Saturday 24th at 9:15 local time The Polar Circle Marathon started in minus 8 degrees celsius. 62 runners from 12 different countries began the steep uphill run towards the ice cap where a 2 kilometer long loop had to be made before heading back to Kangerlussuaq and the finish line.
Best represented was Great Britain, but it was Spain, Denmark and Greenland who stole the headlines.
For the second year in row The Polar Circle Marathon winner came from Spain.
In an amazing time of 3:14:05 Francisko Sanches Pintor won the mens full marathon, although not an overall record the time is amazing considering the difficult conditions on the route with a lot of snow and technically very demanding path to the ice cap. Pintors PR is 2:51, so no doubt he ran the best marathon of his life yesterday.
15 minutes after the winner Francisco Javier Maya Mari took the second place. 3rd in the mens marathon was Paul Davies from Australia in 3:56:13.
3rd overall, however, and 1st on the womens marathon was Danish runner Marianne Delcomyn, running in spectacular 3:41:37 - a new race record!
Yolanda Smith from Great Britain took the second place in 4:43:46 while Britt Folkerman came in third just after the clock had passed 5 hours.
On the half marathon Jonas Petersen from Greenland won the mens competition in 2:08:22 while Marianne Søeballe Jensen was victorious in the womens competition just beating the 3 hour mark with a time of 2:59:02.

All runners did a fantastic job yesterday in the challenging conditions with frost, ice and snow! The weather was fair with no wind and a light cover of clouds that developed in to beautiful calm snow fall at the end of the race.
The Medical Team was happy to report that no runners got serious injuries and all 62 completed within the time limit of 7 hours.
A huge congratulations to all participants!

Results will be available on www.polar-circle-marathon.com in the beginning of next week while photos will be availble at the end of next week.

Tonight the participants are celebrating their achievement with a festive Gala Dinner before heading back to Copenhagen or onwards to beautful Ilulissat on Monday.

Runners from 5 continents arrived yesterday to Kangerlussuaq in Greenland to take part in The Polar Circle Marathon and half marathon.
The weatherforecast promise nice weather tommorow during the race. The runners can expect temperature between minus 15 and minus 7 degrees celcius.
Besides running on the ice cap of Greenland runners can expect to run in up to 60 cm of snow.
Auroras or northern lights welcomed yesterday night the runners to Greenland with a fantastic natural light show in the sky.
Today all runners will inspect the course on the ice cap and tonight the traditional pasta party will take place.
This blog will be updated with news from the race tommorow Saturday.