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Alexandria’s Brooke Curran on
winning the Antarctica Marathon
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Correction: An earlier version of this column misidentified
a Danish marathon organizer as Albatross Travel. The
Danish competitor to Marathon Tours and Travel is called
Adventure Marathon; it is run by Albatros Travel. This
version has been updated.
Alexandria’s Brooke Curran at the finish line at the Antarctica Marathon. She
was the race’s top female runner. (Marathon Tours/MARATHON TOURS)
By Lenny Bernstein Blogger April 2, 2012 $
Follow @LennyMBernstein
Ahhh, the South Pole in summer. The temperature climbs
toward 30 degrees, the winds calm to a gentle 40 mph, the
ice melts a bit, leaving a thick muck that clings like cement.
Chamber of Commerce weather.
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But not even the Chamber of Commerce, if there were one,
would be foolish enough to invite people from all over the
world to run 26.2 miles in such conditions on the steep hills
of King George Island, Antarctica. For that you would need a
group of particularly adventuresome souls willing — no,
eager — to fly to the tip of South America and spend two days
at sea before going ashore to run the Antarctica Marathon.
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They would be people like Brooke Curran,
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Health blog. He
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43, of Alexandria, who won the women’s
+
“In Antarctica terms, we had good
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race last month in weather more fit for the
penguins and seals that populate the Fildes
Peninsula than for the humans who
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wrapped themselves in high-tech apparel
against the 6-degree wind chill.
weather,” said Curran, back in the comfort
of a Del Ray coffeehouse where we chatted about her ad​ven​ture. By any other standard, it was miserable. “It was mud, it
was hills, it was streams, it was slick, it was windy. It was
sleet. It was snow. More wind.” She wore thick tights, a heavy
winter running top, a wind- and water-repellent shell and
two pairs of gloves with chemical hand warmers in the
fingertips.
Curran has broken 3:10, but in Antarctica her 4:36:53 was
good enough to defeat about 40 other women and all but the
first 10 men. “After seeing that first mile or two, I decided
that for the rest of the race I was not going to run up those
hills. I just walked the hills. And I kept track of where
everyone was. And then I watched them start to slow and
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There is no Antarctica Marathon, of course — not in the
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sense that there is a Boston Marathon or a New York
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Marathon or a London Marathon. It and other exotic races
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are the creation of Boston-based Marathon Tours and Travel,
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whose founder, Thom Gilligan, realized serendipitously 19
years ago how far Type A distance runners would go in
pursuit of their goals. “These are people who take the reins
and ride life hard. They’re not afraid to take some risk and
live life to the fullest,” Gilligan said.
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In 1993, Gilligan was quoted in a travel trade magazine
saying that he could take runners to every continent except
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Antarctica. Two days later, an outfit that specialized in
Zodiac boat tours of the area contacted him about
conquering that last frontier. They decided to set it up for
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“I was hoping for 30 people,” Gilligan said. “We got 110
deposits in 60 days.” Today, the Antarctica Marathon is sold
out for 2013, 2014 and 2015, and accepting applications for
2016. There is now a Great Wall marathon (yes, you run
parts of the Chinese landmark) and a marathon through a
Kenyan game park, among others. The company has a few
serious competitors in this niche market, including San
Diego-based Kathy Loper Events and Adventure Marathon in
Denmark.
The Antarctica race’s 100 or so runners live aboard a
converted Russian research ship. For $7,500 to $9,500, plus
airfare, they spend two weeks in South America and
Antarctica as tourists before and after they run their dream
marathons on a rugged course marked by small red flags.
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About the only other people on that part of the peninsula
work in research bases belonging to Uruguay, Chile, China
and Russia (four Chilean scientists ran the half-marathon
this year).
In this climate, there are no guarantees. In 2001, the seas
were too rough for the small inflatable boats that take the
runners ashore, just a kilometer away. The marathon was
run aboard the ship: 442 laps around Deck 6, Gilligan said.
Another year the race went off in a blizzard. Runners
thanked Gilligan for that experience.
Curran, whose husband, Christopher, is an attorney in the
District, began running short distances as a stay-at-home
mother of three daughters about 15 years ago. Then the Sept.
11 attacks occurred. “I heard the sonic boom, I could see the
smoke rising from the Pentagon. I was sitting there with my
three girls. . . . It’s an ‘aha’ sort of moment where all of a
sudden you realize the fragility of life. You realize how short
life is.”
She worked her way into terrific shape, lowering her time
until she realized that wasn’t the whole answer either. “The
better I got, the faster, the less it meant to me,” she said.
“And it got to where it meant nothing to me. I would train for
four or five months and I would feel empty at the finish line.”
Curran decided to couple her efforts with fundraising, and
she founded RunningBrooke, (www.runningbrooke.com),
which reports raising $110,000 in three years for five local
charities that support working poor families and children.
She also is on a personal quest to join an exclusive club of
marathoners who have completed one race on each of seven
continents and in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Curran said she has run on six continents, with only Africa to
go, as well as 33 states and the District. She runs one
marathon a month and hopes to do a marathon in Africa next
year.
She trains about 80 miles a week (some of it in the pool to
save wear and tear on her legs), swims and does some lowerbody weight training and yoga.
“All I want to do is inspire you, my neighbors, to get involved
in our community,” she said. “. . . That’s why I was in
Antarctica. It was super cool. Really glad I went. But it wasn’t
really for me.”