Spring
Amidst the excitement of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, a historic event took place far from the bustling city. On July 30th, 2024, a French icebreaker named after Commander Charcot, a celebrated captain of French polar expeditions and a 1900 Paris Olympic Games Silver Medalist, transported a group of international marathon runners to the geographic North Pole.
This was the second-ever Summer Edition of the legendary NorthPole Marathon, organized by Runbuk. The marathon began at 8:15 am Paris time on July 31st, on a floating ice floe approximately 2 meters (6.6 ft) thick, above the 4,261-meter (13,980 ft) deep Arctic Ocean.
For the safety of the participants, polar bear guards were stationed around the marathon course, and runners were required to wear life vests throughout the 42.195 km (26.2 miles) race. The course, set up over a 352-meter loop, required marathoners to run around the world 120 times to complete the distance. The temperature was -1°C (30°F), but with the windchill, it felt like -9°C (16°F). The underfoot terrain was very challenging, with runners describing it as akin to running on sand.
The race was timed both manually and by a computer timing system, marking the first use of such technology for a complete marathon at theNorth Pole.
William Hafferty (USA) led the men’s field from the start, followed closely by Duane Wesemann (USA) and Mauritz Jansen van Rensburg (SouthAfrica). Hafferty finished first with a time of 3 hours, 14 minutes, and 49seconds, setting a new world record for the North Pole Marathon by shaving off more than 21 minutes from the previous record. Wesemann and Jansen van Rensburg also surpassed the previous record with times of 3 hours, 18 minutes, and 11seconds, and 3 hours, 34 minutes, and 11 seconds, respectively.
Katherine Kowalchek (USA) led most of the women’s race, withKatherine Kennedy (USA) close behind, often separated by just 20 seconds. They crossed the finish line hand in hand at 5 hours, 36 minutes, and 4 seconds (gun time). However, the net time (chip time) for Katherine Kowalchek was 5:36:00 so she got the women’s title, while Katherine Kennedy got the 2nd placewith a net time was 5:36:03, just 3 seconds slower. Hong Zhang (China) secured third place with a time of 6 hours, 4 minutes, and 39 seconds.
Susan Ragon (USA) finished the marathon in 8 hours 58 minutes and 33 seconds, becoming the oldest woman to complete the North Pole Marathon at 73 years 10 months 20 days young.
Full results are available on the official website of the NorthPole Marathon at www.npmarathon.com.
After the 2024 North Pole Marathon, six runners inducted into the club, having run a marathon on each of the continent and at the North PoleMarathon, and they are Derek Stefureac, Evan Lai, Lawrence Bradley, Daqing Mao,Patrick Joyce, and Susan Ragon. The Marathon Grand Slam Club®️, owned and managed by Runbuk, comprising 159 members, including 125 men and 34 women as of today.
Elaine Du from Canada ran the full marathon distance of the 2024 North Pole Marathon. Having run 7 half marathons on 7 continents in the 2023 World Marathon Challenge®️, she earned her place in the club in the half marathon category, hoping to become a full member of the marathon category in 2 years.
The next Summer North Pole Marathon is scheduled for July 14th, 2025. For more details about the event, please visit www.npmarathon.com.
Contact:
Oliver Wang
Race Organizer
Email: ow@npmarathon.com
