Finishing the Antarctic ice marathon would have been more than enough for me so, I am super happy to have the second place amongs women. Below you may watch to video of my phone interview with a news channel in Turkey (NTV)

The race is organised by Richard Donovan who is an Irish ultra-marathon runner and organises fascinating extreme races. Among these are the North Pole Marathon, the Volcano Marathon (in the Atacama Desert in Chile where the runners are challenged by both heat and altitude) and the World Marathon Challenge where the participants race against the time to run 7 marathons in 7 days in 7 continents (7-7-7). My wish is to join all of his challenges.
Antarctic Ice Marathon is known as the earth’s southernmost marathon. It takes place at Union Glacier basecamp on the mainland. Even the summertime temperature with wind-chill varies between -20/-30 C. Runners are not only dealing with icy, snowy ground and cold weather but also with extremely strong winds.

In case you need the address, the race location is: 79°46′05″ South  83°15′42″ West 🙂

 

WHY DID I SIGN UP?
The race was mentioned to me by my friend, Rob Scott, who was preparing to ski the last 60 nautical miles (69 mi/111 km) to reach to the South Pole, which he has now successfully completed. I didn’t take much notice of it but clearly it was in my mind as I ended up looking it up one day and that was that, I had this butterfly feeling in my belly and knew that I had to go there.
Why exactly, is I don’t know but I think that the answer might be something like this: I am lucky to be quite driven by my nature and have this tendency to get deep into anything that I try. Marathon running made me realise that you really have to put lots of mental effort which I love and to do that, you almost have to be with yourself in a different dimension. This is not a feeling that’s unique to me, most runners experience this and the body gets to a level of exhaustion that you are almost in a meditative state, putting one foot in front of another and pushing yourself beyond your limits. And, when you come out of it, you feel what they call the “runners high”, a joyful state of being. Going through something like this also make you very confident. So, all of these combined plus the sheer beauty of the continent meant that I had signed up.

 

The Map and intro to the park…

Bingol in Eastern Turkey, Istanbul then London where I currently live and enjoy an active life. Running and travelling are two big passions.

Joy of running, I discovered in summer 2013, in New York. What started as a way of meeting new people quickly become a passion. March 2014, I ran my first marathon in London and realised that I loved long distance running. Since then, I ran 8 more marathons.

Running not only made me a fitter, healthier person but gave me the physical confidence I needed to pick up other sports.

Passion for travelling started a decade earlier (2003) when I left my home in Istanbul with a suitcase, very little money and an even less English language skills. Packed lots of excitement and curiosity about what was beyond Turkey.

15th of September 2017, having stored all my belongings in a 35sq foot storage and taken a 6 months’ leave from work, I started my South America and Antarctica journey.

The centre piece of my trip was the preparation for the Antarctic Ice Marathon. I have now successfully completed and feel, again, that I am one blessed person for wanting something and seeing it come through at some point.  My hope is to share my experiences and write about the places and souls I encounter.

My one other passion is to help people live healthier and more fulfilled lives but I’m still discovering what I could do to realise this passion. One thing I know is that I’d like to share my story with young girls (and boys) from underprivileged background encourage them to pick up sports, discover their hobbies, live/study/travel abroad and believe that these are within their reach.