Well I'm walking with a little 'swagger' in my step these days - that means I'm recovering and I can feel my muscles a little more than usual!
I trained for it all season and last Sunday I ran the Ice marathon - all 26.2 miles of it!
It was great and I felt great - I enjoyed the entire experience and made it a point to soak it all in as I ran it.
The weather was unbelievable, and by that I mean it was calm - no wind, at least not until the final 3 miles, as if Antarctica was saying "you see it could have been bad" but for the last 100 yards I had a tail wind.

It was a flat light the entire day - totally overcast. Not too cold and like I said no wind - and that was the big variable.
Before race day my only long run was on Christmas day - 15 miles on the treadmill. In fact all my training was on the treadmill. I learned a lot - the actual pounding on the Ice surface took it's toll and was more work - ergo my 'swagger'.
Aerobically, I was prepared 100%. The bottom's of my feet - the foot muscles I guess? - got fatigued and were sore...I got a little chaffing on the last five miles but I was recovered and climbing Ob Hill in a day and a half! I was back to normal - all thanks to Deneen and the post race massage.

Deneen also was a race volunteer - she had an aid station at mile 10/16.
The race coarse was entirely on the Ross Ice shelf - it's the road out to Pegasus white Ice runway - the permanent landing strip for McMurdo Station.
It's 13 miles from the Scott Base transition to Pegasus. So we were shuttled from town to the transition on Ivan and then started the run on the Ice shelf.

So my first half was run at a pretty good pace ~ generally near 5.8 - 6.0 miles an hour, but the second half I geared way down...I ended up running the marathon in 5:44 but I never walked and I only stopped at the aid stations for water on the second half always under a minute...always running!
So it was awesome, I enjoyed it, and I'm already thinking how I could improve my training methods, time, etc...
But where else can you get penguins participating in a marathon?

sometimes you simply need to lie down!

Extra Extra Read all about it, the pressure ridges are melting away!
yep and so is all of McMurdo.
For about two weeks now, the temps have risen and the solar bombardment has all the snow melting out.
We had two significant snowstorms in November, and then the temps have warmed in December, so running water is happening all over town...in another two weeks it'll be a dustbowl...
I can truly say I know what to expect. This is my fourth summer season here and it feels like old hat. Climbing the hill is really pleasant and the sounds of water is exciting...
Also the Ice edge is about 18 miles out and you can see open water from high vantage points.
Work is going well, in fact there are only about 70 days left in the season! a few weeks to Christmas and a week after that Icestock. I found out the Marathon is on Jan 17th - that's about 9 days sooner than I thought, so I'm down at least a week of training but we'll see how it goes.
Marathon update: I've crested 9 miles each jog 3X a week, but, it's causing me to be late coming back from lunch so I can't do that anymore...this past week, I've only been getting 8 miles each time, but I'm planning on adding another day, making it four times each week...I'm still hiking the hill - up to 113 times this season, I'm not so sure I'll hit the 200 mark! we'll see...
talk to ya'll in a few... many happy birthdays ( some belated ) to Madelaine, Andrew, and Margaret!
hope the days are/were/and continue to be awesome!

miss everyone...kishout

pics from the pressure ridges as promised...
Happy Thanksgiving everybody - I hope it's a wonderful start to the holiday season.
I know there's always a lot of change out there in the world, I hope this day of giving thanks is wonderful...(as is everyday!)
I'm thankful I've been able to enjoy Antarctica in the summertime...one of the ways, is going to these wonderful formations...enjoy the photos...there are some neat features: Ice Flames, Seals, penguins, gargoyle's, squirrels, etc...
enjoy...
Of course there are amazing cloudscapes in this coldest of deserts...and the clouds do crazy things:

tendrils from a 'sky monster' going after the sun...on the verge of devouring it...you can see the nacreous clouds - the green and red hues...

sweeping skies...

Mt Discovery under blanket before the onslaught...

The ridges...as the Ross Ice Shelf thunders off the continent into the Southern Ocean, it encounters Ross Island and annual sea ice, creating giants in it's sublime persuit of freedom

the tour...

Power Ice

"the wave"

sculpted snow

heroic shadow

Gargoyle

Ice squirrel

Buttress

Fire and ICE

hands

Big

Ice seal

Careful - don't go into the Venus Ice trap!

close up - just don't get too close!

Power of the sun

I love the blocks and curves and jagged edges...those tiny striations in the background are giant crevasses on the flanks of Mt Erebus!

dollop of whipped cream!

Ice Flames - my favourite.

The kiwi's have spear headed a sustainable energy effort down here with a Wind Farm.
Finally!
instead of more 1 million gallon fuel tanks, lets do something better, with less impact...in a joint effort three giant wind turbines are being erected near McMurdo.
The first one is complete - although not yet functional...soon.

at the end of work yesterday, only the tower was up, by the end of my Pressure Ridge tour ~ 2 hours - 2 blades were on, and now this morning all three blades are on, and there's a webcam...I don't know when it becomes operational, or when the other two towers get completed...so stay tuned

Check out the webcam:
Antarctic Winds
You can see the sea Ice in the background - behind the wind turbine. Black Island, and the 'ripples' in the sea ice - these are pressure rollers beginning to form.
have a great day - don't get too full...I will miss celebrating with everyone...I miss the home cooking - no one does it better than mom!
Cheers...kishout

The Recreation dept is putting together Pressure ridge tours. I volunteered to be a guide. This photo is from our training session.
I was supposed to lead a trip today (Sunday) but the weather hasn't been cooperating!
We'll try again tomorrow.
The ridges are pretty amazing and big...more pics to follow later this week.
Marathon Update: 8.2 miles the other day w/ a weekly total of >24mi.
There was a big music event at Gallagher's last night, and while my band LeVel 5ive didn't play - 1/2 the band is out of town at field camps for a couple more weeks - I did run sound and sat in w/ some other friends on a tune or two.
I got to enjoy a fun night of music - the highlights were the Safety Orchestra, and the McMurdo Jazz Band.
There was good hard hittin rock n roll by "Next Flight Out" and some classic bluegrass by "Phatass Bluegrass"
Definitely a fun time, and it started snowing out and left Mactown under a blanket of clean - soon to melt out and turn to muck...
The season is just about at the half way point, tomorrow starts week 13...and it's gonna be a short week - T-giving is next weekend and then it's only a month from Christmas and new years - ICESTOCK; then the long slog of January to vessel in February to Redeployment fun!!!
So it's all gonna be a breeze from here on out...I'll keep you posted.
kO

Recently, I had the pleasure of going on a morale trip to Antarctica's Dry Valleys. It was a 'working' boondoggle, one in which I helped change out batteries for a remote site that uploads data from the world's seismic activities - specifically from instruments that can detect nuclear detinations.
This site is located on top of Mount Newell - a peak about 6400' tall...
Each battery weighed in at about 108 lbs! So it was quite a job changing out dozens of batteries - my group did 40 total, and there was another group the next day doing about the same!

While I didn't get to the valleys - I was pearched high above with magnificent views - and after 4 seasons of looking, studying, and pearing towards the far off mountains of the Royal Society Mountain Range and 'Dry Valleys', I finally made it over there - worth the wait ( and the weight of all those batteries! )
So here are the photo's - enjoy...

The destination is Mt. Newell (my finger is pointing to the peak on the map - while I studied this photo I noticed the glacier (immediately under my finger is called the Denton glacier - of course!))

Our bird on the pad

...and we're off - Ob Hill in the window. Meow!

McMurdo from the air

Ob Hill from the air

Stormy Discovery

Big Mountain! That's Newell...

Commonwealth glacier in the foreground, Canada glacier in the background, and Lake Fryxell in between

looking down as we fly over a dramatic ice fall

mountain ridge

another ridge on the approach

Really close

swinging around to land on this ridge

almost there...you can barely make out a building in the middle/right of the photo

Boulders on top after a short little hike.
This was my first helocopter ride and it was awesome - we flew about 1200 feet off the deck until we climbed up and over the mountains...I spent about 7 hours out there and it was AWESOME!
The work was tough but it came in waves - each payload had 10 batteries and we had a pulley system from the landing pad to the building. In all it took about 35 minutes to get the 10 new batteries from the drop off to the building and the ten used batteries back to the pad and load them up.
Then it was a waiting game, in which we had spectacular views and time to hike on that skinny ridge and look deeper into the continent and down into the valleys.
It was the highlight of my season - and it made me want to be a helocopter pilot!
This place is fantastic and it was such a beautiful day to fly. Calm and sunny with endless views.
The last two days in McMurdo have been crazy snowy and windy but it's finally letting up!
I just finished Sunday brunch, and I'm letting deneen sleep - she's on night shift for half the season so it's her nighttime now...
It's getting towards my half way point in the season - wow! doesn't seem that long, especially when you've lived here for more than a year straight!
I think today is day 80 for me and I have about 99 + or - to go...not bad, not bad...
The good news is we have a two day weekend in two weeks for Thanksgiving - that should be fun, then it's a month until Christmas and a week until New Year's!
This season is flying by - in a helo hurry!
My exercise routine is going great and I'm on target - target for getting into better shape. I've already dropped a few pounds and this past week I laid down 23 miles on the treadmill ( 8 miles being my longest run).
My goal is the marathon but I'll only do what I'm ready for and capable of when the time comes (third week of January).
The weather is getting warmer, and running outside will be an option soon. I'm still cross training with a daily dose of Ob Hill - once a day - sometimes twice!
I'm up to 85 ascents this season and I decided last night my goal is to break my record from two seasons ago - 153 times in 136 days! - and or get to 200 before I leave this place - that means I need to double up and not miss a day...we'll see.
The cool thing is I have more time in this job than I did when I was in RECREATION. Plus I'm not putting that much time into my band. I'm finding a decent balance with work and play and exercise - although I'm laying low in the community.
Before db went to sleep we started talking about our travel plans post ice...things are looking good.

hope everybody's doing well out there - chime in when you get a chance!
Kishout