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British soldier Jordan Wylie completes marathon after North Pole run was cancelled

Any one of us would be forgiven for re-thinking plans to run an Arctic marathon in the face of a global pandemic.

In fact, anyone would be forgiven for re-thinking plans to run an Arctic marathon full stop.

But when his plans to tackle a 26.2 mile race across the North Pole were halted by the coronavirus outbreak, Jordan Wylie found an alternative.

Last weekend, and a little closer to home, in Poole, he completed a world-first by running a marathon inside a cryotherapy chamber simulating temperatures as low as 60 degrees below freezing.

It comes after Jordan completed marathons in three of the most dangerous countries in the world – Somarlia, Iraq and Afghanistan – in 2018 as part of the Running Dangerously project.

Now he is looking to repeat the feat in his ‘Polar Edition’ of the challenge. Already he has completed marathons in Siberia, the Yukon and Iceland, and now he can add a cryotherapy chamber in Poole to that list.

The CryoAction chamber, housed at CryoLabs Poole, can reach sub-zero temperatures of -160 degrees, but was set between -30 to -60 degrees to match the real life Arctic and Siberian conditions Jordan would have faced during his four-hour run.

The ex-soldier turned extreme adventurer experienced early onset of frostnip - the stage before frostbite begins - for the first time in his life during latest marathon and says it was in many ways uncharted territory.

“This is the first time anything like this has been attempted,” he said. “I am used to running in sub-zero temperatures, and have done it three times before, but this was an entirely new experience.

“I have been training hard for this latest marathon, so I’m glad that the CryoLabs team have been able to help us add to the £1 million I’ve raised through events like this.”

The CryoAction chamber is usually used by sports stars, including Andy Murray, Gareth Bale and many Premier League football teams, to deliver increased gains in performance, speed up injury recovery times, reduce inflammation and enable better sleep quality and increased energy levels.

For Jordan’s marathon, the chamber was kitted out with a treadmill as he completed the task in isolation.

Ian Watson, director at CryoLabs, said: “After hearing about the problems Jordan has had trying to complete his series of Arctic marathons I knew we could help.

“Although we have never done a marathon before we have used the cryotherapy chamber for TV production crews to test their camera equipment in Arctic conditions before travelling to the North Pole. We set the temperature of our chamber to -30C and kept a close eye on Jordan as he completed the 26.2 mile run.”

(03/24/2020) Views: 1,430 ⚡AMP
by Elliott Binks

The North Pole Marathon has been cancelled

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and related official information just issued by the Norwegian Government and Norwegian Civil Aviation Authority, the FWD North Pole Marathon is forced to defer the next race to 2021.

All participants have been notified. Although the logistics for the North Pole have been fully prepared, and an operational ice camp can be established on the Arctic Ocean, it is unfortunate that Svalbard - the departure point for North Pole expeditions - will effectively be shut down in April: North Pole events can only be scheduled for April due to parameters for safe ice conditions.

Instead, we will now have to look forward to welcoming runners to this special location, on the top of the world, next year. In the meantime, we wish that everybody can stay fit and healthy during this global pandemic.

(03/18/2020) Views: 1,456 ⚡AMP

18-year-old Chinese girl was the youngest to finish the North Pole Marathon

Xing Jiawen spent 11 hours and 55 minutes running the World's coolest Marathon in the North Pole with a temperature of minus 35 degrees centigrade (-31F).  According to the marathon's website, competitors are required to run ten laps of a specially created track, on top of a huge piece of floating ice with a thickness of 1.8 to 3.6 meters. “Although it sounds hard, I believe that I can make it,” Xing said before the race. She added that the only way she could fail was if she got injured during the race; otherwise, she would make every effort to complete it. Although Xing and her father had prepared themselves for the race, the harsh conditions of the North Pole were beyond their expectations. Shortly after the race began, Xing's whole foot got lodged in an ice cave. She was terrified, but quickly managed to move forward. Xing can now see how the North Pole Marathon has changed her, and understands what her teacher once said, “As for exploring new things, there may not be a correct answer even if you work hard enough, and sometimes, we do it not even for one.” (05/30/2018) Views: 1,853 ⚡AMP

He trained in an industrial freezer with a temperature of -30 degrees For North Pole Marathon

After months of rigorous training, Filipino triathlete and cancer survivor Luisito "Louie" Sangalang II said he is now ready to place the country's flag at the North Pole as he joins the FWD North Pole Marathon this April. During the send-off party for Sangalang last Thursday, March 22, in Taguig, he shared his experiences during his training with triathlon coach Ani De Leon-Brown and mountaineer Romy Garduce. The Filipino flag-bearer said he ran various local marathons to keep his body in shape. To prepare for the cold weather in the Arctic region, he trained inside an industrial freezer with a temperature of negative 30 degrees Centigrade, mimicking the temperature at the North Pole. (03/26/2018) Views: 2,232 ⚡AMP

After Running a Marathon on Seven Continents...they still had one more to do

With seven marathons on seven continents in seven years already behind them, Stephen and Eleanor Pienaar are ready to become the first South Africans to compete in the North Pole Marathon. They started training for the Marathon which takes place on moving sea ice and considered one of the toughest marathons in the world, in September last year. “We will be running on sea ice, which will be more extreme than the Antarctic Ice Marathon,” says Eleanor. “Russian soldiers will parachute out of a plane and secure the perimeter to make sure no polar bears wander onto the course. We will be running a four-kilometre lap 10 times. We have to be in a contained area because of the polar bears and the sea ice, that can crack underfoot. It will be completely different to the Antarctic Ice Marathon. We will be running in temperatures of minus 40 to 30 degrees.” The North Pole Marathon will be run on April 9 this year, they will be starting their trek to the North Pole on April 1. (02/13/2018) Views: 2,035 ⚡AMP
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