Poles Apart - The North and South Pole Marathons

On January 22nd, Richard Donovan won the First Ever South Pole Marathon and on April 5th he also became the first person to ever run a marathon at the North Pole.

Aside from the extreme temperatures, ice and snow, the South and North Poles differ in many respects when it comes to running a marathon. The South Pole is situated on a continent called Antarctica, which is the highest, driest, most windswept continent on earth. The North Pole is not situated on a continent, but in the Arctic Ocean. The exact geographic North Pole can therefore be in open sea or on floating ice depending on the conditions when you arrive. Normally, it will be situated on ice floes.

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At the South Pole, the two biggest obstacles to running a marathon are the altitude and the cold. The South Pole is actually 9,300 feet high, but its polar position and related atmospheric pressure give it an effective altitude of 12,000 feet. Running an endurance event at 12,000 feet is a danger in itself, but when you combine the altitude with extreme cold you begin to form a recipe that will definitely hurt you. On the day of the South Pole Marathon, the wind chill temperature plummeted to –50C. Furthermore, the marathon itself was run on a linear route to the Pole, beginning 26.2 miles away, and this added a third variable to the pain equation – headwind. The wind was not very strong on the day of the event, but it was a constant headwind nevertheless. Finally, the underfoot conditions comprised snow and wave like formations of ice called sastrugi. Needless to say, such underfoot conditions are also not supportive of marathon running.

We had to acclimatise to the altitude prior to the race, but as the days went by on the Polar Plateau we quickly became weaker and weaker. Because of the conditions, the type of food we could eat was very limited – everything would freeze almost immediately. The Antarctic also introduced us to one of its major characteristics: its changeability. The race had to be abandoned on the first attempt because what started as a very clear day suddenly turned to ‘whiteout’ conditions. In these conditions, none of us could distinguish the ground from the sky and visibility was almost zero. If we hadn’t known already, athletes quickly realised that this was a race where your life was quite literally in danger.

It is difficult to describe running to the South Pole because it is full of contradictions. The landscape is beautiful and bleak at the same time. I felt sick and happy simultaneously. After crossing the finish line, my body began to shake uncontrollably with hypothermia. My fingers and toes felt numb from frostbite and later my eyes would be sore from snow blindness. I also required 3-4 litres of IV fluid. I promised myself never to return to the South Pole but only ten weeks later I found myself at the opposite end of the earth – the North Pole.

My decision to go the North Pole was largely fuelled by competitive instinct. Rumours had filtered through to me that another athlete was possibly planning a solo marathon attempt at the North Pole before anyone else could get there. I needed to take action fast and in secret if I wanted the coup of being the first marathoner at both Poles. The quickest route to the Pole could only be achieved through the assistance of Russians and they were willing to assist. In the end, it was a US-Russian partnership that would get me there.

The sun began to shine at the North Pole in late March, bringing twenty-four hours of daylight. I covertly travelled to Svalbard, an island off the coast of Norway, and waited for a Russian aircraft to arrive. The plan was for me to travel with a Russian construction crew who were building the North Pole base and once we had the base completed I would be taken by military helicopter to the exact geographic North Pole. My run would be recorded and independently witnessed for verification purposes and I would carry a Global Positioning System. I could only hope that my competitor would not arrive via Canada in the interim.

The North Pole area has different features than the South Pole. It is dominated by hillocks of ice, known as “bloody hillocks” when you attempt to traverse them! The real danger in running a marathon at the North Pole, particularly a largely unaided one, is that you are running above 12,000 feet of Arctic Ocean on a thin sheet of ice. There is an ever-present danger of falling through a ‘lead’ and then only having perhaps one to two minutes before perishing.

I expected better weather conditions at the North Pole compared to the South Pole, but unfortunately for me the wind picked up on the day of the run to 60km per hour. This sent wind chill temperatures below that which I experienced at the South Pole. Even my eyelashes stuck together and I had trouble seeing anything, but I was able to finish in 3 hours 48 minutes and eventually return home with only minor frostbite to my eyebrows and cheeks.

I have six more extreme ultra marathon races on six different continents over the remainder of this year. These races will occur in places such as the Sahara Desert, Death Valley, the Amazon and the Himalayan Mountains and will cover distances of up to 200 miles. I am doing these runs in aid of two deserving charities

1) A street children’s project in Calcutta
2) An animal sanctuary in the west of Ireland

Donations for the charities can be made to
Seven Continents A/C,
Bank of Ireland, Salthill,
Galway
Ireland.
A/C No. 45726438
Sort Code 90-38-40.

For more information, contact Richard Donovan at rdonovan@cea.ie

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