South Pole race took 13 hours, frozen sweat
Print Edition
WITH a fit body, sunny smile and dark skin thanks to long-term sun exposure, Chen Penbin looks no different than other long-distance runners, but the events he competes in are anything but ordinary.
The 36-year-old fisherman, a native of a Zhejiang Province fishing island, is China’s first extreme marathon winner. He took the crown at the South Pole Marathon last month.
Extreme marathons are regarded by many as the “craziest,” held in extreme natural conditions all over the world — the Sahara Desert, North Pole, South Pole and Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, among others.
Chen, in fact, became the first person in the world to compete in extreme marathons on all seven continents. His footsteps have covered the Gobi Desert in China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the Sahara in Africa, Amazon jungle in South America, as well as events in Greece, Australia and the United States since 2010.
The 100-kilometer South Pole Marathon is probably the coldest in the world, as runners face the Antarctic snow and ice, sub-zero temperatures and high winds.
Wearing three layers of clothes, a pair of thick shoes, two pairs of gloves and goggles, Chen finished the 6-member race on November 20 in 13 hours, 57 minutes and 46 seconds — about two hours ahead of an Italian runner-up.
Participants navigated 10 laps around a 10km trapezoid-shaped route.
After completing a lap, they could go into a tent for supplies or change wet clothes. Chen built a solid advantage after three laps.
“It was extremely windy during the third and fourth laps,” Chen told Shanghai media in an interview last week. “I was actually depressed by the running condition at the beginning, as I knew I would not be able to achieve a good result or even break the record under such conditions.”
Chen had expected to complete the 100 kilometers in 11 hours, but the wind made it hard for runners to even walk in some sections. Snow softened the surface of the ice track and made it hard for Chen to use his strength properly.
The temperature never rose higher than below 30 degrees Celsius, and Chen suffered slight frostbite in his left arm.
“We sweat when running and the coldness can turn sweat into ice immediately. The skin of my left arm had been stuck to clothes by ice for a while during the race,” he recalls. “If I had not changed clothes in time, my arm would be gone.”
He was also bothered by snow blindness due to improper choice of goggles, and he laments missing at least one South Pole wildlife feature: “It’s a pity I didn’t manage to see penguins during my trip.”
Chen was born on Jishan Island, a fishing village in Yuhuan County, where he says 98 percent of the island’s 4,000 habitants are fishermen. He started fishing at the age of 14 and never left the island before he was 20. The tough conditions on the sea gave him strength and a strong mind, he says.
The first time Chen took part in an organized sports activity was in 2000, when he won a push-up competition and 600-yuan (US$97) cash award.
“For the first time, I realized that sports competitions could help me make money!” Chen says.
What he didn’t realize at the time was how running would change his life. A year later, Chen started to take part in various marathon events in China. He managed to finish a 75km marathon in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, while carrying five gallons of water, which was part of the event sponsor’s requirement. He also ran a 42km standard marathon during which he had to wear a pair of leather shoes. He finished in 3 hours and 9 minutes.
Starting in 2003, Chen tried all types of outdoor competitions including hiking and triathlons.
“As long as there is a competition, I’ll participate,” Chen says, adding that his motivation has changed over the years. “I realized I had been a frog at the bottom of a well, and taking part in running events all over the world has helped broaden my vision. I can become an eagle.”
In the earlier stage, Chen had to take part-time jobs or borrow money from relatives to cover the cost of taking part in overseas competitions. With the improvement of his performances, domestic enterprises and other sponsors have been backing him.
For the South Pole competition, his current sponsor, the SECA Group, paid a 100,000-yuan (US$16,129) entrance fee plus 50,000 yuan for the flight from southern Chile and tent accommodation in Antarctica.
Chen puts almost no commercial logo on his running outfits, but does include a national flag sticker.
“When I’m competing in a foreign country, strong patriotic emotion comes out. I just want to tell the world a Chinese can also make such achievements,” he says.
Chen has only finished primary school and can hardly remember the 26 English letters. When competing abroad, he prepares pocketable cards with English and Chinese words or simply uses body language to communicate.
“When taking part in international competitions, the challenge is not the race itself, but the procedure to get there,” Chen jokes. “I have to hold my nerves to make sure not to check in a wrong hotel or mistake a race date.”
Chen doesn’t have a professional coach, instead he makes his own training plans for various kinds of competitions.
“I do four hours of running every day, and some long-distance practice like a 60-kilometer exercise on weekends,” Chen says. “Other training includes variable speed practice and mountain climbing.”
“I was from a fisherman’s family,” he says. “Nine years of heavy labor like pulling the fishing nets helped in building my stamina and strength.
“My next goal is to keep myself running until the age of 60,” Chen says. “I don’t have to win the races or even complete the whole route, because the participation itself is what really matters.”
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