A Minnesota man is getting ready to take off and run a very cool marathon in the North Pole.
Longtime Wayzata resident 61 year old Shawn O'Grady, is set to compete in the North Pole Marathon on July 14, a 26-mile race on shifting ice floes in temperatures hovering around 10 degrees Fahrenheit.
O'Grady says it's small races like these that first drew him to Marathons.
"I think there are 70 people who are going to run either the marathon or the half marathon," he says. "I think it's like 50 are marathoners, 20 half marathoners, so it'll be a small crew. And it's a small track that you will have to do multiple times. But I just think the experience of being on the pole, it really, I think it's going to be amazing."
O'Grady has completed in 20 marathons since 1997, and he says this one will mark his final But this one is grueling, traveling the traditional 26-miles completely on shifting ice floes during the short Arctic summer.
O'Grady says he's taking a unique approach to training. And the running gear is not typical of a regular marathon, to say the least.
"There's some very unique shoes that basically have a shoe that's inside of a zip up latex waterproof outer sock that kind of goes up over your ankles," explains O'Grady. "I've trained in a pair of those in case the snow level is high enough."
Hats, face masks, goggles, three layers of clothing including base layers and windbreakers, glove liners, gloves, handwarmers, thick socks, sock liners, trail shoes and yes, toe warmers. Phew. You're dragging much more weight - on very slick terrain sometimes in snow - making it much more energy-sapping than other races.
According to O'Grady, decades of training in Minnesota's subzero winters have prepared him for the Arctic's harsh - even in July - conditions.
The itinerary just to get to the area is grueling. Runners will arrive in Longyearbyn, an archipelago in the far north of Norway - the world's northernmost settlement with a population over 1,000. That's where they depart by sea for 90 degrees north over the next few days.
Then runners hit the ice on July 14. The price to participate is just as steep as the latitude. Depending on what type of room you pick on the ship, which is a "luxurious, eco-friendly French icebreaker," start at almost $45,000 EUR, or over $52,000 U.S. dollars.
The ship then takes about a week, navigating the ice and then returns to Longyearbyen.