UVU Ice Marathon 2012 Experience by Shirley Thompson

Well, the UVU gear kept me alive, so 10/10 to them for such great performance wear, that actually got me to the finish. No other cold weather gear has ever got me close to a cold weather race finish line, so I am extremely impressed, and proud!

Yes, I finished the Ice marathon, probably the most tortuous 9 hours of my life.

Now that I am in the toasty warm, I think back to those long hours where I shivered incessantly and felt like my fingers had lost all sensation, and I am so happy I am away from sub zero climes. Throughout the race I vacillated between cold, colder and freezing. But, according to the experts, my mantra was to be “keep cool to stay warm”, so this is what I did. Except I didn’t really ever feel warm or even tepid, more a sort of “ not-quite-defrosted”. I felt dizzy, I felt nauseous and I felt like quitting probably every few steps. The mile markers seems soooooo far apart, and as I whimpered my way through those 42km, I visualized warm baths, lying on sunny beaches, running in sweaty jungles, cuddling my furry dogs, drinking Gluhwein, and French onion soup to keep me warm inside…!

My customary mediocre running performance was replaced by atrocious!

But hey, there are some outstanding statistics:

I had a top 50 finish! (There were 48 competitors…! )
I have the accolade of being the last person to run a marathon in Antarctica, (as, I was spectacularly last).
I ran ahead of Andrew Murray, the winner, for about 5 minutes as he approached the finish line…(and I approached the half marathon point!)
I finished sub 9 hours. Sub 9 hours for a marathon must indeed be almost Guinness- book- of- records- worthy??!!
The race experience was something I will never forget, I met some wonderful people, laughed so much and had one of the best weeks of my life- The scenery was outstanding, and it was a huge privilege to see such an awesome part of the world- but, I must admit to being very happy to have just arrived in Vietnam and to be heading for the sweltering, humid sticky jungle shortly. Bring it on!!!