Polar Arctic Half Marathon, Tromso – 4 January
Report by Paul Ackerley
Having decided to enter the Dubrovnik Half Marathon whilst returning from our weekly Parkrun at Fountains, Sarah Woffinden and I agreed we shouldn’t plan any more European trips for a while. A week later, we had entered the Polar Arctic Half Marathon!
As we discussed it with the people we have coffee with after the Fountains Parkrun, they also started to enter, one by one… and we ended up with a group of seven of us entering including fellow RR Chris Brown, and fellow Parkrunners Andy Todd and Peter Crowder. As we were multi-running clubs, we competed as the Studley 7.
A few flight bookings and an Airbnb booking later, we all ended up in Tromso, well inside the Arctic Circle.
As we set off to collect our numbers on the morning of the race, it was snowing hard – which we had been expecting, and, in some cases, hoping for – we were in the Arctic Circle and so it needed to snow!
The race started at 3pm, by which time the faint natural light that Tromso gets at this time of year had all gone… we would run in darkness. Some runners had decided to run in T shirts and shorts, but the loudspeaker pleaded with them to reconsider this due to the wind speed and chill factor that would be experienced on the far side of the course.
As the 950 ish runners set off it was cold (-3 degrees C) and snowing lightly… perfect. The route is pretty much a ‘there and back’, other than the middle 2 – 3 miles. It was all on packed snow, and we had all decided not to use the Yaktrax we had been discussing wearing over the past 12 months (but for me it was an easier decision as I had forgotten to pack mine – anyone need any never used Yaktrax?). The first (and last) couple of miles were on closed roads, with the remainder being on pavements, and the route was lit with large oil tealights which looked very pretty in the snow – as did the picturesque houses we ran passed decked out with Xmas decorations and covered in pristine snow. It is a predominantly flat course, there were drinks stations every 5km (water, energy drinks and hot juice) and it was very well marshalled.
The finish line was in Tromso town centre, where a lovely medal depicting the Northern Lights awaited, together with fruit, drinks and baking foil.
All of us completed the course, and there were 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prizes in around 10 different male and female age groups. Chris Brown excelled in winning his age category (and Andy Todd also won his age category) and their achievements were rightly celebrated at a nicely traditional ceremony after the race.
There were also 10km and 5km races on the same afternoon, and from next year there will also be a full marathon (in addition to the summer full marathon).
A great event, in magical surroundings – I suspect some of us will be back next year (entries open later this week on 9th January).