticia.asp?id=27984

The story was long, but in spanish, so I could only recognize some of the words (like crazy). Gotta go get laundry now.

More Delays

These delays are getting discouraging. I understand the reasoning with them (safety) but I think I have seen all I want to see in Punta Arenas.


We are looking into possibly renting a sleeping bag and tent and go on a walkabout for a bit as it looks like they won´t get the runway cleared for several days.


The storm that settled in is very unusual, as the high polar desert does not usually get much precipitation at all.


With Torres del Paine out of the way, we will probably head south (can´t go too far south as we are pretty close to the tip of South America already). My daughter wants me to see some penguins and since there will be none where we are going (near the south pole) I will try and get to a colony here and take some pictures.

Face is getting very grisly with the shaving situation, might really think about shaving. We took our laundary today and tried to find a washer and drier, Mike asked that I bring the camera as he wanted proof that he could show his family that he really did know how to clean his own clothes. Funny thing is, we asked a cabbie (in the standard tourist format of broken spanish and sign language - holding cloths in air and plugging nose) and he took us to a full service laundromat (we can pick up our cloths at 5PM). So, I am sorry to say that there will not be any pictures of Mike actually doing laundry.

Might have to get another pair of running shoes as the ones I brought with me have been sitting on the plane loaded with the cargo. All this waiting could really affect my marathon run unless I get some training in.

Wandering Chile

We spent the last day or so waiting for a window to fly. The news now is that it could be Saturday at the earliest, getting very anxious now.

There are dogs everywhere here, running around in packs, eating garbage and generally doing other dog things (like making more dogs).

This dog found a good patch of grass to deposit a present for everyone in the restaurant.

We decided to spend the time waiting in Torres del Paine, a national park here in Chile (southern pantagonia). It was beautiful, took over 6 hours of driving, but was worth it (better than sitting at hotel waiting.

Here is a picture of me hiking up the mountain to see the Towers. It was a long hard hike, but the scenery was worth it.

As you can tell, my razor is sitting with my antartic gear packed on the plane, think I will have to go get a new one to get me by. By the way, I will have to go to laundromat when we get back to Puenta Arenas and settled in again, things are getting stinky here.

Here is another view of the clouds rolling off the mountains.

For anyone interested, the Torres del Paine were formed 12 million years ago when a Giant piece of the earths mantel pushed up through the ground forcing the bedrock high into the sky.

A friend of ours from Ireland, Mark, is pictured here in the Torres del Paine National Park. He has insisted that all pictures of him be cropped out to only include his face, and nothing else, so here he is in front of a very scenic backdrop.

He is also running for charity so I thought I would at least include a short blurb about him. Will post more mug shots of him with the good stuff cropped out as the adventure progresses.

Will try and post more later.

Delayed Again

Uuuuggghhhh, another delay, this one is much longer. Sounds like Patriot Hills, our destination in Antartica, received 22cm of snow the past few days and they will need some time to clear the runway (once it stops snowing). The runway, by the way, is simply a smooth patch of ice where we will land, nothing so convienient as a terminal there.

It will probably be Thursday until we have any chance to go. They will work hard to get it ready becuase there are still some climbers and others stranded down there until the plane can get in.

We have decided to take a trip to the national park here (4-6 hour drive) and see some penguins and glaciers. Ten of us decided to rent a van and make the trek. Promises to be quite the international van so it should be a good place to bring up politics and religion or any other sensitive subject. The group of people going are actually very easy going (you would have to be to voluntarily go to the South Pole and run a marathon).

The delay is making another runner (Don from the US) kinda nervous as he is on his final marathon of the 7 continents and if we get delayed over 5 days he will miss his window of getting into the Guiness Book of World Records as the quickest run of all 7 continents (the record is 30 days now I think).

This sitting around waiting is the hardest part so far, as it is windy and rainy here.

Will try and update from the road if access is available.

Map of Antartica

Think I will go to the outdoor store here now and look for a big map of Antartica. This town, Punta Arenas, is small, but there is a large proportion of outdoor shops here. It must be because of the backpacking and wilderness down here (Pantagonia) that creates such a demand for high quality gear.

I could have waited until I got down here to gear up.

Card game scheduled for tonite. We have decided for everyone to bring currency from their own country, so we can swap it out and play with money we don´t really know the value of. This should make any wager a wager in itself due to my poor monetary conversion skills.

Delayed Again

We went to the 4 PM meeting at our hotel and found out the following:

Weather at Patriot Hills:

*30 mile per hour winds gusting to over 35 mph
*50 meter visibility
*Snow

In short, we are not going until tomorrow at the earliest. We were told to wait for a 6:30 AM phone call, and if that does not arrive we are told to attend a 10 AM meeting.

Mike has come into the 20th century and started a blog also to update his family and friend. You can read his blog by going to http://mikeketchmark.blogspot.com/

I will try and upload some images later as it sounds like we will have some time on our hands tonite and possibly tommorow.

Sitting Around Waiting

Six thirty this morning came and went with no phone call, this allowed me to sleep in a bit. The next scheduled time was 10 AM, which also came and went. Apparently the weather is kinda bad down there and not suitable for flying.

Talked with Brent (the race director) and it sounds like the weather is cold (of course) with a 25 knot cross wind and 1 kilometer of visibility (I am assuming this is bad for flying).

We were told to meet again at 4 PM to get an additional update. From my understanding, we are now on standby until we go, a call could come in at any time, even during the night, and we will be off. This also means that we could land, and if the weather is favorable, put on our running shoes and start the race.

Never thought I would say this, but I kinda miss the smoking ban in bars and restaurants in the US. Every time we go and get a bite to eat, we come back smelling like an ashtray, apparently, every citizen of Punta Arenas smokes.... a lot....

Pretty certain I have been through every channel on the TV at least 60 times so I will probably try and rustle up a card game while we sit around waiting.

Oh, by the way, the hotel we are staying at is right on the coast and the wind (the cold wind) is fierce, afraid this might be a prelude as to the conditions further south.

It is also confirmed that I am gonna line up and try the 100k race, good thing I brought some Advil (I am also considering a bottle of stout whiskey) to help with the recovery.

Will update later as time permits.

Flight Out

Scheduled to get a wake up call at 6:30 AM to let us know if we are on or off for a 10 AM flight. Tough thing is that is 3:30 AM KC time, which my body still seems to be following. Finally got some free time tonite (and an open computer) to post again.

Spent the entire day with briefings and equipment checks, had to go to the logistics office to pick up my sleeping bag and boots (they are huge). They really want to make sure everyone is prepared for the worst case and they go to great lengths to make sure everyone is ready.

We will ride in a Russian made jet, and sit in the military style jumpseats on the way in. We will need to carry our cold weather stuff on the plane as our luggage is already being loaded. We will have to gear up prior to landing, cuz once we are down, we will be on our own.

Talked to a guy today who is going down when we do, he is going to drive to the Pole of Inexcessability - This is the point that is furthest from any other land in the world, not really sure how they will find it if it is called the Pole of Inexcessability, but he seemed pretty confident. He pointed it out on a huge map of Antartica and it is probably 800-1000 miles from where we will be at... promises to be a pretty neat trip. Apparently there are several poles:

1. Where the lines of Longitude and Latitude meet.
2. The magnetic pole.
3. The actual pole... The focus point that the earth revolves around.
4. The Pole of inexcessability.

And I am sure there are others that I do not know about.

Anyway, they are driving for over 20 days to several of the Poles, where they will then be met by a plane, which will trade them out with some scientists who will drive back and study the snow or something (proving that no two flakes are alike). Was an interesting conversation however. I have decided I would like to have his job.

Also decided to run the 100k (60 mile) race after the marathon. Not sure how that will go, as 60 miles is a fair distance to run (or walk) but I would hate to go down there and not at least try it.

Gotta go and get some sleep now.

Ice Marathon

Been asked a lot about the schedule for the race:

* December 8th - Arrive at Punta Arenas, Chile
* December 9th - Pre-Departure briefings
* December 10th - Flight to marathon location at Patriot Hills, Antarctica
* December 11th - Acclimatisation & Test Run
* December 12th - Antarctic Ice Marathon
* December 13th - Rest Day
* December 14th - 80 South Half-Marathon
* December 15th - Antarctic 100k
* December 16th - Conclusion of 100k (if necessary)
* December 17th - Sight Seeing
* December 18th - Return flight to Punta Arenas, Chile
* December 19th - Departure to homeland

Quite a few days on the ice....

Been feeling kinda wimpy due to the current field of runners, most are scheduled to do the Full Marathon and then the 100k two days later. I hope I don't get a renewed sense of bravado and attempt the 100k. We'll see when I get there. It looks like the last time they ran a 100k there it took some of the runners close to 22 hours to complete (sounds interesting). Wonder if I will get hungry.....

Got a satellite phone and have been working on setting that up for communication back home. Hopefully I will get the technical glitches worked out and be able to post from the ice, we'll see, I might be to tired from the 100k to post anyway.

Antartic Ice Marathon

I am schedule to leave for the third Antarctic Ice Marathon which will take place at 80 Degrees South (approx. 500 miles from the south pole) on December 7th. The Marathon is basically a 26.2 mile endurance run on snow, in some pretty brutal conditions so I am somewhat apprehensive about what to expect.

Running in these conditions will be difficult in itself, but coupled with snow gear and extra layers of clothing will most likely make it more an endurance test than a race. There are things to consider such as the larger shoe size required to accommodate sock layers, the flexibility of protective leg layers and the fogging of goggles from respiration. As any runner will attest, shoes are a runners best friend, and any change in shoe style (or size) can greatly change the experience.

I have attempted to train using some of this equipment, for obvious reasons have not tested it all at once (in case my sister reads this..... "It would be too hot Annie"...).

The training for this has been pretty basic, I would run approx. 15 miles during the week, followed by a long run of 12-20 miles over the weekend. No more than any other marathon I have done, no less either. I do wish I would have worked in some speed drills to strengthen me up a little bit more, but life was too busy as it is.

Working on getting all my gear together now. I found myself looking to buy gloves, hats etc. and thinking "those are nice, but boy, do they look hot"....... Think about that, is that not a pretty dumb thing to pass through ones head when gearing up for a trip to the coldest place on the planet? I am still kicking myself in the head (figuratively) about that (once again in case my sister reads this.... "because I want warm things when I am there"....).

OK, that is enough for now, and in case he is reading this "Happy Birthday Dad".

Why?

Every year more than 1.2 million Americans develop cancer, within this stat is the fact that every 30 seconds a new cancer is diagnosed. Seems like a lot, and pre 2007 would have simply been another number that I would have glanced over and really not given much thought to.

I might have memorized the stats and cataloged it within my brain for an eventual meaningless wager, figuring I could really build up the question and then throw out the stats hoping someone would say "I bet it is not that much". That is the way I roll.

But, then 2007 hit and people that mean a lot to me were affected by the disease. The number now means something to me. The first was my dad, Richard, who passed away after 8 years of living with leukemia. It was his passing that sparked me to do something, albiet something different, but none-the-less something. That something was to run a marathon at the south pole (or as close as I could get to the actual pole) and attempt to raise some money for the Leukemia Society in the process (more of this later).

I know that to most reading this (if anyone reads it at all), the cancer statistics are simply a number that can evoke the feeling of "too bad for them" then go on with their lives ordering cheeseburgers and pondering their deep thoughts of particle acceleration and thermal dynamics. But I figured that I could do my part to at least raise awareness and hopefully raise some money for a worthy cause.

So, why post a blog? I am not the type to sit here providing musings of feelings and personal thoughts (I will hold that to a minimum for your benefit and mine), but I have decided to provide some insight into the reasons, the training and the race itself.