THE RACE AT THE END OF THE EARTH: ANTARCTICA MARATHON 2026
On March 19, roughly 180 runners will step ashore on King George Island for the 31st edition of the Antarctica Marathon. Getting there required two days crossing the Drake Passage aboard the Ocean Victory from Ushuaia, Argentina, through the Beagle Channel and south into the South Shetland Islands. Many arrived seasick. All of them waited for weather clearance before going ashore.
The Course
The route will not be finalized until the morning of race day. King George Island hosts several international research stations, and base operations have final authority over timing and access. What runners typically find is a gravel-and-dirt out-and-back loop connecting Bellingshausen Station (Russia), Artigas Base (Uruguay), Frei Station (Chile), and Great Wall Station (China), run three times for the marathon distance.
Rolling hills throughout. Patches of ice. Temperatures between 27°F and 34°F, rarely rising above freezing. Wind that can arrive without warning and change the race entirely. In 2024, conditions never broke above freezing, and fresh snow covered the course on race day.
The Field
The Antarctica Marathon has no professional prize purse and no elite-start protocols. The field is self-selected from a pool that sells out two years in advance. Roughly 360 spots are split across two voyages annually. Voyage Two runs March 19. What draws runners here is the Seven Continents Club designation, which the finish provides, and the straightforward fact of running a marathon on the seventh continent.
Recent editions have demonstrated that the course rewards durability over speed. At last year's Voyage One, Nicholas Husson won the men's marathon in 3:37:13 and Lisa Dosch took the women's race in 3:55:48. Voyage Two's women's champion was Rosemary Spraker, 61, of Newbury, USA, who won in 4:27:15. In 2024, Blake LaBathe won the men's race in 3:38:51.
Context
In January 2026, ultrarunner Michael Wardian ran an Antarctic 50K in 4:24:48 as part of the 777 World Marathon Challenge, setting a continental 50K record while becoming the first three-time World Marathon Challenge champion. Voyage One of the 2026 race introduced a 50K ultra distance for the first time, the most significant expansion to the event since it added the half-marathon.
The race's environmental protocols are strict. No more than 100 runners go ashore at one time. All gear is inspected for biological contamination before landing. No human waste is permitted on course. Marathon Tours and Travel, the event's exclusive operator since its 1995 founding and 30 years of expedition history, enforces the protocols in coordination with the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators. Over its history, the event has raised more than $600,000 for Oceanites, a nonprofit that studies Antarctic wildlife.
Penguins, fur seals, and elephant seals are regular course-side spectators. For Voyage Two runners, conditions on March 19 will be what they will be. The Drake is behind them. The finishing time is secondary to the finishing.