Krissie's Blog - 8

Jun 1, 11:18 PM

I mentioned last week that I got Dr Pepper for Christmas. The reason I was so excited to have it was because I hadn’t drunk any in two months. I did get presents from my family too; I just couldn’t open them on Christmas because they weren’t here yet. Holiday dinners are always followed by multiple parties, which take place in the galley, the B1 lounge, or at the Summer Camp lounge – sometimes all at the same time. But instead of partying, Jeremy and I had work to do.

History of The Race Around the World

“The Race Around the World, founded in 1802 by Roald Amundsen’s father Silas, first took place on an ice floe sixteen kilometers due south of the Cape of Good Hope. At the time, the participants raced around a symbolic South Pole. Over the years, and especially in the period immediately following the first dirigible caravans to Pole, the race has developed a rich set of traditions and a checkered history.

The race lives on though it has been officially cancelled numerous times, including once by unanimous consent decree of the NATO Polar Region Working Group! Our own legislature stepped in after participants were involved in: a minor cannibalism incident, the destruction of Byrd Station, and superficial damage to the ionosphere. Thanks to Congressional action, these days the race is both a relaxed celebration of the eccentric for some and a fun athletic exertion for others!”

Every Christmas morning the residents of the South Pole gather to Race Around the World.

You can walk, run, bike, ski, piggy back, pull someone or something, or drive the 2.3 miles in front of the Station. Of course it’s best to drive; it’s cold outside. I had talked with the IT Dept. about putting together a team. I asked if we knew how to get a vehicle. Ben made a phone call, and a Pisten Bully was ours. Now all we had to do was decorate it. I think Ben’s idea was a Sleigh of Death, complete with Grim Reaper. Jeremy wanted to do Santa’s Sleigh. Ben wasn’t sold. So Jeremy came up with some concept art.

Now all we had to do is make reindeer, a rig to attach them to the Pisten Bully, presents, and cover the rest to make it look like a sleigh…in 14 hours. Ben still was not sold, but Jeremy and I got to work on it in the Comms shop. Comms support is part of IT, so we had a work space. Luckily the art room had a lot of cardboard for people to use in their Race decorations. Our friends spent time in the shop with us, either supporting or heckling us. We even had the distinguished guest Todd Carmichael in there for a time because one of our friends was his rescuer. Long story…probably for next week. Jeremy came up with the reindeer design, which you see me tracing onto another piece of cardboard. Jeremy is cutting out antlers.

I wish had taken more pictures of the manufacturing process, but we were going nonstop so we could finish it all. After the reindeer bodies were cut out, he covered them with brown paper so he could draw harnesses and faces on them. I started working on the presents. I scrounged the Station for big boxes. I even raided a bathroom, took out all of the toilet paper rolls, and stole its box. I double wrapped the boxes in white paper or brown paper, which took up the whole floor of the Comms shop. My family can always tell which of their Christmas presents are from me, because of the terrible wrapping jobs. I kept thinking, “If only they could see me now.” I’m certainly not my dad, who has a special gift wrapping board, giant metal ruler, and Exacto knife for when he wraps his gifts. But I had fun decorating the giant presents once they were all wrapped.

We made several trips out to the Pisten Bully to check out the front grill. At this time we were thankful for round-the-clock daylight. We needed wood for the reindeer rig. I spotted some scrap wood at the bottom of the stairs at Destination Zulu. We brought it to the shop, where Jeremy had to disassemble it by hand.

He spent probably the next 4 hours building the rig with hand tools and going out multiple times to the PB to make sure the rig was fitting properly. He eventually snuck down to the carp shop to finish it. He says that he could have finished it in 20 minutes if he had had proper tools, but doing things like taking nails out of a board with a crowbar instead of a claw hammer slows things down.

Tripp had volunteered to warm up the PB, which takes about 25 minutes, and drive it to the Station around 6:30 AM. This would give us plenty of time to prepare the PB for the race at 9 AM. Whadayaknow, the engine heater wouldn’t start. So Jeremy and I met Tripp at the PB. Jeremy fiddled with something and got the heater to kick in. Phew! That’s all we needed was to be out a vehicle after all that work.

So now it was time to outfit the PB. Here’s a close-up of the rig attachment. It was a very impressive contraption for something largely made by hand. (It’s so nice to have a handy boyfriend!)

He attached the rig to the PB first and then attached each reindeer to the rig. Looking at it head-on, you’d be able to see that Rudolph was in between the two others. I’d like to think it was Donner and Blitzen, because I’m part German and I like lightning and thunder.

What about the presents? Here’s a shot of Tripp tying them down. (Above Tripp you can see the Destination Alpha observation deck.) We abandoned the idea of covering the vehicle, since it’s already red. Hey, who’s that guy on the present on the right?

Comparing the final product to the concept art, we were spot on.

Our competitors were other heavy vehicles and two snowmobiles.

Of the IT Dept., we were only missing one to sleep and one to the foot race. And he placed 4th! Way to go, Claude! Here’s a picture of their field of competitors. Claude is the one in gray with the brown hat on the left of the skier. The American flag is where the Geographic South Pole is. Take note of the Christmas tree.

There were a ton of runners and probably about 10 vehicles. Kudos to everyone who ran in that cold and on that surface. Although, we had very warm weather that day; it was only -5°F. But that’s still colder than any temperature I would want to exercise in. They groomed the course as best they could, but if it’s not a packed route, like the Station to Summer Camp, sneakers are going to sink in quite a bit. (Photo by Patrick Cullis)

Our vehicle was closest to the officials at the vehicle starting line. In fact we were talking to them when they said, “Go go go!” So we probably got a head start because of that. I set our uniforms as Big Reds and Santa hats, but Death Sleigh Ben didn’t want to play along. Despite his scrouginess, he really wanted to drive first. The first lap was a little rough because we had no idea where to go, being in the lead. Ben says, “We go that way.” (Photo by Devon Pike)

Look at us go! At times we were pushing a whopping 10 mph. Someone didn’t remember that there were presents on the roof and opened the roof hatch, so we ended up losing a few presents. In fact, I can see his arm up, so maybe this was the instant it happened.

Meanwhile, in the foot race, you would see the occasional bicycle, skier, cow, or superhero. But my favorite runner was Fuelie Tiger Dan, who ran the entire 2.3 miles with a fuel barrel on his back. “Fuels Rules” is written on the barrel. (Photo by Patrick Cullis)

Here’s a picture of the vehicles and the racers. This shows you how close we were to them. It was a little scary at times in the tight turns…and sometimes when we were lapping the big guys…No! Just kidding. We never did that! … But our main goals were to win and to do it without killing anybody. (Photo by Patrick Cullis)

Hey, who’s that? Red Santa is racing/hanging out on the couches with the other IceCube drillers. (Photo by Patrick Cullis)

After each lap, we switched drivers. We easily won in three laps. I drove the victory lap.

When I got back to the start of the loop, one of my fellow weather observers, who was officiating, made us leave the course. I should’ve ignored him and made sure that we all got a turn to drive. I’m sorry, Devon.

Here’s our victorious crew: Ben, me, Devon, Jeremy, and Tripp. Now even though Ben didn’t wear red, his heart was always in the race. Who do you think wrote the History of The Race Around the World for the official announcement?

Each man and woman who wins the foot race flies to McMurdo to run in their marathon. Our guy, Matt Shaumburg, won their marathon. We were annoyed that we were never recognized as winners… and that we and our PB didn’t get to go to McMurdo to race. So whatever happened to the presents? Well, one of the ones that fell off ended up under the Geographic South Pole Christmas tree for the next week, and it was in many people’s pictures.

It was even in the ceremony for relocating the Geographic South Pole marker, which is moved a little over 30 ft. each New Year’s Day to compensate for the ice sheet movement. The present was blown over, but it still took place in something pretty cool.

Back to Christmas. And I, of course, took Mario with me. The rest of the presents were recycled. (Photo by Devon Pike)

Our reward was the experience of totally winning the race WAY before any other runner OR vehicle and, of course, the AWESOME free t-shirt! It was totally worth staying up 27 hours. Merry Christmas!!!

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