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By Root 786 0

spectators gather on the city streets to see the dog teams bound into action at 2-minute intervals. In fact, this is all very much ceremonial as the serious time clock does not get started until the teams depart from the town of Wasilla. Nevertheless, the atmosphere in Anchorage is electric—the locals take this dog race very seriously. Evidence of this can be seen by the city statues to race runners from the past such as Balto the Dog. Race winners become local legends and walk away with $70,000 in prize money, plus a truck. Anyone can enter—though it’s mostly locals, people come from far and wide to participate in this legendary event. To enter you need to put down a $4,000 fee. The whole community turns out with many volunteering as stewards and marshals and rescue teams.

Such community spirit can be traced back to the origins of the race. In 1925 a diphtheria outbreak in Nome threatened to wipe out the local Inuit population. A town doctor sent back word to the state capital that he needed an urgent supply of the life-saving serum. Thus became the “Great Race of Mercy.” Eskimos, Russians, Norwegians, and Irish formed a team of 20 dog teams that ran a rescue relay north through the remote and dangerous Yukon. They got there just in time to save the day. The famous run was re-enacted in 1973 as part of Alaska’s centennial celebrations and it has been running ever since. The record for the race is 10 days and women have proved just as capable at competing with the most manly of mushers. Deaths are not unknown and doctors and veterinarians are positioned at every checkpoint to ensure the wellbeing of every competitor. As well as extreme temperatures and rugged landscape, racers must look out for that most dreaded of incidents—a collision with a moose. —CO’M

www.iditarod.com.

Tours: Alaska Iditarod Tours ( 1/604-720-0744;www.iditarodtours.com). Alaska Tours ( 1/866-317-3325;www.alaskatours.com).

When to Go: First Sat in Mar.

Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport.

$$$ Anchorage Marriot Downtown, 820 W. 7th Ave., Anchorage ( 1/907-279-8000;www.marriott.com). $$$ Hampton Inn Anchorage, 4301 Credit Union Dr., Anchorage ( 1/907/550-7000;www.hamptoninn.com).

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Antarctica Ultra Race

The Loneliness of the Distance Ultra Runner

Patriot Hills, Ellsworth Mountains, Antarctica

Go where even penguins fear to tread, where the sun never sets, and a savage and beautiful landscape will break down even the hardiest stamina. Antarctica is the end of the world, the frozen continent, the coldest place on the planet, and the last place on earth you’d think of going for a run. Yet every year a contingent of 20-odd, stubborn athletes brave its wind blasted interior to jog across 100km (62 miles) of ice, rock, and snow drifts. They appear like moon walkers, wrapped up in Gore-Tex and face masks with goggles and gloves ensuring not an inch of human flesh is exposed to withering snowstorms and hurricane gales. They may sit out for days in the desolate Patriot Hills, 483km (300 miles) north of the South Pole, waiting for the bad weather to pass before they dash across the tundra in a race that usually takes 20 hours. They risk –4°F (–20°C) temperatures on a landscape 900m (3,000 ft.) high with the occasional field of bottomless ice chasms to keep the runner alert.

Antarctica is famous for monumental peacock-blue icebergs shaped in surreal formations, craggy glaciers that crash into the sea, sheer ice-encrusted walls that form magnificent canals, and jagged peaks that jut out of icy fields. On the shores, several hundred thousand penguins can be found nesting and chattering away along the coast. Humpback, orca, and minke whales are often visible, nosing out of the frigid water, as are elephant, Weddell, leopard, and crabeater seals. Bird-watchers can spend hours studying the variety of unique seabirds that reside here, including petrels and albatrosses. Yet the ultra marathon runners see none of this as the course is so far from the shore there is absolutely no life, just a pristine ice block that allows them to boast they are one