What's Cooler Than Being Cool? Ex-Smoker Wins Ice Cold 100K Marathon in Antarctica

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Ireland’s Keith Whyte, who was a late addition to the race, completes his record run at the Antarctic Ice 100K

Anyone who’s ever chickened out on a morning run because of a little snow outside should have more inspiration after Irishman Keith Whyte’s most recent accomplishment: winning the Antarctic Ice 100K ultramarathon in temperatures that hovered around 14 degrees Fahrenheit.

Whyte, 33 and who only quit smoking in 2007, won the race last week in 9 hours, 26 minutes, and 2 seconds – almost four hours ahead of his closest competitor – even though he signed up at the last minute because another runner withdrew. Whyte is the Irish record holder in the 100K, and his victory was redemption for a 100K race in the much warmer conditions of Qatar in November, when he was slowed down by a stress fracture in his pelvis.

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The race weather could have been a lot worse – this is summer in Antarctica – but it was cold enough to put Whyte in danger of frostbite at one point.

“I lost a glove at one stage,” he told the Irish Examiner. “I could feel the frostbite setting in. At the next station we poured warm water on it and after a few minutes the feeling came back into the fingers. If the station had been further away, it could have been more serious. Thankfully we found a replacement glove and I was able to continue.

“Any part of your skin exposed was in danger. I was lucky in that the worst injury I got during the race was very bad windburn on my face.”

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Whyte running in much warmer conditions. (Photo: Antarctic Ice 100K/Facebook)

The race consisted of five 20K laps on snow and ice, and there was a special mandatory kit the 12 runners had to wear to protect against hypothermia. Whyte said he arrived to the Union Glacier base camp for the race via a Russian transport carrier from Chile.

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“Any part of your skin exposed was in danger, he told the Irish Examiner. “I was lucky in that the worst injury I got during the race was very bad windburn on my face. But some of the lads who were out running for longer got snow blindness.”

Whyte’s course-record time was two hours slower than his record Irish time of 7:03:53.

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