The North Pole Marathon 2013

ThisRegard

Was going to add this into the Marathon De Sables thread but I think it deserves its own one.

Galway man Gary Thornton has just won this marathon.



http://www.facebook.com/npmarathon
http://www.npmarathon.com/

And while reading the history of this I see that another Irish man, Thomas McGuire, currently holds the record since 2007, in fact the Irish seem to have a good history in it.

Peckham

Talk about adjusting your pace to match the conditions :eek:

According to the Irish Times:

Mr Thornton ran the marathon in 3 hours 49 minutes 29 seconds, compared to a 2 hours 17 minutes he took to run a qualifier race in Rotterdam last April for the London Olympics.

Krusty_Clown

ThisRegard wrote: »

And while reading the history of this I see that another Irish man, Thomas McGuire, currently holds the record since 2007, in fact the Irish seem to have a good history in it.

It's organized by an Irish guy (Richard Donovan, he of Ultra Running Ireland fame), which explains some of the Irish influence. He also organizes the Antarctic marathon and a few others.

Enduro

Well done to Gary! Sounds like conditions were pretty tough this year. It just goes to show what a tough MOFO Thomas McGuire is, still holding the race record (as well as the Irish 100km, 100 mile, and 24 hour records )

Abhainn

Sounds really tough.
Surprisingly the papers describe Gary Thornton as a "novice".

Not sure I could afford the 10900 bob race registration fee anytime soon.

nerraw1111

Nice video of it here

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/video/2013/apr/11/the-coldest-race-in-the-world-video

mr.wiggle

Abhainn wrote: »

Sounds really tough.
Surprisingly the papers describe Gary Thornton as a "novice".

Not sure I could afford the 10900 bob race registration fee anytime soon.

But how much of the fee goes to charity!?

/gets coat and leaves quietly

Squeaker

How much does it cost to actually get to the North Pole?:rolleyes:

triple-M

Squeaker wrote: »

How much does it cost to actually get to the North Pole?:rolleyes:

and how do you actually get there?

Squeaker

Having researched this, a camp is built on the ice @ north pole by Russian paratroopers. To access this camp, you must first reach Spitzbergen (an island off Norway) and from there, access to "Camp Barneo" is very much at the discretion of the Russians. I may be wrong, but, the least expensive way to get to the North Pole is via the marathon... I can safely say, 20k won't get you there,unless my homework is not up to standard

Krusty_Clown

You could ask the race organizers. I'm sure they'd happy to tell you how much it will set you back.

Squeaker

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

You could ask the race organizers. I'm sure they'd happy to tell you how much it will set you back.

That was my point! The organiser appears up front... I was drawing a comparison... someone mentioned charity (and hid) but, to travel to the North Pole? My maths leads to way over 25 k just to get there... While entering North Pole Marathon costs substantially less. Goodness knows any "charity race" in Ireland usually means substantial profit for some "unscrupulous" organiser. Plus loads of free advertisement for these races, which, IMO, are sucking the life blood out of road racing in Ireland. Am I wrong? Was the comment 're charity legit...or some smart ass stirring the $hit?

Krusty_Clown

Smart ass, poking fun. So, did you ever find out how much it would cost?