The 16th was a Sunday, so many people were taking it easy. I spent a bit of time exploring the station and surroundings.
The most notable occurence of the day saw a few folks taking it the opposite of easy: they ran a marathon! Winners of the Christams Day “Race Around the World”, they had planned to compete in McMurdo’s annual marathon, but the flight there was canceled. So the Contingency Marathon was held instead. Runners were Rickey (4:02:15), Marco (4:32:42), Christina (4:53:30), and Keith (6:16:04). There were also several half-marathon and other runners. However, I only know of Keck team members Jamie (half marathon winner: unofficialy 2:00:00) and Sarah (who felt so good after the half marathon that she ran 22miles—only one lap short of the full marathon). Congratulations to all the runners, especially those of you I’ve neglected to mention!
On a historical note, at least one other marathon has been run at the south pole. However this previous one was over ungroomed snow, with snowshoes, so the times are much longer. Christina also appears to be the first woman to ever complete a marathon at the south pole!
Anyway, enough words. Pictures:
-
- MAPO Plaque
-
- Fire gear only, plus me
-
- The “facilities” at MAPO. I never tried it
-
- Self-portrait in my Polie getup
-
- Display rack at destination alpha, with historical items
-
- Another display, international gifts
-
- My favourite: old pole markers. The geographic south pole is updated every year
-
- IceCube DOM (Digital Optical Module). There are now 79 strings of 60 of these each deployed over a cubic kilometer of ice
-
- Station balcony. With flags (and awesome all-points-north icon atop pole)
-
- From the balcony: the dark sector
-
- From the balcony: cargo storage area
-
- From the balcony: the commute (Grant’s, I think)
-
- In the galley window: bulbs being sprouted for the greenhouse
-
- Moving on to destination zulu (the mid/back door): more cargo
-
- One of the station wings, and a collection of boxes
-
- All of the cargo/summercamp area with one of the ever-present always-moving south pole snow piles
-
- I go back to the balcony to check on the marathon: here’s the aid station
-
- A pair of runners depart the station (Sarah in the pink hat)
-
- Running there-back laps, they encounter Rickey in the lead
-
- Christina gets some moral support, with a friend running along
-
- The ceremonial pole, passed on the way from the aid station to finish line
-
- One more of the ceremonial pole (photographs are its purpose, after all)
-
- Geographic pole/finish line
-
- With a long head start, and not having just run a marathon, I manage to get there before Rickey finishes
-
- Rickey crossing the line
-
- He’s pretty frosty aferwards, and presumably pretty exhausted too
-
- But he sure seems happy, and he earned it
-
- Keith passes the aid station on his way to the finish (he started early because he had work in the afternoon)
-
- My battery died, thanks to Don I have Marco’s finish
-
- With a charged battery, I make it back out to see Christina celebrating, and posing for pictures
-
- And Marco is back out for support
-
- Marco, Rickey, and Christina celebrate an exceptional afternoon
Leave a Reply