The Coolest race on earth

The 26.2 mile Antarctica Marathon, first held in 1995, is now an annual event that sells out years in advance. Muddy, cold, hilly, and horrible, the race goes up and down a melting glacier twice, past curious penguins and hostile skuas. What possesses runners to brave a trip across the world's most turbulent body of water, the Drake Passage, to be a part of all this? When John Hanc turned fifty, he gave himself a present: a trip to the marathon. He attempts to answer the question of why in his book.