2016
Spring
Summer
Edition
Shilpa Abbitt
Shilpa has run a marathon in all 50 US states and is working on running a marathon on all 7 continents and at the North Pole. An Oil and Gas evaluation engineer, she started running marathons in 2006 and has run 94 marathons in total to date. Born in India, and now living in Oklahoma, Shilpa lost her son to radiation necrosis, a side effect of brain cancer treatment. She runs marathons to raise money for three charities that have special meaning for her son and family.
Dani Afiouni
Dani is a member of Omniathletes, a team of three Lebanese 'brothers-in-sports' who perform challenges to raise funds and awareness for charities in need. A marathoner, triathlete and mountaineer, Dani's experience include successfully completing 7 Marathons on 6 Continents + King George Island (the gateway to Antarctica) in 11 days in 2015, summiting the highest EU peak, Mont Blanc, in August 2014, summiting the highest African mountain, Mount Kilimanjaro, in December 2013, and Mount Toubkal in Morocco in July 2015. Dani will be attempting the North Pole Marathon to raise funds for a children's cancer charity, and also hopes to become an Associate Member of the Marathon Grand Slam Club.
Omi Athletes
Team members: Mroueih, Mroueh, and Afiouni.
Luis Vincente Barco
Luis has successfully completed numerous ultramarathons including the Marathon des Sables, Himalayan 100-Mile Stage Race, Cruce de los Andes, Jungle Marathon, Transalpine Stage Race, the Bolivia Ultra Race and the Patagonia Run in native Argentina. An engineer by profession, he has also run several regular road marathon events and completed four Ironman distance triathlons.
Harry Botha
Harry is a 74-year-old from Ballito in South Africa. After retiring at the age of 65, he started to take up running seriously. Prior to this, he had jogged occasionally but rarely went beyond a distance of 10k. He met his running partner, Lenana Fischer, who then encouraged him to run his first marathon in Berlin 2008. After Berlin, he ran the other 4 marathons which make up the ‘World Marathon Majors’ (Berlin, London, New York, Boston and Chicago). He has already completed a marathon on each on the 7 Continents including the Antarctic Ice Marathon. He also took part in the Mount Everest Base Camp Marathon where the start line was at an altitude of 5,300 metres and the finish was at 3,400 metres in Namiche Bazaar. In total, Harry has completed 15 marathons and is determined to finish the North Pole Marathon so that he can join the Grand Slam Club.
Mirtha Buonaiuto
Mirtha, from Buenos Aires , is a 49-year-old mother of two daughters aged 16 and 19. A high school English teacher, she started running in 2005. At that time she could barely run 10k, but has since run over 10 marathons, including in North America, South America, Europe and King George Island, and she hopes to complete at least one marathon on each of the seven continents as well as the North Pole Marathon. As an amateur runner, Mirtha also hopes to show that determination and strong will help to fulfil achievements. She will run the North Pole Marathon to raise funds for the NGO “1km 1 sonrisa”, http://sa18.com.ar/1-km-1-sonrisa/ , in order to help fund a community kitchen for children. She appreciates the invaluable support of Fundación Leloir, a foundation for scientific research of the life sciences.
Simon Cain
Simon is running the North Pole Marathon to raise funds for the RNLI, https://www.justgiving.com/Simon-Cain3/ , and Harefield Hospital, https://www.justgiving.com/Simon-Cain2/. Although he has run marathons and half marathons in the past, he is hoping to just get around and would be happy with a half marathon finish. As a health, safety and environment consultant / trainer and an ex-Marine Mammal Medic for BDMLR, he also hopes to raise awareness of marine and polar environmental issues via his participation in the race. Simon has travelled to every continent, including over 100 countries; followed in the footsteps of Franklin and Perry down the North West Passage; and was a UK instructor on the Fogle / Cracknell Race to the South Pole. The North Pole Marathon, however, will be the ultimate challenge for him. He is super excited at this adventure of a lifetime, despite not underestimating the environment or the challenge, and being a bit scared, and even in awe maybe!
Heather Carr
Heather ran her first marathon in late 2012, and the North Pole Marathon will be her 9th marathon. She has run marathons on 3 continents, including North America, Europe, and Antarctica, and she hopes to complete marathons on the remaining 4 continents over the next few years. In addition to marathons, Heather also enjoys shorter races, especially those of 10 mile and half marathon distance. In running the North Pole Marathon, Heather will raise money for the 2016 Minnesota Mission of Mercy. MnMOM is a 2-day event held in July that provides free dental care to those in need. More information is available at https://www.youcaring.com/heather-carr-for-minnesota-mission-of-mercy-497722 .
Stephanie Cashen
A keen skier, Stephanie is attempting her first marathon after 25 years supporting her husband and children. The 55-year old New Zealander is running with her husband Tom at the North Pole.
Tom Cashen
Tom is a skier & aviator who has completed eight marathons including the Antarctic Ice Marathon and the 2013 North Pole Marathon. He will be running with, and supporting his wife Stephanie at the 2016 North Pole Marathon.
Donald Cheung
Donald is making his marathon at the age of 47 at the North Pole and hopes to encourage people to believe that anything is possible and it’s never too late to do something different. “No matter what you’re dealing with, just be bold and you can achieve any goal!” He is the owner of Hong Kong-based marketing agencies Artpac Solutions and AXENT Communications. This year marks the 25th anniversary of these companies, and his participation in the North Pole Marathon is a representation of his dedication to act boldly, be sustainable, make changes and move his companies forward.
Wing Keung Chik
WingKeung ran his first ultramarathon in April 2013 when he completed the Marathon des Sables. Prior to the taking up running to complete that race, he disliked the idea of running any distance, but decided to challenge himself to run longer than 2km! He subsequently completed a 100km ultramarathon in Hong Kong in January 2014 before running his third marathon – the Antarctic Ice Marathon – in November 2014 and the Vina del Mar, Chile, in December 2014. With some more marathons under his belt this year, he hopes to become a member of both The 7 Continents Marathon Club and Grand Slam Club shortly after the North Pole Marathon. WingKeung is an Honorary Consultant of U-Hearts, a Hong Kong charity organization that aims to help disadvantaged young people unconditionally, to make genuine changes to future generations.
Victor Consunji
Victor, 38 years old, hopes to be the first Filipino to run a marathon at the North Pole, and eventually the first Filipino to be inducted into the Marathon Grand Slam Club. He is the CEO of VConsunji Development Corporation, a real estate developer that specialises in modern single family homes - www.vconsunji.com . Victor has been running for over two years and amongst the Majors, he has run the Tokyo Marathon and the New York Marathon, Having already run marathons in Asia, Australia, and North America, he hopes to complete Europe later this year via the Berlin Marathon, which occurs just a week before his participation in Ironman Barcelona.
Emma Davis
Emma has been running for more than 20 years and travelled far and wide to compete in half marathons, marathons and adventure races. Her most memorable marathon was Rome, where her husband proposed, while other memorable ones include Dublin, Jersey and London. Having just retired, Emma was looking for an epic adventure to mark her first year of it, and what could be better than a trip to the North Pole?
Gulzhamal DeFelice
Gulzhamal DeFelice, 38 years old, was born and grew up in the Ural Mountains of Russia, and graduated from Magnitogorsk State University as a teacher of German and English languages. She started running a few years ago, just to be fit, to be able to pass a PT test while serving in the US Army. In May 2015, Gulzhamal completed her first marathon on the Great Wall of China: she loved the whole experience and signed up for the North Pole Marathon to make more beautiful memories to share with family and friends. When not running, Gulzhamal enjoys traveling and dancing.
Leonie Stander Delport
Leonie is a medical doctor who loves combining travel with running and hiking, having done lots of marathons, ultra marathons and other interesting things all over the world. Her motto is 'life is too short to do the same thing twice', and she is forever searching for a new adventure, always with great success! Leonie first heard about the NPM in 2012 when her brother told her about a friend pursuing a 'mad' dream of becoming a member of the prestigious Grand Slam Marathon Club. Leonie was hooked and found the perfect ‘partner in crime’ with her friend, Sonja Viljoen. They are both doctors based in Kroonstad, South Africa, and have been working together for 25 years. They hope to become associate members of the Grand Slam Club, both at age 50 on 9 April 2016. NETCARE Kroon Hospital has generously sponsored their airline tickets for the trip.
Rob Dickinson
Rob is making his marathon debut at the North Pole. The railway signaling engineer and aspiring author. in Derby UK but was born in Australia. I'll be running under an Australian flag was morbidly obese only two years ago but started gym training and running. Rob, in fact, has run no race whatsoever but entered the North Pole Marathon as a crazy idea to do something special at a place he has always wanted to visit. Rob says he has no running style, experience or ability, his training has been hampered by both long term illness (crohns disease) and ever present injuries, but he is determined to finish the event.
Amy Ennis
Amy, who is 26 years old, has run casually since the age of 15 but has never considered herself a proper runner. She loves to travel and believes that running is the best way to gain insight into what a new place is really like. She has run a number of half marathons but the North Pole is only her second marathon: She ran the San Fransisco Marathon last summer. Amy is raising money for a hospice charity called Demelza (https://www.demelza.org.uk), which provides care to children in south east England. You can donate to her page at https://www.justgiving.com/amy-runs-the-north-pole-marathon. Having travelled to all seven continents by the age of 22, Amy was looking for a new challenge which incorporated travel, a physical challenge, her love of polar regions and something that could fit around her jobs as an insurance broker and gymnastics coach, which is why she decided to enter the North Pole Marathon.
Beibei Fan
Beibei says her one and only marathon to date happened because she wanted to go to Antarctica, not because she was a runner! To everyone's surprise, including herself, she managed to finish the Antarctic Ice Marathon on the frozen continent. It was the best time of her life and she met some amazing people, making some good friends on the isolated continent. When those same friends asked her to join them for the North Pole Marathon this year, Beibei said yes, again, not because she considers herself a runner, but because she wanted to spend more amazing time with them. If she finishes this one, she says she can finally claim to be really "bi-polar"!
Rachel Fielden
Rachel has completed many half marathons in the UK and most recently completed the Jersey Marathon. In addition to running, she has taken part in several multiactivity races including the Rat Race Coast to Coast, traversing Scotland, and the world's largest obstacle course race - the Rat Race Dirty Weekend. When not busy tackling small and large animals in her day job, 31-year-old veterinary surgeon spends her down time outdoors as much as possible: She is equally content heading out on long walks or runs with the dog or venturing out in the saddle for a day on the bike. Away from running, Rachael is a keen hockey player and also a keen road cyclist and has also cycled across Zambia, Botswana and Namibia – definitely a very different terrain and climate from what will greet her at the North Pole! The upcoming adventure to the North Pole is certainly a leap into the unknown but one that she has been relishing since signing up all those many months ago in a British 'summer'. Rachel is hoping to raise money for Maggie's Centres UK (a charity providing support for patients at chemotherapy centres in the UK).
Andrey Filippor
Matt Gabriel
Matt has run the Auckland Marathon, completed the 60km off road Kepler challenge three times, and finished a large number of half marathons on and off road throughout New Zealand. The 33-year- old engineer from Auckland is travelling to the North Pole Marathon in a group of four Kiwis. He has previously travelled through Australia, Europe and the USA and enjoys running socially wherever he travels. However, this will be Matt's first major event overseas. He is extremely excited about the trip and looking forward to the experience of running on sea ice and meeting the other competitors.
Paul Grealish
Lise Gronskar
Lise is a journalist who also works as a flight attendant for SAS. She completed the Antarctic Ice Marathon in November 2015 and became a member of The 7 Continents Marathon Club. She now hopes to join the Grand Slam Club by completing the North Pole Marathon.
Alexandra Hanson
Alexandra will be running her seventh marathon at the North Pole. After running the Antarctic Ice Marathon in 2013, Alexandra evidently developed a taste for running in cold and snow, which has earned her quite the reputation with her local running team. She has previously run the Athens Classic in Greece in 2009, the Marine Corps in Washington, D.C. in 2011, and the Cape Cod Marathon in Massachusetts in 2012. The North Pole will now mark her halfway point to completing the Grand Slam, which is Alexandra's goal, although she does not have a specific timeline for doing so. In addition to fulfilling her own enjoyment of adventuring off the beaten path, she is running in memory of her grandfather, who spent years living and teaching in Barrow, Alaska, the northernmost settlement in the United States (inside the Arctic Circle), and who was a lifelong runner until Parkinson's disease shackled his stride.
Jon Howard
Jon has run the Antarctic Ice Marathon, the Mt. Everest Marathon and the Sahara Marathon among many other races. He is aiming to join The 7 Continents Marathon Club plus Grand Slam within the next 12 months. He says he's is a slow, back of the pack runner but prefers to see it as getting his money's worth, having never had a DNF and also having gathered a lifetime of great memories. Jon is proud to be raising funds and awareness for Mind, the mental health charity; https://www.justgiving.com/NorthPoleJon/
Scott Kerrison
Scott has been running for more than two decades, having originally been a tennis player. After focussing on sprint triathlon and road running initially, he took on adventure racing 10 years ago. In 2009, he also ran in every state and territory across Australia, and in 2012 he focused on training for an Ironman triathlon. However, Scott has since completed 1x 50km and 2x 100km trail runs in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, the Outback Marathon in central Australia, and the Inca Trail Marathon in South America. He is looking forward to the North Pole Marathon as his next crazy challenge and the opportunity to test out his Norwegian language skills.
Sergey Kudryavtsev
Gloria Lau
The North Pole Marathon will be Gloria’s eighteenth marathon. To date she has completed a marathon on all 7 continents, including the Antarctic Ice Marathon, Mt. Everest Marathon and the Great Wall of China to name a few. Gloria completed the half marathon at the North Pole last year at age 64 and she is back in the hope of completing the full marathon this year. Gloria was the first Singaporean female to join The 7 Continents Marathon Club.
Vivian Lee
Vivian has travelled extensively to all seven continents of the world, but will be making her marathon debut at the North Pole. She caught the running bug less than two years ago and subsequently completed San Diego's Half Marathon Triple Crown series in 2015 and qualified for the first qualifiers-only half marathon,the USA Half Marathon in November 2015. When Vivian travelled to Antarctica back in 2010, she was fascinated by the golden age of polar exploration and was determined to make it to both poles of the earth. She had searched for polar expeditions and marathons often enough that the North Pole Marathon race showed up one day under the "You might also like this" section of her browser. It took her less than a heartbeat to decide that she wanted to run it. Vivian likes hiking, backpacking, skiing, and traveling and hopes to complete marathons on all seven continents after the North Pole race. She lives in San Diego, California and works in the IT industry. Vivian is raising funds for Ninos De Fe Children's Home in Tijuana, Mexico that provides a safe haven for abandoned and abused children. See http://coastlinechurch.org/#/ministries/coastline-childrens-home.
Xibei Li
Xibei is a 30-year-old Chinese living and working in New York City as an IT specialist. Over last 3 years, he managed to travel around the world on vacation days and completed at least one marathon on each and every continent including Antarctica. By Running at the North Pole, he is trying to raise awareness of urban air pollution – a very severe environmental hazard in China and also common in many other developing countries, which links to 7 million premature deaths every year globally. He would be extremely grateful if you could support his “Blue Sky Lab – North Pole Project”. It aims to help at least 150 families in China stay away from toxic air at home by teaching school kids to build DIY air purifier at a low cost. https://www.crowdrise.com/xibeirunningnorthpolemarathon/fundraiser/xibeili.
Vijay Lingegowda
Vijay is a physician who divides his time between Salt Lake City, Utah and Mysore, India. He is a relative newcomer to marathons, having "barely" completed one near Antarctica and another in Cape Town, South Africa. This relative lack of experience has not stopped him from heading to the North Pole, well prepared and with the right gear! Vijay is confident that he will run a marathon on every continent and join the Grand Slam Club in the future.
Bruno Louges
Bruno is a trail and ultra trail runner who diagnosed with multiple sclerosis five years ago. He could have stopped everything as this disease altered his physical abilities and the way he could perform in sports generally. However, he never got tired of pushing his limits. This adventure means a lot to Bruno. Of course, it’s a personal challenge, but he also wants to bring a message of hope for all those suffering from MS, those who’ve just been diagnosed with it, and more generally to all athletes: "Always keep your sport spirit, never give up, fight for positive perspectives and cross the finishing line knowing you have made it and for sport’s pleasure". Bruno adds that "Today, and as long as the disease lets me, taking up these sport challenges matters a lot to me. Overcoming these challenges, pushing the limits are my motivation to fight for all those, who, like me, live this disease daily". Bruno has decided to associate his project with The Foundation for the Research on Multiple Sclerosis (www.arsep.org) and its sports brand “Solidaires en Peloton”. Follow Bruno at www.brunolouges.com.
Roman Malyshko
Marc-Antoine Martin
Marc-Antoine has run 14 marathons since taking up running in 2010. Among them, he has run Berlin, Copenhagen, Edinburgh, Frankfurt, Helsinki, Nice, Pisa and Rodderfam in Europe. He has also run the Las Vegas Marathon in the USA, as well as completing the Zermatt ultramarathon last year.
Brett Meyer
Brett had completed several multisport endurance events including four Ironman triathlons, four half-ironman events and numerous marathons. The 52-year-old has also run two off-road 60km mountain runs and is the holder of two Guinness World Records for Squash marathons! Brett says "What a privilege to take part in an event like this at such a special place on the ice – a dream come true!".
Mazen Mroueh
Mazen describes himself as a marathoner, traveller and explorer. He is part of the OmniAthletes team which tries to motivate and inspire others to start a healthy lifestyle. Mazen has completed 18 marathons on six continents and also on King George Island, the Gateway to Antarctica. He has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, completed a 24 hour ultra race, and has 30 country stamps on his passport within the last three years. Outside of physical activities, Mazen always prioritises social work to shed a spotlight on different causes by increasing awareness and/or raising funds. The highlight of his upcoming adventure at the North Pole will be to support SANAD.
Mustapha Mroueih
Mustapha started his adventure and endurance sports journey in May 2012, the day his wife Dana informed him that they were expecting a baby boy, later named Karim. On that particular morning, he took the decision to transform his life and lose the extra weight he'd been carrying for the previous 3 years. In the following years, he has finished 7 marathons on 6 continents and King George Island, also known as the Gateway to Antarctica, in 10 days; he has completed many ultramarathon races (100km, 50km, 24hrs race); finished five other individual marathon races, scaled 3 high mountains; and accomplished countless smaller races, cycling challenges, hikes, climbs and trail runs, developing a passion for long distance running on challenging terrains. Mustapha has also been leading the challenges and adventures with his team, OmniAthletes, aiming to raise awareness and funds for children with cancer and to fulfil his pledge to give back to a society. Five children with cancer (Shahd, Mohammed, Hajar, Layth and Issa) received full funding for their treatment as a result of the team’s efforts, raising an amount close to $200,000 so far. By profession, Mustapha is Finance Director for Visa Inc.
Lookpetch Nielsen
Lookpetch is a marathoner, ultramarathoner and triathlete who is travelling to the North Pole with his partner Sasie. They both ran the Antarctic Ice Marathon in November, which is the sister race of the North Pole Marathon. Lookpetch grew up playing all kinds of sports and started running 10 Km to half marathon and full marathons almost 10 years ago. He later transitioned to triathlons, but got tired of all the Swim/Bike/Run intensive training and took to ultramarathon running and trail running. He has completed events such as Challenge Copenhagen (Ironman distance), the Comrades ‘uphill’ ultramarathon (88 Km) and the Hong Kong 100km.
Kenichi Okazaki
Kenichi finished third in the Antarctic 100k in 2014 and hopes to be among the first three at the North Pole. His Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/kenichi.okazaki.5
Tze Boon Ong
Despite a busy work schedule, Boon lives by the mantra of keeping fit and living healthy. He runs everyday, and has completed in excess of 8,000km since August 2012, whilst heading a successful multinational design, engineering and project management company.Boon also enjoys other adrenaline sports including alpineering, snowboarding, surfing and water skiing. Together with his cousin, they recently completed the World Marathon Challenge (7 Marathons on 7 Continents in 7 Days) raising more than US$120,000 for five charities associated with Mental Health and Fitness in Singapore. Their website is www.runwithyourheart.ongfoundation.org.
Yu Phing Ong
Phing's motto is "a sound mind in a sound body". He has enjoyed an active lifestyle since his first half-ironman triathlon in the late 1980s, and has additional interests in adventure races, alpineering, martial arts, power lifting and rock climbing, whilst dedicated to a career in IT. Together with his cousin, they recently completed the World Marathon Challenge (7 Marathons on 7 Continents in 7 Days), raising more than US$120,000 for five charities associated with Mental Health and Fitness in Singapore. Their website is www.runwithyourheart.ongfoundation.org.
Stuart Paterson
Stuart has completed several marathons and ultras, including London and Paris, the Comrades Ultra in South Africa, the Ultra Trail Mont Blanc in France, and the Marathon Des Sables in Morocco. Originally from Sydney, Australia, Stuart has been living in London, U.K. for the past 17 years. He is 46 years old and has two kids, Ella 10 and Thomas 8. A Physiotherapist, Stuart is the Director of a large sports clinic based in London. Stuart is running for the U.K. Sports Relief Charity - fundraising link is here: https://my.sportrelief.com/sponsor/stuartpaterson2.
Chakravarthy Reddy
Chak is a physician and researcher in Salt Lake City, Utah. He took up running in 2007 as a way to cope with a hectic work schedule and to challenge himself. After completing the Boston Marathon in 2008, he went on to run the World Majors (Boston, New York, London, Berlin and Chicago) as well as six continents and King George Island, the Gateway to Antarctica. He has incorporated his love of traveling with the challenge of running marathons. The North Pole will be his 14th marathon and he hopes to run the seven continents with his two children in the future.
Michel Ribet
Michel, who is 79 years old, started running at age 54! Raised in France, and now living in San Diego California, he has run events such as Mt Everest (Nepal), Tahiti (French Polynesia), Paris (France), New York USA, Mt Kilimandjaro (Tanzania), Vina Del Mar (Chile) San Diego USA, the Polar Circle Marathon (Greenland), and a race on King George Island, near Antarctica. Prior to taking up running, Michel was a professional sailor who took part in the world's first race around the world, 'The Whitbread' in 1973/74. He also completed Trans Atlantic and South Pacific ocean races for over 20 years.
Adjoa Smalls-Mantey
Adjoa is a psychiatry resident who started running cross country in high school and followed up with marathons as a graduate student. She has completed marathons on all seven continents and became the first African American female to join The 7 Continents Marathon Club. She looks forward to the new challenge of running in the Arctic and joining the Grand Slam Club.
Sasie Smittipatana
Sasie became the first female Thai runner to run the Antarctic Ice Marathon, also making her the first Thai to run marathons on all 7 continents in 2014-2015. She now hopes to join the Grand Slam Club by finishing the North Pole Marathon.
Sonja Viljoen Stall
Sonja is an adrenaline junky and love challenges. Along with her friend Leonie Stander-Delport, she will become an Associate Member of the Grand Slam Club if she succeeds in finishing the North Pole Marathon. Among the continents, she has run the 2013 Ocean Drive Marathon, the 2013 Dead Sea Marathon, the 2014 Inca Trail Marathon, the 2014 Athens Marathon, the 2015 Comrades Marathon and the 2015 Sydney Blackmore Marathon. She has also run a marathon on King George Island, known as the Gateway to Antarctica. A proud South African, says "I don't run because I love the feeling of running, I run because I love the feeling of living".
Piotr Suchenia
Piotr is a 35-year-old marathoner with a PB of 2:29:34 hrs. A member of team Inov-8, he is also a triathlete, blogger, personal trainer and organizer of events for Gdynia Sports Centre. Piotr has completed 24 marathons to date, including in Jamaica, Bangkok, Tromso and Mallorca. He likes to travel, especially to northern countries and his dream is a to run a marathon on every continent and the North Pole. Piotr's website is www.run-passion.pl
Anna Maria Szetela
Anna has run two marathons, in Kraków and Spitsbergen. A teacher by profession, she says her favourite activities are diving and watching nordic ski competitions on tv! She took up running three years ago, to try something without fins and without water around her. Anna nevertheless likes the fact the North Pole Marathon is run 'on' water, the frozen Arctic Ocean ice floes.
Archish Tajpuriya
Archish is a 31-year-old sports enthusiast from India who is attempting only his second marathon. His first marathon was in Sierra Leone in 2014 where Archish started an association with the charity, Street Child of Sierra Leone: See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_Child_of_Sierra_Leone and http://www.street-child.co.uk/. He is looking forward to enjoying he beauty of the place and the company of some amazing people from all around the world!
Maria Jimena Taracena
Jimena is a 42 year old architect who loves training and challenging her limits. Since her first marathon in New York in 2007, she has run a marathon every year including Washington, San Francisco, Twin Cities and Toronto. Jimena also competes in triathlons, finishing the 70.3 Ironman in Mexico and Miami as well as the Cozumel Ironman. In 2014, she competed in the Ultraman in Miami, before moving to Australia.
William Thomas
William is a leadership consultant working throughout Asia with his own company, Designing Leaders LLC. A retired US Air Force officer and former university professor, he only began running at age 42. Now, at age 50, he is a member of the 7 Continents Marathon Club, and with this race he will complete the Marathon Grand Slam. He credits his parents Ray and Rosemary for providing strong examples for him to follow, and his friends Ethan Ngo, Linh Le, and Zuoren Pan for encouraging his personal fitness efforts and supporting him at races around the globe. William runs with the New Balance Runners in Singapore, and appreciates their experience and wisdom as he goes from running near the equator to running at the top of the world. He is currently an ambassador for the Abbott World Marathon Majors, and posts about his adventures at www.facebook.com/DrWilliamThomas.
Kate Walker
Kate is making her marathon debut at the North Pole! Although not a marathoner, she considers herself an adventure seeker or adrenaline junkie. To this end, Kate has trekked and kayaked in the rainforests of Brazil and cycled through Beijing Provence, China. Her most recent passion has been climbing mountains, last year climbing Ben Nevis, UK's highest peak, Mont Blanc, the highest in W Europe, and Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. The 50-year-old mother of three is a Franchisee with McDonald's Restaurants and owns / operates six restaurants around Glasgow, Scotland, employing around 500 people. Kate hopes to raise over £30,000 for the Ronald McDonald House Charity which provides free accommodation for families with children in hospital. She hopes to simply complete the North Pole Marathon course uneaten by a polar bear!
Dorn Wenninger
Dorn is a seasoned international traveller who has run marathons in Europe, the US, Caribbean, and Asia as well as a 50k on King George Island and Ironman France. In fact, Dorn has lived in Europe, Asia, the Caribbean, North, Central and South America and traveled to 95 countries. The Vice President of Produce for Walmart US, he is President of the Board of a non-profit organization, the Cobblestone Farm http://cobblestoneprojectfarm.org. He also sits on the Board of Trustees of Amigos de las Americas http://amigosinternational.org.
Doug White
A 52-year-old administrator from Tampa, Florida, USA, Doug joined the ranks of The 7 Continents Marathon Club by successfully completing marathons in Australia (Solar Eclipse Marathon - Nov '12), Europe (Marathon du Medoc - Sep '13), North America (Mayo Midnight Marathon - Jun '14), Asia (Great Wall Marathon - May '15), Africa (Mt Kilimanjaro Marathon - Jun '15), South America (Inca Trail Marathon - Jul '15), and Antarctica (Antarctic Ice Marathon – Nov ’15). He will join the Grand Slam Club with the completion of this race. An avid runner since early childhood, Doug enjoys how social media has blossomed in the last few years so he can share his running adventures with long-time and newly-made friends alike.
Olivier Wigniolle
Olivier has run 25 marathons, including on all six continents and King George Island. Among them, he has run the Paris Marathon five times and the New York Marathon on four occasions. He has also run Dubai, Alice Springs, Rio, Marrakech, Boston, Berlin, London and Chicago as well as two ultra trail runs of 100km. Away from running, the 52-year-old CEO of Icade, one of the top 10 European REITS (multinational investment companies), likes French wines and Formentera Island, Spain.
Peter Winstanley
Peter is a 30-year-old outdoor enthusiast who enjoys adventure and mountaineering, with summiting Elbrus and Kilimanjaro being his highest achievements. The North Pole Marathon will be Peter's first marathon, which he is running in aid of 'Walking With The Wounded'. The Charity supports all veterans with physical, mental or social injury to gain the skills and qualifications necessary to develop new careers outside the military. His donation page is http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/PeterWinstanley.
Colin Wright
After hearing a radio interview with a past competitor from the Antarctic Ice Marathon, and with the extent of his exercise during the previous 12 years being a round or two of golf each week, Colin took up running in 2012 to fulfil his dream of visiting Antarctica. He completed the 2013 Antarctic Ice Marathon and that was to be his last, or so he thought! However, 10 days in Antarctica with a bunch of running 'nuts' convinced him to start down the slippery slope of completing a marathon on each continent. He completed (barely) the Volcano Marathon in 2015 for his fifth continent, and has also decided to try out for the Grand Slam Club! As well as the extreme marathons he has also done a couple of 'normal' events and has a PB of 3:27:33, at the 2015 Vancouver Marathon.
Marat Yusupov
Daniilakis Zacharias
Daniilakis has been running since 2011, completing seven marathons in the process. He has run Athens twice in addition to Thessaloniki , Rome, Vienna, Frankfurt and the Olympus Marathon, which is a trail marathon of 44 km and 2695m altitude. Daniilakis is a white water kayaker IV Class and has paddled almost all of the Greek rivers as well as the Soca and Ortona rivers in Slovenia. He also scuba dives and has been to Cocos Island, Galapagos, the Great Barrier Reef, Red Sea, Andaman Sea and Pemba Island in Zanzibar. The Managing Director of Nautilus Shipbrokers in Piraeus Greece, Daniilakis also likes to paint and do woodwork projects.
Lyn La Canna
Lyn has run the Melbourne Marathon twice, the London Marathon, the New York Marathon, the Antarctic Ice Marathon and the Australian Outback Marathon as well as numerous half marathons and a few shorter distance events. She took up running in 2007 when she participated in a fundraiser after a friend's three-year-old daughter had a heart attack and was in an induced coma in Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital. Lyn plans to run a marathon on each continent plus the North Pole Marathon. She says she is “complete, frigging lunatic who eats too much chocolate, drinks too much wine and doesn't train anywhere near enough to get her through a normal marathon let alone one at the North Pole.”
Russian Paratroopers
Team members: Yusupov, Kudryavtsev, and Malyshko.
men's Marathon
women's Marathon
team competition
men's half Marathon
women's half Marathon
Men's 10 Miler
men's 5K
women's 5K
Wheelchair Marathon
Handcycle Event
ski Marathon
dog Marathon
* Rob Dickinson (GBR) completed a marathon distance on the runway in a time of 8.29.40 hrs