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Saturday, November 9, 2024
Blog Page 332

Training on Antartica Day 2

“Today was incredible we got out for about four and a half hours of training. Our sleds at this point, surprisingly with all of our training food and additional gear that we are bringing to actualy go with your sled in training, are close to…   say around 190lbs each. So it makes for some pretty tough pulling, but we been putting down some fantastic miles in training, we’re very excited. The only slight, minor setback is Kevin had some food poisoning yesterday, and he has come out of it today and was stepping right beside me and Richard said “you know Kevin’s feeling good when he’s taking lots of photographs and doing lots of film making”. So another great day, we’ll do a training day tomorrow, another day off, and then it’s off to Hercules inlet. Here’s Kevin”….. “Ahhh happy Kevin here on the phone, very unhappy Kevin here yesterday and last night, where unfortunately I spent most of the night in the toilet and the toilet here is an outhouse, so when you are sticking your face into the toilet, its far from pleasant; but what ever awful thing I got ingested seems to have exited me and I’m feeling better now, so today was good….. four and a half hours, and hopefully things will turn out well, I feel great now and I guess this is to be expected,  over and out from Antarctica and we’ll be talking tomorrow”.

Listen to the audio: FromAntarcticaDay2

On their way!!

Ray, Kevin and Richard are on their way to Antarctica! They should arrive around 10:30 EST.
They left after much anticipation. Next on the agenda is four days of testing equipment and training before they head to hercules point to start the quest for the pole.

Anton Stranc
i2P Technical Equipment Advisor

Still Waiting…..

Two days delayed. Apparently this is normal- flights are delayed all the time, but we
are on pins and needles waiting to get there and get started !
We have been assured as soon as the weather clears, we will be on the next flight over to
Patriot Hills, Antarctica.

The issue at this point is visibility- but extraordinary winds can also stop the plane from
making a landing on the ice runway at Patriot.

The map above show where we are…and where we need to go ! We have been getting
calls every two hours updating us on flight status- and the news seems positive-so for
now its all about waiting and being patient…

www.impossible2possible.com

On Our Way ?

Well, it looks like we might make it out today ! The call from ALE came this morning- and we were told to hang tight till 1 pm for a second call to confirm conditions. Chances do look pretty good for a departure today.

With that in mind the team headed over to the city square to “rub” the toe of a statue which commemorates Magellan’s journey. It is said you should do this to ensure a safe journey. There we made a new friend- Lorenzo- who made it clear that he should be allowed to join us !!!

The next blog will hopefully come from Antarctica- and it make take us a day or two to communicate once agin…hang tight and please wish us luck !

www.impossible2possible.com

The Waiting Game

Our scheduled time to leave for Antarctica has come and gone. We are waiting in Punta Arenas for the weather to clear in Antarctica so that the plane taking us can land! We have had so many incredible questions coming from our partnered schools, we spent the day answering many of them.
You will see some of those questions and answers in our next blog.

We are very excited to get to Antarctica and start our journey to the South Pole. It’s something that Kevin, Richard and I been dreaming about for quite a long time.

Keeping our fingers crossed for tomorrow !

Yes, That Is Butter !!!

With only 2 days till our scheduled flight to Antarctica, food prep is in full steam. Richard is feverishly weighing and measuring while Kev and I wrap and pack each item…like the ones in my hands in the photos above !
Basically fruit cake (Weber Expedition Cake if you are asking at your local baker) with a 1/2 inch layer of butter on top ! Yummy AND loaded with calories…want a bite ???

www.impossible2possible.com

Yuck: Winter. Yay: Winter running.

I hate winter. But I love winter running. Here’s why, as I once wrote in my column in the Ottawa Citizen.

I hate the cold. I hate the snow and the slush. I hate the extra clothes you have to wear, the layers, the heavy boots. I hate shoveling and scraping. From Christmas until baseball season, I do whatever I can to avoid going outside. My main ambition in life is to find a way to be somewhere else for the first four months of every year.

At this point every year, people close to me begin to be subjected to six months of whining. During my regular shivery rants about winter, my father would always say, “But you’re a Canadian.” To which I would point out that I had no choice in being a Canadian, whereas he, someone born in a less wintry country, did. Then I would scowl, put on my parka and go home.

All of which make this fact all the more peculiar: I love winter running.

Learning this was as much a surprise to me as if I had suddenly discovered that I loved brussels sprouts. If 10 years ago, you took me in a time machine to see my future self jogging in -20C weather, I would have assumed that 21st Century me had been sent to some kind of forced-labour camp.

Five or six years ago, I was a fair-weather runner. If I managed an outdoor run on one nice day in March, I thought I was being hardy. In the winter months, I exercised indoors, the way God intended.

Running on a treadmill was warmer than running outside, but I found it to be as boring as the neutral-zone trap. If you think time is moving too quickly in your life, just get on a treadmill for half an hour. It’s amazing how long even a minute can seem. I was constantly playing games with myself to avoid looking at the clock. Just stare straight ahead and don’t look down for 10 minutes, I would tell myself. Then I would run for what seemed like 15 minutes, sneak a peek at the timer and find out it was only five.

When I started training for my first marathon, the long runs began in January. At first, I tried to figure out how I could do most of them indoors. The problem is that, at most gyms, you can’t use a treadmill for more than 30 minutes at a time.

A few people said to me, try running outside, you’ll love it. That’s not possible, I said.

Having no other choice, though, I joined a running group to prepare for the marathon. I went shopping for winter running clothes. I bought a pair of running pants, a few long-sleeve shirts, a hat and something to cover my neck, mouth and nose. I now had a complete outfit that made me look like a cat burglar. I learned, for the first time, about fabrics that “wick away” moisture. I learned that “wick” had another meaning unrelated to candles.

I started running with a friend in sub-zero temperatures. We did a couple of short early-morning runs when the temperature was -25, and another on a mid-January morning that was -30, with a windchill factor of -41.

What I learned very quickly was that, no matter what the temperature, 10 minutes into the run, I felt comfortable. The wind was sometimes frustrating, but the freezing temperatures stopped being an issue as soon as you were warmed up. I started to feel like I was tougher than I had thought, like I was withstanding winter conditions that normally made me cower.

A month later came the big test: a 26k group run on a Sunday morning with blowing snow and a windchill of -35. The wind was so strong that I was almost knocked over once or twice. My running partners and I were pelted with snow and ice. When I finished, I thought, if I can do this, I can do a marathon. Since then, I’ve become a committed year-round runner. I run as often in February as I do in August.

As a reader once pointed out to me, there is no bad weather for running, only the wrong clothes. You have to adjust your pace sometimes and change your stride if it’s slippery. You also have to take extra precautions, like making sure you have a cellphone or at least a quarter for a payphone. You don’t want to get hurt 10k from your house and have to hobble home in sub-zero temperatures.

I still prefer running in the spring and fall and early and late on hot summer days. But I’ve gone from being a fair-weather runner to being someone who sees the elements as a welcome challenge. After a winter run, I regularly get home with a steaming head and icicles on my earlobes and eyebrows and a feeling like I’ve conquered the Canadian elements.

I’ve learned to love winter running, but I still hate winter. I’m still dreaming of a condo in a warm place.

…because I can

Running is personal, which is why we created the iRun statement.

You see iRun statements rotating at the top of iRun.ca and there’s a different one on the bottom of every page of the January 2009 issue of iRun. It’s a chance for members of iRunNation to express themselves by saying why they run, how they run, who they run for, etc. There are funny iRun statements and serious ones. There are common themes (like iRun because I can or iRun because I am) and unique and personal messages.

I like to browse through the list of iRun statements every few days. I find it inspiring to read them all. Each individual iRun statement is a story. But seeing a list of them gives you a sense of the power of running and what it means to a community of runners.

What’s your iRun statement? Just register at iRun.ca and let iRunNation know.

A Few Days To Go

You would think that by the time we arrived here in Chile we would have everything in perfect order and ready to go ! No way ! We have spent the last five days or so sorting through all of our gear, packing food and eliminating anything that might be extra weight from our sleds. On that note- the sleds arrived- and they are surprisingly smaller then i thought they would be. We figured out our tent- and have organized a plan where we don’t actually remove the tent poles, but rather ‘fold” the tent in half; intact. This prevents it from blowing away during 100 km per hour winds when setting up. More to come !

www.impossible2possible.com

Sleeping Bags, Pemmican, and a Tent

Today most time was spent going through our gear and weighing food. We tested out our tent by erecting it in the small courtyard in front of our apartment-and we made lists of everything that is still needed to round out our food for the expedition. A quick visit to a local hardware store yielded a small piece of plywood that will be the steady base for our stove, as well as metal clips we will use to secure guy lines to our tent for the 120 km/h plus winds !!!
Doc Affleck is busy putting finishing touches on some of the educational modules- and he has been helping us to organize our gear. The first “official” module will be posted the day we arrive on the ice.

www.impossible2possible.com