Day 32
S79 45' 39.60", W82 51' 24.84"
///mushed.hyperlinks.devolve
Union Glacier logistics base is busy with climbers and runners.
“Hi good evening everyone, it’s Lou reporting in now from day 32 of the expedition.
As you’ll all be aware, we’re back at Union Glacier now, and today, Martin spent some time with the medical team here. He’s been diagnosed, he’s got Achilles tendonitis. But the good news is, there’s no serious damage in there. They don’t believe it’s been torn or anything. He’s got a treatment plan; he’s got a series of medications he’s on, and some stretching and exercises to do.
Plan is to stay here at least for the next few days, and just track his progress and recovery, and fingers crossed that all goes well. And then we can redeploy out, and hopefully to the last degree, and hopefully ski the final 60 nautical miles to the South Pole. And the medical team’s current assessment at the moment is that is definitely a possibility. We’re excited for that.
It’s very busy here at Union Glacier, there’s lots of teams coming in to climb Mount Vinson. And when we arrived back yesterday, pure coincidence, that same day – yesterday evening – the Antarctic Ice Marathon was taking place. A field of just over 60 runners had just flown in from Punta Arenas, to run the marathon, which goes in a loop around Union Glacier. I happen to know the organiser – Richard – from a previous expedition – and he offered me a place in the marathon if I wanted to do it. Bearing in mind I’d just got off the plane, literally an hour before, and just skied over 350 miles over 30 days with Martin, and I had no running kit at all.. I was completely unprepared. I decided it was a very unique opportunity to give it a go. I went and begged, borrowed and stole some running kit from some of the other competitors that helped me out, and got myself onto the start line. And spent all evening running a marathon, through pretty soft snow, around Union Glacier. I finished at midnight last night. It was pretty tough to go and cuff a marathon, but I was really glad I did it, it was a fantastic event, and actually managed to come in the top half of the field as well. So I quite surprised myself. But my legs felt pretty heavy. I can barely walk today, I think I probably need more recovery time than Martin now while we’re here in Union Glacier after that. But it was great fun, and a real privilege to be part of such an iconic event.
That’s all from us. We’ll keep you updated on Martin’s progress and recovery here in Union Glacier, and fingers crossed we can get out and continue with the expedition.
That’s all for this evening.
Onwards.”
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