Race Day!
Today is the annual South Pole marathon. Each year, a running enthusiast volunteers to put on the event, usually the first Sunday in January when the weather is warmest, and there are no scheduled flights. This year, one of the winter-overs, Zach, took charge. Through the efforts of him and then many, many volunteers, this marathon stood out as a really wonderful and well put-together event!
In some sense, the South Pole marathon being low-key and kludgey fits really nicely into the spirit of the station… but I don’t think anything is lost with a bit more planning and throughput. We were even given stickers and all runners get a medal made right here at the station (pics to come).
Disclaimer: *There were people on snowmobiles zipping around and taking pictures, so I don’t have any to share here, but once they are uploaded to the common drive, I will try to get some to share.*
I woke up at 06:30 to eat some breakfast and relax before the race sign-in. 8am was the sign-in… Since I had only been at Pole for 1 full day, I hadn’t signed up yet, and was unsure about how I would fare, or whether I would even run it. But I signed up for the Half Marathon, thinking that at the very least I could walk that in a reasonable time.
I donned my outdoor running gear; not really that much as it turns out, since the weather is so warm (-9F, with a slight windchill of -25F), just a wool long sleeve shirt and my puffer jacket, balaclava, hat, gloves, and goggles. My warm running pants are super warm, then I just have wool socks and trail shoes. In fact my pants are a little too warm for this weather!
As 09:00 approached, we made our way out to the ceremonial pole which acts as all race starts and ends at the South Pole. The field of runners was quite large, almost 20 people, with maybe 8 registered for the full marathon. Perhaps I’m a little jaded, but I was disappointed to not be running the full — not that there would have been a chance in hell I could’ve ran the entire thing.
09:00 sharp we lined up at the starting line. I sought a place in the back of the pack since I figured I would be running slow compared to everyone who was already acclimated… “3-2-1-GO!”. The race was underway! The early parts of the race went through some pretty thick snow but once we got the more well groomed sections, I began to pick up speed.
Trying not to overdo it, I ran what I thought was extremely slow… I found myself at the front of the pack within a few minutes of the start. Unfortunately I wasn’t very familiar with the course, so I had to keep turning back and asking the group where to go. After a while, some of the marathoners formed a group and I decided to stick with them. I was surprised by how well my cardio was holding up with only 1 day of acclimation and no training.
The first out and back returning to the aid station was at about mile 4. By this time I was really hot and sweaty, so my goggles had gotten sweaty and then frozen up. I could hardly see so I decided to stop in and thaw them out and try to dry them off. The next leg was down and back the ski-way; about 5 or 6 miles round trip. I had lost a few places but was still in the lead of the half marathon runners.
Running down the runway (away from the station) is the easy part. The wind generally blows down the runway, so on the way down it’s at your back. I stripped off my jacket in hopes that I wouldn’t sweat too much before turning around. I passed a few people going down the runway, but there was a marathoner ahead that I would never be able to catch – and she would go on to win the marathon outright with a time of 4:33.
On the way back the wind is in your face. I had sweat into my goggles again while running with the wind, and this immediately froze up on the way back. Again I was basically running blind. I put my coat back on, zipped it up and kept trucking. The balaclava was also frozen solid quickly, which actually provides a nice wind-break for your neck. My warm pants had also caused me to sweat quite a bit, so my pants started to freeze on the way back as well. Luckily they didn’t freeze solid, and I could still run back to the aid station to clear my goggles and get some water.
It was now around mile 9, and I was in 3rd place overall. Still would never catch the first place runner, but wasn’t sure how much time there was between me and the next half marathoner. Most of the next 4 miles was a pretty rough slog. I kept assuming people would blow by me because I felt like I was barely moving and my IT band starting hurting pretty badly… I knew I had to win, though… I would never hear the end of it if I got 2nd place again! (I always get 2nd place…. and I guess in some ways 1st place in the half is equivalent to 2nd place in the full… but whatever).
By the time I came into the finish, I was so happy to be done. I think I had the same feeling when I ran the full 2 years ago… but at least I really was done! 2:20 minutes and first place in the half marathon! I was pretty happy about that, given my 1 day at Pole, and I could even still make brunch!
Post Race Day:
After the race, and after brunch (obvi), I went out to the telescope and got a really thorough rundown of the drive system. Basically an explanation of how we control the movements of the telescope, from the motors, to the bearings and gears, to the amplifiers and motor controllers. I learned how to replace a motor amplifier, in case one blows up on us during the winter… an all too common occurrence for SPT.
There was also a nice awards ceremony in the Galley after dinner and we were awarded medals for running. A really nice, unexpected touch!
Photos to come!
Allen's South Pole Winter-Over 2020 (+) 