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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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