Cool Runnings

At the Antarctic Ice Marathon extreme sports athletes from various parts of the world ran 42 kilometers over the pack ice at the South Pole – at minus 20-degree-Celsius temperatures and in heavy snow storms. Just something for softies, Christian Schiester thought. He chose the 100 kilometer Ultra Race alternative. And reached the finish in just under 20 hours.

“I’ve never experienced anything that bad before,” said Christian Schiester, 40, as he hauled himself across the Antarctic 100k Ultra Race’s finish line after 19 hours and 58 minutes, “Without a doubt, that was the longest day of my life.” Not that Schiester doesn’t know about long days: When he was taking part in the Marathon des Sables, which took him 243 kilometers through the desert in 2003, time probably also seemed to stand still. And when he did the Jungle Marathon in 2006, had to say good-bye to the skin from the soles of his feet, and when every step into the green hell was agony, he probably also wanted to press the fast-forward button of time. We can assume then that the pre-Christmas contest in the South Pole was of the kind of crispness that even jolted the physical and emotional boundaries of people like Christian Schiester.

20 participants in waiting

Ten days of agonizing waiting for good weather were the preamble to the beginning of the race. Good weather, which in this case means meteorological conditions that wouldn’t automatically result in the total elimination of the entire field of participants. Schiester spent his time the way extreme sports athletes do: “From sheer boredom I ran up and down the stairs in my hotel 31 times – eight flights each time.”

Snow storm, -20 degree Celsius and bare ice

On December 20 at 11 am local time the starting gun finally went off. As planned, shortly after the starting line, Schiester accidentally lost the mandatory survival kit that weighed 13.5 kilos – “It only would have slowed me down …” – and in his special suit designed by NASA trotted towards the dead zone. After two hours it was a credit to its name. What came was “the mother of all snow storms, with powerful gusts of wind. You couldn’t see a thing; slippery ice was interspersed with deep chasms. Without special equipment I would have been lost in the proverbial sense.”

From 60 cigarettes per day to 60 kilometers of daily running

For Schiester part of the special equipment, aside from his NASA insulated suit, were micro-chipped socks that send out warning signals when there’s danger of freezing. He also had specifically designed running shoes with a special isolating weave, and 14-millimeter spikes on the sole, and energy bars, which were edible at minus 60-degree-Celsius temperatures. The most important part of his special equipment, however, was his iron will: “You can achieve anything if you put your mind to it,” Schiester believes. This is also inspiring for anyone who’s not quite as ambitious as Schiester. His sporting career didn’t begin until 16 years ago – as a chain smoker, weighing 100 kilos, who had to give up five kilometers into in his first fun run.