Negative temps, wind chill, running on ice: typical training day

Troy Hamon

Running Experience:
Advanced

Why should we pick you to go to the North Pole?:
I run regularly in the winter in conditions that are probably as close to the conditions of the race as any competitor that you could possibly find. In addition, I am an experienced photographer and have been working on a project to photograph the marathons I run in as a fine art black and white portfolio for possible publication as a book eventually. I bring total familiarity with arctic running conditions and equipment as well as a photographer's eye, and there is very little about this race that I am not already prepared for. The one thing I don't have is a Russian Visa, but that's about it.

Offer some evidence that you can complete a marathon in harsh, sub-zero conditions at the North Pole:
I live in King Salmon, Alaska and do the bulk of my running in the winter. My summer schedule makes it fairly difficult to run consistently in the summer months, so all of my marathon preparation has been done in winter conditions. Due to its location on the northwest side of the major Alaska/Aleutian Range, King Salmon winter weather is more similar to interior Alaska temperatures than the warmer south central or southeast Alaska weather. It is slightly warmer here than Fairbanks on an average winter day (is there such a thing as an average winter day?...). But while runners from Fairbanks can claim to be familiar with cold temperatures, they do not get the wind we get. Our location in the midst of tundra lowlands provides us with not just cold weather, but very windy cold weather. I sincerely doubt that you can find a runner that has more race-specific training for this event than I do. I've been running more miles than normal this winter, in one of the most consistently cold winters we've had recently. I have run in sub-zero temperatures repeatedly, including daily the past two weeks. Yesterday morning on my run it was -35. Today it was -16 and with 12 mph wind.

Running for the past few years in this environment, I have encountered every conceivable combination of cold, wind, snow, and traction. I have run in 12 inches of loose, unconsolidated snow. I have run on trails that have been drifted over with ice-covered puddles that dried up below the ice (meaning you slog through the snow, slide on and occasionally break through the ice, and generally try to complete the run without breaking a leg).

I have tested extensive combinations of layers and accessories to provide optimal comfort while running in these conditions. I have, and use regularly, everything that this event calls for in terms of apparel. In fact, my quest to improve the functionality of facemasks for running in extreme cold with goggles on has led me to customize (meaning hack them up and then piece them back together in extremely ugly but highly functional ways) them until now, in my fifth attempt, I have what may be the perfect -30 running facemask. I continually seek to learn new things about running in winter weather: today's question was, 'Can I avoid ice buildup on my eyelashes by coating them with Vaseline before running?' Today's answer was, 'No.'

I run every kind of training run imaginable in the winter here. I run tempo runs, long runs, intervals, progression runs, and the bulk of my miles as easy runs. My long runs this past month alone have been a formidable training regimen for the North Pole Marathon. The only obvious way you could find somebody that has a more complete understanding of the conditions is to find a competitor that has completed the race previously.

Tell us about your cold-weather race experience:
Despite living in a cold environment, I have little cold weather race experience. This is because there aren't enough people to have a race. There are a total of 4 people that run in the winter here, and most of them run less than 1/3 as many miles as I do and a lot slower (not that I'm so blazing fast...). So while I have extensive cold weather running experience, it isn't in a race format. I would submit that the actual considerations of the event are perhaps no more dangerous than my normal long runs here in King Salmon that occur during cold snaps. Why? Because there are few people that live here, and when I go for a 21 mile run at -15, I will likely be out for a little under four hours, with no traffic, no nearby houses for most of the run, and no assistance available within many miles. I carry a backpack with emergency gear and fluids just for my training runs in these conditions. The races I train for all occur in the lower 48, which means that I have somewhat of an out-of-body experience adjusting to the warm temperatures. Last year I trained in sub-zero weather for months, then ran the Tampa Marathon in late February. This time I am training to run the PF Chang and Sedona Marathons in January and February.

Tell us about your marathon experience, including times, results, etc.:
My marathon history, including excuses, is below:
2003 Redding Marathon 4:18
2005 Catalina Marathon 4:52 (massively hilly)
2005 Wenatchee Marathon 4:30 (bonked trying for 4:00)
2006 Tampa Marathon 4:23 (not trained well enough for faster effort, just ran to finish)
2006 Naknek River Marathon 4:55 (actually just a training run with a friend before she gave up for the winter)
2007 PF Chang Marathon (will be aiming to run sub-4 hours)
2007 Sedona Marathon (just running for the scenery and fun)

As you can see, I'm not a fast endurance runner by most standards. However, I have been slowly and consistently increasing my mileage through the past year, and am now running with a base almost double my normal base. My annual total mileage for the year that just ended was more than 500 miles beyond any year I had run previously, and I am expecting to better my marathon time substantially in 10 days. While my times and the guideline below (which says nearly double your normal time) suggest I would run a North Pole Marathon in the 8 hour range, my long runs in highly relevant conditions are a quality indicator. Based on the conditions in the photographs from the 2006 race, and the runs I've been doing, I expect I could finish in 5 hours. If the conditions are less favorable and the footing poorer, it might be closer to 6 hours. Given this range, my estimate below is an average of the two.

What do you expect your North Pole Marathon time to be?:
5:30

Can you write well? Explain:
In a sense, I have been training for the writing portion of this assignment as well as the running portion. For each of my recent marathons, I have posted regular training updates, usually focusing on a particularly memorable training day out of every week or two. These updates can be viewed in the coolrunning.com forums, and the link to the current saga detailing my training is given below.

In a different vein, I have written about my experience building and refining a stand-alone darkroom in our remote location at apug.org, which is also given below. These internet forum threads illustrate my general approach to regular updates and are most closely related to the nature of blog postings, which I have not done before.

I would use my blog to relate my training experiences and the race event to other people that run, people that are interested in the arctic, and people who are just curious what drives somebody to run a marathon on top of an ocean. I would also seek to develop at least three blog postings that go beyond basic human interest to tie into three main themes highly relevant to IPY. First, the effect that climate change will likely have on the arctic environment, in terms of both average temperatures and variation in temperatures, with heavy reference to the irony that we are enduring of one of the coldest winters on record in my hometown even while global climate in general is warming. Second, the specific local impact of reductions of Arctic pack ice, especially with reference to polar bear population demographics and the eventual fate of the North Pole Marathon. And finally, I would develop a blog entry that examines the extensive impact of changes in the arctic climate on the rest of the world, with reference specifically to climate and weather that impacts other people in an effort to help them feel the connection of the arctic environment to their own experience, wherever they may live.

Tell us about your media experience:
I have extensive experience with film and digital photography. My personal fine art photography is done on film in black and white, printed in a traditional wet darkroom. This includes the marathon portfolio, involving photographs from every marathon I've run. For work, I photograph digitally. This ranges from photographs for data collection, to documenation of fieldwork, to landscape and nature images for use in flyers and brochures. The data collection projects I have led include a project whereby I obtained digital cameras and intervalometers, with power supplies, and placed them remotely to record photographs every ten minutes for a period of two weeks to document wildlife activity. I am completely comfortable with photography utilizing pretty much any equipment.

My experience with audio equipment is more limited, but I do have experience recording sound for memorization of voice parts for a choir I direct (a very small choir...everything here is small...) both with digital and analog equipment. I have not done video in any capacity, but am comfortable with technology, willing to learn, and would be happy to develop the necessary skills ahead of time. I don't intend that to sound like I can become an accomplished cinematographer at the drop of a hat, because I know it isn't that easy, but I am comfortable stating that I can learn to operate the equipment and post footage.

Websites:
Personal photography site: http://bristolbayartists.com/troyhamon/

Coolrunning PF Chang thread(my profile is rhoon phast): http://www.coolrunning.com/forums/Forum14/HTML/002192.shtml

Analog Photography User Group darkroom construction thread: http://www.apug.org/forums/forum43/21783-darkroom-construction.html

Back to the list of applicants