‍GEOGRAPHIC NORTH POLE - July 17, 2026 - Runbuk Inc today announced the results of the 19th NorthPole Marathon®, held on drifting Arctic sea ice at the very top of the world and long billed as the World's Coolest Marathon®.

The expedition group reached the Geographic North Pole on July 16 aboardthe French polar icebreaker Le Commandant Charcot. On arrival, runnersfound the Pole in constant motion, with large areas of open water surroundingthe ice - a vivid reminder that this is a race staged on a living, shiftingocean surface.

The 19th edition started at 8:00 a.m. CEST / 6:00 a.m. UTC on July 17 inan air temperature of 0°C and a wind chill of −5°C. Extreme cold was not thestory this year; instead, exceptionally challenging underfoot terrain slowedevery runner's pace.

Men's champion Shengxian Wang of China crossed the line first in 3:52:22. Wang holds aroad-marathon personal best of 2 hours 34 minutes - meaning the Arctic coursecost him roughly 50 percent over his usual time, a gap felt across the entirefield.

Rikke Dam of Denmark took the women's title in 6:54:02. Dam and her husband, who ran theAntarctic Ice Marathon together last December, completed the North PoleMarathon® side by side to set a new Guinness World Record for the fastestmarathon by a married couple, with a combined time of 12:23:29 (record subjectto confirmation by Guinness World Records).

The Dam family's feats did not end there. Their son, Felix Dam, aged14, finished the marathon in 6:45:53 and pressed on for a further 8 km tocomplete a 50 km ultramarathon at the North Pole in 8:21:36 - an extraordinaryachievement for an athlete so young.

Christian Haigh also doubled up, completing the marathon and continuing on to finish the50 km distance in 5:54:05.

Australia's Katie Sarah finished as women's runner-up in 6:56:41. A remarkable all-round adventurer,Sarah has summited the highest peak on all seven continents and skied the LastDegree to the South Pole; the North Pole Marathon® completed her"7+2" - the Seven Summits plus both Poles.

"Every North Pole Marathon is different, and this year the icereminded us who is in charge," said Director of Runbuk Oliver Wang."Conditions weren't the coldest we've ever seen, but the terrain and theconstant drift made this one of the most demanding editions yet - and, wethink, the coolest."

Although this is not the world's coldest marathon, it is unquestionablythe World's Coolest Marathon®. Competitors run on a floating ice floe over theArctic Ocean. The organizers measure and mark the course only hours before thestart - this year a loop of 1,055 meters, run 40 times to make up the fullmarathon distance - and once the race is over, the course simply disappearswith the ice.

The setting produced one of the event's signature moments. During therace, the floe carried the runners from 42° West to 72° West - a full 30degrees of longitude, equivalent to the east–west span from Portugal to Greece.Yet because they were circling so close to the North Pole, where all meridiansconverge, the actual distance drifted was only about 3 kilometers.

Full results are available on the official website, npmarathon.com.

The 2027 North Pole Marathon® is scheduled for July 27 to August8, 2027.

Media contact: Runbuk Inc - info@runbuk.com

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