.
RUNNING – BRAVE!
In the TRUE NORTH STRONG AND FREE
The Polar Bear Marathon – a running
challenge for any class of runner.
November
22, 2014 at 8:00 a.m. 14 runners gathered in front of Gypsy’s Café in
Churchill, Manitoba. After a prayer and ‘Oh Canada’ the
bundled-up-multi-layered runners were off into the east – watching the fiery
red sun slowly climb up from the distant horizon. I had planned to run the
HALF, however opted to support and crew a few struggling runners instead. By 8:30 the runners were silhouetted in the
big red rising sun for a short and cold Saturday.
This was
the third Polar Bear Marathon in Churchill.
Five runners decided to attempt the Ultra Marathon of 50 km in the minus
26⁰
Celsius temperature with fairly strong winds. The route was simple – not too
many choices to run this kind of distance in Churchill. Running along a paved
road of about 6.5 km to the airport turnoff, where the road (fairly wide) turns
into a gravel, icy road. It meanders gently to the right, then a bit up, and
down – following the coastline of the Hudson Bay. What a gorgeous view of the
rough ice on the Hudson Bay. Many small and big snow covered rocks (big enough
for a Polar Bear to hide behind) were the sights on both sides of the road. In
addition there were many small evergreen trees – very one sided – only branches
on the south side. The ‘True North Strong’ arctic winds have stripped the trees
on one side, so they look like my running friend from San Diego calls them,
Charlie Brown trees. My wife says the trees could be Christmas trees for half
price, plus put them into the corner in your living room for Christmas.
Coming
back to running – each runner was assigned to a vehicle escorting them with the
energy food, drink and fruit, as well as a bear watcher with a gun, to protect
the runners from Polar Bears. The road was very icy and slick; in fact one
runner used running shoes with spikes. There was a bear only about 400 meters
from us. There were 5 other bears still lingering around the coast on Cape
Churchill near the town. The five Ultra runners were heading for the Study
Centre one way (turn around point of 23.5 km) and then back to Churchill. In
the town Churchill these runners had to make two larger laps of 3 km around the
blocks to complete the 50 km. Four of the five ultra-runners finished with
“mild” frost bite on their faces. Mild is relative in this case, because each one
of them was more proud of their frost injuries than the medal. They all had
shiny faces – layered with ointment as they boarded the plane.
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posted by Albert Martens at 6:37 PM
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