Georgraphic Extremes I've Reached During Marathons

When I decided to run marathons in all 50 states, it led me to explore the whole country.  Then I started running marathons in other countries.  Over the years, I’ve used marathons as an opportunity to explore far-away places.

When Marathon Tours & Travel held their first Antarctica Marathon in 1995, it became possible to run marathons on all seven continents.  These days, you can run marathons almost anywhere.  Here are some of the geographic extremes I’ve reached while running marathons.

Farthest North

The northernmost place I’ve been while running a marathon was Tromsø, Norway.  Tromsø is 69.5 degrees north of the equator.  For comparison, that’s roughly as far north as the northern coast of Alaska.

Tromsø is north of the Arctic Circle, so there’s a period of several weeks around the summer solstice when the sun never sets.  Even at midnight, you can see the sun just barely above the horizon.  It never gets dark.

I ran a race in Tromsø called the Midnight Sun Marathon.  It lives up to its name.  The race starts at 8:30 PM.  I finished the race several minutes before midnight, but most runners were still on the course.  It was mostly cloudy, but there were times during the race when I could see the sun peeking through the clouds.  There was still plenty of light as I walked back to my hotel.

Farthest South

My southernmost marathon was the Antarctica Marathon on King George Island.  Most of Antarctica is south of the Antarctic Circle, but there’s a peninsula that extends north toward South America.  King George Island is at the northern tip of this peninsula.  It’s outside the Antarctic Circle, but it’s still pretty far south.  It’s 62 degrees south of the equator. 

I was there in March, which is near the end of the Antarctic summer, but it was still cold.  I encountered temperatures that were comparable to winter in Minnesota.

Closest to the Equator

Since north and south are measured by their distance from the equator, being close to the equator is another extreme.  Of all the marathons I’ve done, the one that was closest to the equator was the Singapore Marathon.  Singapore is 1.2 degrees north of the equator.  That’s about 85 miles.

Near the equator, you would expect it to be hot.  Singapore was hot, but not nearly as hot as some of the other places I’ve traveled.  It’s an island nation, so the ocean has a moderating effect on the temperature.  As far as climate goes, but big issue is the humidity.  It’s always near 100%.

Farthest East

North and south are pretty straightforward.  East and west are more subjective.  Most maps of the world are Euro-centric.  Japan is considered to be the “far east.”  From this point of view, my easternmost marathon would be the Auckland Marathon.  Auckland, New Zealand has a longitude of 74.7 degrees east.

Personally, I don’t think of Auckland as my easternmost destination.  I don’t think of it as east at all.  To get there, I traveled west across the Pacific.  To me, it makes more sense to consider how far east or west I traveled from home to get to my destination.

The farthest east I’ve ever traveled was to Durban, South Africa, where I ran the Comrades Marathon.  Durban has a longitude of 31 degrees east.  I live at 93 degrees west longitude, so I traveled eastward by 124 degrees to get to Durban.  It was far enough east that I could see the Indian Ocean from my hotel.

Farthest West

From a Euro-centric view of the world, my westernmost marathon was in Kapa’a, Hawai’i, on the Island of Kaua’i.  Kapa’a is at 159.3 degrees west longitude.  I ran a series of four marathons there called the Aloha Series.

Just as I don’t think of the Auckland Marathon as my easternmost marathon, I also don’t think of the Aloha Series as my westernmost marathons.  I traveled west to get there, but I’ve traveled much farther west to reach destinations in Asia.  The farthest I’ve traveled in a westward direction to run a marathon was Bagan, Myanmar, where I ran the Bagan Temple Marathon.  The latitude of Bagan is 95 degrees east, but I traveled 172 degrees west to get there.  That’s almost halfway around the world.

Highest Elevation

I’ve rarely been above 10,000 feet in a marathon.  I’ve done a couple races that start at high elevation, but quickly descended.  I’ve only done one that went above 11,000 feet.  That was the Pike’s Peak Marathon.

The Pike’s Peak Marathon starts in Manitou Springs and follows the Barr Trail all the way to the summit of Pike’s Peak.  Then you turn around and go back down again.  The highest point is at the top 

Lowest Elevation

Elevation is measured relative to mean sea level.  There are several places on the surface of the earth that are below mean sea level.  One of them is New Orleans.  I’ve run four marathons in New Orleans, which is about 10 feet below sea level, but that’s not the lowest elevation I’ve reached during a marathon.

My lowest elevation involved running through a tunnel.  The course of the Hong Kong Marathon includes the West Harbour Tunnel, which connects the Kowloon peninsula to Hong Kong Island.  When I ran through that tunnel, I reached a depth of 25 meters (82 feet) below sea level.