To the ends of the Earth

An earlier article on Journeyfish.com took a look at a handful of the cities that host a marathon in 2010. Of course, this list was not exhaustive, and missed out many of the great cities that will hold these races. Of course a marathon does not have to be run in a city. Today happened to see the 7th running of of of the more remarkable races that has ever been run.

The North Pole marathon is exactly that. A marathon at the North Pole. Ten times in a circle around the geographic North Pole to make up the 26.2 mile distance to be precise. Run on ice, this is surely one of the most extreme running events ever devised. This is terrain that is treacherous and hard to traverse at the best of times, and here is a competitive race being run across it.

In sharp contrast to the hordes that compete every year in London Marathon, just 26 hardy souls took part in this year’s North Pole Marathon. The winning time for the Men’s category was 5 hours and 58 seconds recorded by Dutchman Joep Rozendale. This is in comparison to the world record set by Ethiopia’s legendary Haile Gebrselassie in the Berlin Marathon of 2008 of2 hours, 3 minutes and 59 seconds. Proof, if any were needed, that a mild late September day in Berlin makes for much more favourable running conditions than the Arctic Circle.

The Arctic remains one of the worlds least visited regions. Increasingly however intrepid travellers are seeking ways of seeing the fragile beauty of this ice bound wilderness. Figures from the UN show that now over one and a half million tourists visit the Arctic every year. There are some fears that this could pose a danger to the environment of the polar regions, but there are a number of organisations working to promote sustainable tourism in the Arctic.