SA woman completes race

LEONIE Delport (50) recently completed the World’s Coolest Marathon, the North Pole Marathon, a race of 42km, run on frozen ice floes in the Arctic Ocean.Leonie and her friend Sonja Viljoen, both medical doctors, decided to run the marathon together and were the first two South African women to complete the run.

Leonie’s son Hendrik is a learner at Abbotts College Johannesburg South and when asked how he felt about his mom running and finishing the marathon, he said he was very proud of her. “It’s really amazing my mom has achieved this. She’s run many races before but this one was probably the most difficult, and run in such extreme weather conditions. Thankfully, my dad could keep in contact through a website so we knew she was doing okay,” he said.

“I decided I would run this marathon for my 50th birthday, a gift to myself,” laughed Leonie, who has also run marathons around the world, including the Asia Dead Sea Marathon, the Inca Trail and Athens marathons, the Sydney marathon as well as the local Comrades.

Running and completing marathons in seven continents, Leonie has become a member of the Seven Continents Club, a prestigious award.

“The North Pole was definitely the most treacherous run I’ve done and it was terribly cold. Sonja and I flew from London to Svalbard, an island far north off the coast of Norway, where we waited to board a small plane to the North Pole. Every year a private Russian company makes a new camp on the North Pole so the marathon can be run. This year there was a problem with the runway as it cracked more than once. We eventually flew in on April 12 and waited for the next group of runners to arrive before we could begin the race. As we slept in our tent, only a few metres away, a large crack appeared in the ice over night! It was quite scary and the race was delayed so a previous runway could be fixed for the next team of runners to fly in. We eventually began the race on April 16, at 17:00, four days after we should have begun.

“It’s light at this time of the year for 24 hours and at the beginning of the race it was -22°C, becoming colder as the evening went by, dropping to -36°C. There’s no way to describe how cold it is but the layers of clothing I wore kept me warm. The first 32km are run on the same circular route, four and half kilometres out and back again, until 32km are finished. The reason for this is there is only a certain amount of sharp shooters who could protect us against polar bear attacks. The last 10km was run in deep snow, so it was a case of walking, falling and walking again to finish!” Leonie added.

“As we crossed the finish line the temperature had dropped to -42°C and we were exhausted but absolutely thrilled to have completed the marathon. It was a truly fantastic feeling. I feel very privileged to have had the chance to compete in this marathon and it’s one I’ll hold dear to my heart. Certainly not the easiest race but such an awesome experience,” added Leonie.

When asked what is next on her bucket list, Leonie smiled and said, “Maybe the moon!”