Antarctica.

The Earth’s southernmost continent. This desert is cold, dry and windy and also has the highest elevation of all the continents. The only humans residing here live at scattered research stations collecting data and studying the environment.

photo by Rita Willaert

The Antarctica Marathon takes place on King George Island which is the largest of the South Shetland Islands just off the Antarctic Peninsula. Average temperatures for the marathon range between 15-30°F  minus the wind chill which can drop the temp by 10°.

The official website for the Antarctica Marathon is located at www.marathontours.com. Getting to the Antarctica is a journey in and of itself; the entire adventure takes two weeks. This isn’t your normal marathon experience. You will run on icebergs and see penguins, seals and whales. This race has become so popular worldwide that it is booked through 2013.

When I found out that two of our very own local runners, Steve Kendra and Bill Hardy, were participating in this marathon I jumped at the chance to find out more. What I discovered was a story so much bigger than simply running a mere 26.2 miles on an iceberg.

When Bob Bodkin first posted about the NF Endurance Team and his buddy, Steve Kendra, who was running the Antarctica Marathon, on the LVRS facebook page a couple of weeks ago I made a mental note to follow up on it. About a week later another post appeared in the form of a link to a news article about Steve’s upcoming trip to Antarctica to run the marathon. So, I sent off a message to Steve and asked if he’d consider writing up a race report for me to post on the website. He responded that he’d be happy to do so and also that he’d be posting updates during the course of his trip over at the NF Endurance blog.

I follow the link over to the NF Endurance website. Silly me. Here I was thinking NF Endurance stood for something like North Face Endurance. Boy, I couldn’t have been more wrong.

NF stands for neurofibromatosis, the scientific term for tumors growing along nerves throughout the body. NF Endurance is a charity based endurance team, the participants of which participate in a variety of endurance events to help raise awareness and funds for the Children’s Tumor Foundation.

Steve Kenra and teammate Chad Leathers

Steve Kendra is one of 12 members of the NFXtreme Team traveling to Antarctica to run the marathon and at the same time bring attention to neurofibromatosis and the Children’s Tumor Foundation. The team leaves this coming Saturday, February 27th, and flies to Argentina, the first stop on their journey to King George Island. Race day is March 7th, 9:00 am. Steve will be posting regular updates throughout his journey.

Steve’s 14 year old daughter has NF so he has first hand experience and knowledge of how debilitating this disease can be. Steve,  Director of NF Endurance, is quoted as saying, “ Working for NF Endurance is the most awesome job I could ever dream of because I know beyond a shadow of a doubt, and in every cell in my body, that the road to treatments and a cure for this devastating disorder will be paved with NF Endurance neon.”

We wish you a safe journey and good luck, Steve and fellow NFXtreme teammates, and look forward to reading all about your experience when you return home. Good luck.

Please check out the NF Endurance website to learn more about NF.
You can also visit the NF Endurance Fundraising Page.