Antarctic Marathon / Triathlon

1/7/18

Today was the day of the big McMurdo Marathon. The marathon covers 26.2 miles on the Ross Ice Shelf. In previous years when we did it, the race was 13.1 miles out and then 13.1 back. This year is was 4 lengths of 6.55 miles. Interestingly the race is run entirely over the water, though of course we are 10’s of feet above the water on the snow and ice off the ross ice shelf. Our first year down here, I skate skied the full marathon and Elisha ran the ½. Our next year we both ran the full. This year Elisha ran the ½ marathon again, and I opted for the 1^st ever full triathlon, similar to what I did at summit station. So my plan was to bike a ½ marathon, then skate ski a ¼ marathon and run the last ¼. Since we were doing 4 lengths, I stored my skis at the start to pick up after the biking and then biked my shoes over to the turn around point. I was a beautiful day for the marathon. Sunny, mild wind, and temps between 28 and 34 depending on what weather station you were reading (colder on the ice shelf than in town)

I ended up winning the full triathlon! Mostly b/c I was the only one that did it. My time was 2 hrs 51 mins, and 51 seconds*  But note the asterisk. I ended up racing a bit over 30 miles! On the first length, I took a commanding lead over the other 10 or so cyclists. When I got to the turn around point, (A giant Kress vehicle with an aid station, music, bbq, couch, and more), I started to turn around, but they told me ‘know this isn’t the turnaround, keep going!” So I kept going. Nearly 3 miles later, a truck caught up to me, flagged me down, and said they had made a mistake, that indeed the Kress was the turnaround point. So I immediately went from 1^st to last. 2 other cyclists had also gone past the turnaround, but as they were behind me, the truck caught them first. Although I was doing the whole marathon, I still wanted to win the ½ marathon cycle. So I pushed really hard to try to catch everyone.  Going back was into the wind, and the 2 guys immediately in front of me were teaming up to draft, so I had a really hard time reeling them in. I finally caught them, and the one carp, jesse, dropped off the back. Along the way, we slowly passed all the other cyclists. For the last 4 miles, I took the lead, and the other guy wouldn’t take his turn pulling his weight in the front in the wind. I kept telling him to, but he wouldn’t. He probably figured I was doing the full bike like him and that he was trying to save his energy or the 2^nd half I guess. In the end, at the last mile, I sprinted ahead of him and beat him by about 10 seconds. (with a 1/2+ marathon time of 1:06:43) I of course then transitioned to the ski. The ski was amazing. Wind to my back, perfectly groomed, so it was easy and flew by, despite experiencing some cramping from switching from the pedaling motion to skate skiing. When I got to the turnaround point again, I joked if I should keep going. I had a lot of trouble untying my ski boots b/c I was really cramping bad. Since I was in no rush, I sat down in the hammock tied to the Kress for a few minutes, and chugged to 2 Coors lights that cargo Blake gave me, and then headed on my way to finish it off with the run. I was still feeling lots of cramps in my leg, so I took it slow and settled into a 8:45 min/mile pace.

Elisha and I finished in time to make it just before brunch ended. We then went to hut 10 to enjoy the free massage that we earned from doing the marathon. The rest of the day we laid low, watching some movies and trip planning.

1/8

Being sore from the race, we skipped insanity with Mitch, and instead hiked the loop around ob hill. Today was perhaps the most beautiful day we’ve had yet. No wind and bright sun, so that being outside and working in a t-shirt, you’d still develop a bit of a sweat. The high today was 37F, the highest we’ve had all year.

1/9

Snowed really hard all day with little wind, which was very pretty. It's funny b/c you can tell who ran the marathon. If you see someone struggling to go downstairs or walking funny, you know they ran it

the lead runners of the marathon...haha...actually a picture from a previous year we wer here.

About 1/2 mile out: The guy trying to pass me after drafting the whole time. I eventually broke ahead and beat him to the finish of the 1/2 marathon 

my bike parked when I switched to skis

random perso running to the glacier

Me in the far back, coming back to the turn around point after they had us go too far. 

random shots of the course

yep, a guy did it on a unicycle

elisha running the 1/2

every year deany skis it shirtless

erebus was really smoking

no idea, haha

the turn around aid station

offering essential hydration!

the kress turnaround aid station

down that honey!

times

Ivan the terrabus and the kiwi hagglund that brought the athletes to the ice edge

start of the race for the bikers (and the 1 triathlete). That's me on the far right in the lead.

the guy that tried drafting me the whole race. I got about a 400m lead on him right before the turn around so that he couldn't draft me, but then since they sent us past the turnaround, when we finally turned around, he was ahead of me, so I had to catch him and then he drafted off me again until i broke away at the last mile.

runners starting

Elisha

Elisha at an aid station

the kress turnaround station, which I biked past

me and mt discovery

Hopefully there will be more pics coming from the marathon. I waited and waited but haven't gotten some of the cool ones I was hoping for, so I'm just going to post it now instead.