North Pole Marathon

When I first met Andrey we were at the Nyben Guesthouse in the city of Longyearbyen Norway.  It was a two mile walk to the Radisson hotel where many of the other guest were staying so Andrey and I walked there together along with a small group of other people.  Everyone was walking kind of fast so I slowed down because I thought Andrey was getting kind of old and I didn't want to push him for this distance.  Little did I know that he was a marathon runner.  I thought he was just an older guy that wanted to enjoy some time on the North Pole.  The rest of the group walked way ahead of us and Andrey slowed down so he wouldn't push me for the two mile walk.  He looked at me and probably thought that I was getting a little old myself and I'm sure he didn't want to stress me out either.   There is not much more to say other than when I found out that he was a marathon runner, I felt like an idiot.  The good side of the story was that Andrey was a very nice and very intelligent man and we had a good conversation along the way.

When we got to the pole, I ran along side of Andrey for about 1/4 mile while taking videos of the run.  The truth is that I haven't run that far for about twenty years and he wore me out in just that little distance. 

From the Webmaster:   Andrey is one of the nicest persons that you will ever meet and meeting and spending time with Andrey, to me, was one of the best parts of the 2003 North Pole Expedition.
 
 

Text Courtesy of North Pole Marathon Official Site.