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Karen Joyce
Littleton, Colorado
51
Running Experience:
Intermediate
Why should we pick you to go to the North Pole?:
Pick me and you will get, at the very least, a certain symmetry. I started the marathon down here in McMurdo Station, Antarctica in the mid-1990's, back when the odds were solidly against anyone getting the Navy to sanctioned a run of 26.2 miles. The Commander declared it unsafe, an impossibility. At the very least, he said, we would need an ambulance and a contingent of firefighters. And for these conditions to be fulfilled, we would have to get up at two in the morning, even though the unmitigated daylight streams down upon us here like a plague of unfiltered ozone, 24 hours a day.
Fine, we said, who needs you anyway? We ran the thing unsupported. Both of us.
The marathon here has come a long way since then. This year we had a record turnout of 48 souls who came out to brave the GPS-certified 26.2 mile course, fighting the usual nightmare of soft snow and wind. Worth it? Sure. It's free.
"At the very least, he said, we would need an ambulance and a contingent of firefighters. And for these conditions to be fulfilled, we would have to get up at two in the morning, even though the unmitigated daylight streams down upon us here like a plague of unfiltered ozone, 24 hours a day.
Fine, we said, who needs you anyway? We ran the thing unsupported. Both of us." |
Offer some evidence that you can complete a marathon in harsh, sub-zero conditions at the North Pole:
I am pretty sure I have run more miles in my 16 years on the continent of Antarctica than Shackleton and Scott combined. At this point I know so much about the grit it takes to slog along, mile after mile, fighting that relentless, biting, face-destroying wind, I could write a book.
Except no one would buy it.
Tell us about your cold-weather race experience:
The first race I did down here, I frostbit my vocal chords so badly by sucking in the forty-below air, I couldn't speak for days except in a little soprano kitten voice or in the lower ranges like a basso profundo. I have lost so many toenails from running across snow-studded sastrugi at forty below zero, three of them have given up the ghost and refuse to grow back until I can guarantee them better weather.
Tell us about your marathon experience, including times, results, etc.:
Quite frankly? As far as speed, basically I suck. I'm actually kind of ashamed of this because I vividly recall the Triumphs of my Youth, but what are you going to do? I'm 51 and the days of my sprinting like an antelope across the African veldt are behind me.
So in a nutshell, no one should be placing any racetrack bets on me here as far as breaking any North Pole records. However - and this one you can throw down your $20 bill on - I live to endure something like this North Pole Marathon. If I have to finish the North Pole marathon by propelling myself forward with only my chapped and bleeding lips, leaving a trail of bloody lipstick marks in the snow, you can count on me.
And I will do my best to put you on the literary map, if there is such a thing.
What do you expect your North Pole Marathon time to be?:
5:45
Can you write well? Explain:
Can I write well. Excellent question. By asking this can I assume that you are impartial judges of such things and can weigh in here about whether there is any hope for my novels that don't sell because I never send them out of here? Maybe I could send you my first Antarctic novel, "My Continent, My Concubine", which I am currently filleting for use in my second novel, "The Winter of Our Discount Tent"? Thanks in advance for any help rendered here.
Tell us about your media experience:
As the manager for Information Technology for the scientists in McMurdo Station, I spend a substantial amount of time dealing with the media. Just two examples this year: Werner Herzog, the filmmaker, and Helen Clark, the Prime Minister of New Zealand. I actually really do enjoy the performing monkey aspect of live interviews and news bytes because I sincerely love the science of the polar regions.
Websites:
http://www.icetongue.org
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.thumbnail.JPG "Kissing the Hardrock")
tharan says:
I probably shouldn't be posting this since I'm also a NPM contest applicant, but I can vouch for Karen's toughness. During the 3 weeks I spent in McMurdo, I saw her in action. In addition to the workouts on the ice that she described so eloquently in her application, she also led an evening class called "Guts and Butts" in a storage room near the dining area. Over the sound of a boom-box blasting out classic rock, Karen would keep up a running banter bordering on a standup monologue while performing excruciating abdomonal and leg exercises that we class members were supposed to imitate when we weren't simultaneously incapacitated by laughter. It was hard enough for a girly man like me to keep up with her, but the ripped firefighters in the class were also similarly challenged.
I noticed that Karen posted an estimated finish time for the NPM which is only slightly slower than her 2005 Boulder Backroads Marathon time. This may not be an oversight since she appears to run at the same pace regardless of the conditions, as I witnessed during the 2004 McMurdo 16-Miler that we both ran.
And did she mention she can write? Check out her short story First Principles.
So if you simply must choose someone tougher than me, choose Karen.
--Terry Haran
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