Antarctica: March 5, 2008

Quick summary…details below

After months of anticipation and one of the worst cases of the nerves I've ever felt during my ten years of running, I finished my sixth continent in a time of 4:30, good enough for 5th place in the women's marathon on a notoriously slow course that included a glacier! Dana ran 2:10 in the half, good for 4th place and the best place so far in his newfound passion for the sport of running (of course, I had no influence on that!)

In the Running will travel to Australia in July to compete in the Gold Coast Marathon, where I will complete (fingers crossed!) the last leg of my quest to become the youngest person to run a marathon on all seven continents.

Please donate to the charities we are supporting (100% of your donation goes to charity) at www.intherunning.org/donate

Buenos Aires and Ushuaia

We began in Buenos Aires (5,305 miles from NYC, 34 degrees South), where we visited with Silvia Godoy Colombo, who was a foreign-exchange student with Dana's mother in Cleveland in 1966. We also visited with friend Lizzie Verney, who guided us to the city's hot restaurants and tango salons, thanks to her knowledge as a former resident. Buenos Aires seemed to have the "hip" cool of parts of New York. There is a funky café/bar/restaurant on every corner in certain parts of town, and there's a massive building boom occurring on the river. However, it was also a very incongruent place – I noticed the telltale signs of a developing country: overcrowded, under-maintained busses, crumbling sidewalks, etc., in amongst its chic and the modern aspirations. Bs.As. has done a very good job hiding its poverty, but I couldn't shake the feeling that it was there, lurking just out of sight.

From Buenos Aires, we traveled farther south to Ushuaia, Argentina, (6,617 miles from NYC, 54 degrees South) which has laid claim to being the southernmost city in the world. It's dramatically situated, on the Beagle Channel in Tierra del Fuego, in the foothills of the glaciers of Patagonia. In Ushuaia, we boarded the Lyubov Orlova, a Russian ice-strengthened ship built in Yugoslavia in 1972. The Orlova has spent her life in Arctic and Antarctic waters and provided a solid but not incredibly luxurious ride. We opted for the "cheap" cabin when we booked our trip, which meant we were basically at the waterline. Our non-opening porthole was submerged with every big wave. The Orlova sill carries USSR markings and is staffed by an entirely Russian crew, who fulfilled their stereotype with nautical sweaters, chain-smoking and terse statements. That being said, these were the exact type of people we wanted in charge of our lives on a trip to the bottom of the Earth! On Sunday, March 2nd, we threw off our docklines and made for Antarctica.

Antarctica

To reach Antarctica from South America by boat, you must cross the Drake Passage, 1,000km of open water that traverses the "furious 50s" and "screaming 60s," notorious for big wind and bigger waves, as there is no land at that level anywhere around the globe. Many passengers were seasick. The waves were quite large - enough to come up over the bow and shower the deck in spray. According to the crew, this crossing was a “2” on a scale of 1-10 in terms of how intense it could get.

We made land at King George Island, South Shetland Islands (7,123 miles from NY, 62 degrees South) and set out immediately the next morning to runthe marathonwhile we had a window of what is considered favorable weather for Antarctica- light drizzle, ~ 30 degrees, light wind, and foggy. During our time in Antarctica we lived on the Orlova and traveled to shore by zodiac. We departed the zodiacs and the 128 marathon runners immediately took off. King George Island is called the "Times Square" of Antarctica for its "development." Don't be fooled - development implies a hardy hut built to withstand the elements. During the run, we transited through the Chilean, Russian, Uruguayan and Chinese bases. The race is hotly anticipated by the research scientists in Antarctica because 1) It's pretty desolate andboring living primitively on an Antarctic research base; 2) Many of them hadn't seen women in about six months; and 3) We brought them gifts of liquor and chocolate!

The terrain was the most difficult aspect of the course - thick mud, rock, streams and ice. The most notorious part of the course is "the glacier" – a 1km long ascent at a 17% grade which you run twice. After barely surviving the first round I was dreading the rematch. This year the glacier was slicker than ever and almost everyone bit it a few times on the descent. I am proud to say I made it all the way down the ice, but the second I reached the mud at the bottom, tripped on a rock and did a face plant. I won't be winning any Guinness Book points for style. The scientists call the area where we were on the Antarctic Peninsula "the Banana Belt," as temperatures rarely drop to the -30 degrees F found in the interior. Climate change has had its impact as well. While we were in Antarctica, the Wilkins Ice Shelf (approximately the size of Connecticut) collapsed. In the Running's cause for Antarctica is the environment and organization is the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition: http://www.intherunning.org/antarctica.html. Please donate. The race went by fairly quickly with so much concentration devoted to the terrain. With such a small crowd, I spent many miles running in solitude, appreciating the beauty and hoping I was still in course!