The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Scotswoman is Arctic guinea pig
A MIDDLE - AGED marathon runner has been used as a guinea pig by scientific researchers as she takes part in a marathon at the North Pole.
Audrey McIntosh, who will be the first Scot to conquer marathons at both poles, trained in an environmental chamber at Glasgow University as part of her regime to get used to the effects of the cold.
A treadmill that was put in to let the 51-year-old exercise in temperatures as low as minus 17C broke after just a few days.
“They are treating me like a bit of a guinea pig and getting all the data back about effects on the body,” she said.
“You are never going to be able to fully prepare for it, you just go with what’s there and the trick is to have the ability to not get frightened by the unexpected.”
Ms McIntosh, a business consultant from Glasgow, ran her first marathon in 2003 and has completed 26 miles and a 100km ultra distance race on Antarctica.
She is one of 45 athletes running the UVU North Pole Marathon at the weekend on ice floes around the Russianoperated Camp Barneo.
Risking frostbite from temperatures as low as minus 40C, they will circle a 4.22km course specially created for the race around ice ridges, snow and the makeshift 800m runway only nine to 12 feet above the Arctic Ocean.
The fastest athlete is expected to be Petr Vabrousek from the Czech Republic who won the 2013 Antarctic Ice Marathon and 100km race, while some runners are expected to struggle over the course for anywhere up to 11 hours.
Transport to Camp Barneo on the ice cap was disrupted when a Russian Antonov cargo plane due to fly the runners damaged landing gear touching down on the frozen makeshift runway and a new plane had to be brought in.
The marathon will also coincide with a nearby under-ice freedive attempt at 90 degrees north, another first for the ice cap.
Race organiser Richard Donovan, the first man to run a marathon at both poles, said frostbite and cold weather injuries are the biggest danger — apart from polar bears.
“I’ve been organising the marathon since 2002, when I first ran myself.
“I didn’t think I’d be still be organising it in 2015, not for global warming reasons, but because it’s such a surreal concept to be running on an ocean at the North Pole. Who knows about 10 years’ time, I certainly don’t,” he said.
Mr Donovan, who gave up working as an economist to organise adventure races around the world, plans to run across the US this year and hopes to complete his long-term ambition to run across Antarctica, which he says could finally happen later this year.