McMurdo Day 48: Half Marathon

The McMurdo Marathon was last Sunday! I skied the half.

It was awesome!! What a fun new experience.

We all loaded in Ivan the Terra Bus early Sunday morning and rode out onto the ice shelf, on the road to Willy Airfield. Ivan the Terra Bus is great.... but very, very, painfully slow. And also really bumpy. I could have strolled faster than Ivan drove.

Here is the glorious Ivan the Terra Bus.

After the bumpy ride, everyone had to pee and lined up to use the """bathroom""", i.e. a 5 gallon bucket in a small tent. We lined up at the starting line and got ready to go. The race was on the snow road out to Pheonix Airfield, 6.5 miles out and 6.5 miles back. The half marathon was one out-and-back trip, and the marathon was two.

The race started with a blast from the horn of Ivan the Terra Bus. The bikers took off, followed by the skiers and runners.

Whee! I am almost to the first aid station.

I have never been in a race before, so this was a totally new experience for me. Not to mention, I only started skiing a month ago. But I wanted to try something new and I stuck with it for the whole 13.1 miles!

I gratefully accepted a cup of water.

There was an aid station at the halfway point, and another at Pheonix Airfield (the turn-around). The volunteers were amazing, playing music and offering water and snacks. There was also a snowmobile riding up and down the road to offer assistance if anyone needed it. Someone was on the back of the snowmobile playing the Jurassic Park theme on a trumpet. It was very motivating.