Antarctica Marathon – Afterglow and Aftermath

The next minutes after the race were the worst. I had to hobble to where our clothes were and somehow change out of the shoes and put some more layers on before going inside one of the huts where we could get hot coffee and tea. Every effort was a stretch and not feeling my fingers made it almost impossible to try to pack my gear and load it up in the duffel bag as well as putting on socks and rubber boots.

I hobbled back to the but and climbed the stairs and took off the boots before going inside. There I saw William who had finished half marathon in his wheelchair through the mud as well as Chris (John’s brother with special needs) who were both being treated. Though I thought I felt fine, when John asked me how I was doing, he immediately called the doctor over as I could not really speak.

She said I had mild hypothermia and asked me to sit down. She then helped out of most of my wet clothes and helped me put on some dry layers. All of this was an effort and I could not have done it myself. After feeling a little better and drinking some tea, I wandered over to the other room to get some more soup where I saw Mike again. Somehow he had GSM coverage which we figured out came from the Chilean base through satellite to Chile. I was able to dial home and talk to Linda and tell her that I made it! I know my words and sentences sounded strange and it was like I was drunk, but I was happy to make that call and I am sure she was relieved that I had not fallen into a crevasse or gotten frozen.

The way home

The next hardest part was bundling up for the long Zodiac ride back to the ship. We were all shivering as we hit the roughest waves we had seen yet. But we made it back and after getting off our boots, made it back to our rooms for the best hot shower one could imagine. During a very lively dinner, everyone was excited to be finished and the pitch of talking was at a high level.

I kept thinking how happy I was! If I could do this, I could do anything!

My final time was around 6:06 which was in the top third of these runners, may of them elites. Most peoples times were 1:00 to 1:45 worse than their average or best time, so for me, this was equivalent to a 4:30 run on normal flat surface which was great.

As we all nursed our wounds, we had a great hearty dinner of carved meat and potatoes and many of the people were now drinking heavily.

We were going to be able to sleep in until 7:30 with breakfast at 8:00. Whoo hoo!