Marathon Tours & Travel began offering the Antarctica Marathon®️ in 1995. As the creator of the first annual sporting event in Antarctica, we are proud to be celebrating our 30th anniversary in 2024 with two charters to Antarctica. We are also proud to announce that after years of requests from our Antarctica Alumni for a similar “once in a lifetime adventure experience” in the Arctic, we will be hosting our first Arctic Marathon in September 2024!
The Arctic Marathon Tour Package begins with three-nights in Copenhagen, Denmark. Here you will enjoy exploring the former Viking outpost and most interesting current capital in Scandinavia, before heading to the new world first discovered by Erik the Red – Greenland. You will be flown to Kangerlussuaq which is located on the western coast of Greenland, where your adventure begins aboard the new Ocean Albatros ship. Over the course of the first few days, the ship sails north to the Ilulissat Icefjord, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and rightly known the world over as ‘the Iceberg Capital of the World’. Opposite the south side of the Ilulissat Icefjord is Ilimanaq – the location of our 2024 Arctic Marathon, Half-Marathon and Ultra 50K!
During your travels you will explore a pristine corner of the planet, coming face-to-face with Arctic fjords, glaciers, icebergs, seals, whales, Inuit villages and hopefully polar bears. Historians and scientists will provide lectures on board our ship and we will experience cultural and wildlife excursions during landings in remote areas.
The race course starts and finishes in the small village of Ilimanaq, the architype of rural Greenland. Following dogsled and ATV trails, you will enjoy views of the tiny harbor often choked with floating ice, clusters of multicolored houses, and an almost endless backcountry. Great care will be taken to leave behind zero impact on the community and environment in this sensitive ecosystem. Marathon Tours & Travel (MTT) takes their environments steward role seriously and in fact has raised more than $500,000 for Oceanites in Antarctica, the non-profit scientific organization that monitors the effects of climate change and the impact of tourism on Antarctica. MTT will identify a worthy philanthropic cause in Greenland too.
To race on all seven continents is a goal of many marathoners and we are proud to have made that possible for 30 years! We now begin a new challenge for our friends – The Polar Challenge!
Note: Space for 2024 will first be offered to Antarctica Alumni and their families (and significant others) and our Seven Continents Club® (SCC) Members. Space permitting, it will be available for non-SCC Members to book in late January. MTT will evaluate plans for the Arctic Marathon in 2025 and beyond after hosting 2024.
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