The Polar Circle Marathon is a classical 42.195 km marathon, which however has the very untraditional feature that it is situated on 66 degrees northern latitude - also known as the polar circle. This means that the temperatures are relatively low (probably around -10 degrees Celsius in the autumn, when the race is taking place). The marathon course takes the runners over the permanent, 3 km thick ice cap and through tundras, moraine landscapes, glaciers, among other outstanding nature sceneries. The wildlife that marathoners may encounter is musk oxen, reindeer and other animals inhabiting the arctic desert.
The Polar Circle Marathon is more demanding than usual marathons due to the cold weather and the slippery surface for the parts of the race that goes over the actual ice cap.
The Polar Circle Marathon was held for the 5th time in history on 18 October 2008 around Kangerlussuaq in Western Greenland. 52 marathoners from 12 countries participated. The winners were:
- Marathon, men: Eduardo Rodriguez Tenes, Spain, 3:15:25
- Marathon, women: Britt Folkerman, Denmark, 4:08:15
- Half marathon, men: Conor McLaughlin, Ireland, 1:50:20
- Half marathon, women: Ragnhild Audestad, Norway, 2:22:21
The Polar Circle Marathon 2009 is run on 24 October 2009.
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