Monday 26 February… the big marathon day! Blisteringly hot… 42 degrees celcius in the sun. Not a breath of wind.

Sean and I started off strongly… toward the front of the pack. We clocked the first 10km in under 50 minutes and the second 10 at roughly the same or even faster speed. By the half way stage things were looking good - we had done 21km in under 2 hours and our spirits were high. The energy sachets seemed to be working.

In retrospect perhaps our fast start was a sign of our inexperience… we were never going to keep up the pace… especially as the midday sun set in. The temparatures shot to 42 degrees celcius. The terrain changed from flat to neverending uphill and downhill and frequently we had to run over soft sand which just destroyed whatever energy we thought we had left.

Somewhere around the 30km it became an absolute killer. Sean and I had parted company a few kilometres before… at this point it was all about finding one`s own pace and then just plodding along. Sometimes the only thing that kept me from slowing to a walk was a mini-ambition to make it to the next watering station or the regular appearance of the filming crew… I had to keep on running for the cameras but of course these guys wanted more - they wanted interviews, wise words of “earthfireice campaign” wisdom. Unlikely.

Reaching the 35km mark after 3h20mins was perhaps the first time I realised that I was going to make it. My urge to walk by this stage was overwhelming but I kept focusing on trying to run an extra 100 metres and then another extra 100 metres… somehow I managed to run all the way for a grand marathon time of 4 hours 7 minutes and 41 seconds. Elation, satisfaction and utter exhaustion!

Dont know how I made it and don´t know whether I´ll do it again. For the time being at least it ís sufficient to dwell on the pleasure of the moment. The North Pole marathon is still just over a month away after all…