Marathon Man Trains In Freezer
How do you train for a marathon in Antarctica?
In San Diego, Mike Pierce gave Hattie Kauffman a tour of his training facility: a big commercial freezer!
Between french fries and stacks of frozen pizza, Pierce runs eight hours a day, in temperatures hovering just below zero.
"I can see why you want to run around in here … just to keep warm!" Kauffman kidded him.
"Oh, yeah," Pierce responded. "You stand around, you turn into a popsicle! You keep moving, you stay warm."
He's not only freezer-testing his body, he's "freezer-testing my mind," Pierce says. "The biggest hazard, more than the weather, is actually the mental element of things."
Pierce ran the very first Antarctic Marathon last January. Next week, he will compete in the "ultra-marathon" — 62 miles across the ice.
"When the clouds are out, you can't differentiate between the ground and the sky," Pierce told Kauffman. "So, when you're moving, you don't have a visual reference to tell that you're actually making progress."
They'll race at an altitude of 3,000 feet. The sun never sets. It'll take Pierce about 20 hours to finish.
And that's his idea of a good time!
"I'm going because I'm a big Antarctic fan, first," he says, "not because I am a superstar athlete."
To see Kauffman's entire report,