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Antarctica Marathon 2014: Day 4: Award Ceremony

Simon - Running For Status

Antarctica Marathon 2014: Day 4: Award Ceremony

This is a post about the award ceremony for the Antarctica Marathon 2014!

Day 4: Award ceremony

This happened between the morning and afternoon excursion. We were actually in position and ship 1 had to sail towards us for the award ceremony.

The award ceremony was held on Ship 1 because Thom didn’t want Ship 1 to see the better bar/lounge on ship 2.

We had to take Zodiacs onto Ship 1, which some elected not to do for the second time that day due to the snow and rain conditions earlier in the morning.

We had to leave our gear outside the ship so that it wouldn’t clutter their mud room. Luckily I knew almost half of the ship so I put my jacket and dry bag in someone’s room.

Both ships complained about how lunch was being served after the award ceremony, which was close to 1:30pm. Ship 1 had breakfast at 6:30am as they had to sail towards us after their morning excursion. We had ours around 7:30am as we were already in place. There were some cookies and snacks served at the award ceremony but not much.

As the dining room can only seat about 100 people, many people was standing for most of the award ceremony.

Thom gave out awards for top male/female for each ship, then age groups overall. The last was top 3 male and female runners for both ships. I believe it was a clean sweep for the men, all from ship 2, and there were only 1 top female from ship 1.

There was a blind runner in this marathon. He is attempting to be the first blind runner to finish all seven continents. I heard that after finishing the Antarctica Marathon, he gave a very moving speech on ship 1. Without contest, he was given seeded number 1. The interesting fact about him is that his usual race guide couldn’t make it so he ran with someone else. That person has never ran with him before and also never ran with a blind runner, so it was questionable going into the marathon. However both finished. Some people remarked that the guide was holding back the blind runner and that he could’ve finished quicker with a faster guide.

During the award ceremony, he got up to do another speech and oh my god it was hilarious and moving at the same time. He has such a contagious positive attitude and outlook on life and it showed as soon as he started talking. I really wished I was on ship 1 to see him speak and complete the race with him.

You can see the video here:

Below are some of the other photos from the ceremony.

Then we got to take a picture outside under the race banner. To my right is Thom, the director of Marathon Tours and the one who made this all possible more than a decade ago.

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