A QUARTER of a mile to go, the finish line was in sight. Damien Cunningham had seen lots of finish lines before; this was his 54th marathon after all. But this time the feeling was extra special.
He was running in one of the world’s most hostile environments. During the race the temperature dipped to minus 27 or below and the biting wind in his face reached speeds of 30 knots. The 58-year-old Ballymartin man was taking part in the Antarctic Ice Marathon last December to raise funds for Cancer Fund for Children, whose services include Daisy Lodge, near Newcastle. Last week he visited Daisy Lodge to present a cheque for the fantastic sum of £11,789.13.
Damien, an Electrical Engineering Test Technician at Collins Aerospace in Kilkeel, crossed the finish line after six hours and 27 minutes of arduous running and finished an impressive 36th out of an international field of 68 runners.
He very nearly didn’t make it as far as the start line, when vital equipment got lost during his journey to the Antarctic. Damien flew from Dublin to Madrid and on to Santiago, the capital of Chile. From there he travelled to the southern tip of Chile, the final stop before a flight to the Antarctic. But in Punta Arenas he realised the luggage containing the specialist gear he needed for the marathon had gone missing. Without it he wouldn’t be allowed to take part in the marathon. There to protect him from the effects of the extreme cold, it would be too dangerous if he didn’t have it. And because it was so specialist there was no way to replace it just a few days before the race.
Having trained so hard and raised so much money for charity, he was determined not to give up. He journeyed back to the airport and searched himself through the lost luggage section, finding not only his equipment but the gear another marathon competitor, from Denmark, had lost. Gear found, he was back on track and as soon as the weather permitted the four-and-a-halfhour flight to the Antarctic Peninsula took off, with the plane landing on a naturally occurring blue-ice runway. “An hour before you land, they switch off all the heat in the plane to get you into your gear so you are accustomed to what to expect,” he said.
The location for the marathon was about 45 minutes away and on the day before the race Damien and the other competitors did a trial run to get more used to the conditions. “The conditions were excellent that day, it was minus eight, with no wind, it was crystal clear,” he said. But the pre-race briefing brought news that the weather on the race day itself would not be so benign.
The course was a loop of around 10k which the marathon runners would complete four times. They were warned not to run outside the boundaries of the course because of the risk of falling into a crevice. Joining him on the start line were runners from across the globe, including China, America, Canada, Denmark and Poland. Sweating is part and parcel of running but in such cold temperatures that poses a risk of hypothermia and so he had to change into new dry gear at the end of each loop. “You have to make sure you are not exerting too much energy, or sweating, because you are burning a lot more body fuel than you would on a normal marathon,” Damien explained. And unlike the other marathons he has completed, there were no big crowds of spectators to cheer the runners on. “The first two loops I was struggling a bit but in the last two loops I became stronger,” he added. “I knew I was going to be able to finish it and I started to pass some of the other competitors and I was getting stronger and stronger. “It was a fantastic feeling when I finally crossed the finish line. It was a lifetime goal to complete that. “The fact you are doing it for such a worthy cause, it inspires you and drives you to do that. “That last quarter of a mile you knew the finish line was coming, it was just a feeling of elation and delight that you could see the finish line.”
Crossing the line also meant Damien had completed a marathon on all seven continents, a feat that few people ever get to achieve. Previous marathons have included New York, Boston, Chicago, London, Berlin, Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town, the Great Wall of China and Tokyo. Last September he completed the Sydney Marathon and having completed a marathon on six of the world’s continents, finishing the Antarctic Ice Marathon made it seven out of seven.
Damien would like to thank everyone who helped him in any way, whether by donating or by assisting him with this training. “I was blown away by the generosity of everyone and all the support I got. “I would especially like to thank Kevin Boden and Michelle Mulholland,” he added.
After taking a bit of a break when he returned home, Damien is back running, his sights set on his next marathon. Having completed 54, he wants to make it 60 before his 60th birthday in June 2025.
To help him reach his goal he has a busy few months ahead, with marathons in Manchester and Connemara in April, the Belfast Marathon in May and the Mourne Way Marathon at the start of June. And having completed a marathon in the Antarctic, he is contemplating taking on the challenge of running a marathon at the North Pole.