Polar Circle Marathon

The Polar Circle Marathon is a classical 42.195 km marathon, which however has the very untraditional feature that it is situated on 66 degrees northern latitude - also known as the polar circle. This means that the temperatures are relatively low (probably around -5 to 0 degrees Celsius in summertime), and that the sun is shining 24 hours a day. The marathon course takes the runners over the permanent, 3 km thick ice cap and through tundras, moraine landscapes, glaciers, among other outstanding nature sceneries. The wildlife that marathoners may encounter is musk oxen, reindeer and other animals inhabiting the arctic dessert.

The Polar Circle Marathon is more demanding than usual marathons due to the cold weather and the slippery surface for the parts of the race that goes over the actual ice cap.

The Polar Circle Marathon is being held for the 5th time in history on August 30 2008 around Kangerlussuaq in Western Greenland.

Official website