RUN 26.2 MILES ON A GLACIER

After a difficult childhood and a devastating loss, Jeff Tan finds solace in running the world's most challenging marathons.

- ELIZABETH L. SILVER

WHITE MOUNTAINS ROLL INTO THE HORIZON. Freezing temperatures and subzero windchills harden the air. Here, in this nearly untouched land, the sun shines uninterrupted for six months over snow so fine it has its own name: spindrift.

The plane approaches the blue-ice runway-made of glacial ice compacted over the centuries and the safest surface on which to land a plane in Antarctica-after a five-hour flight from Punta Arenas, Chile, the southernmost port in the Americas.

But Jeff Tan, a 41-year-old adventure runner, hasn't yet realized he's arrived. It's hard to tell where the whiteness of the clouds ends and the whiteness of the snow begins. Only when an outline of darkness from what seems to be the Ellsworth Mountains emerges does he realize that what he is descending into is snow-pure and unadulterated.

This is it, he thinks. We're here.

For 62 runners from 21 nations, the Union Glacier in Antarctica is home for a brief period as they attempt the 16th annual Antarctic Ice Marathon, which was held on December 17, 2021. They are racing on snow and ice to qualify for one of the most elite groups on Earth: the 7 Continents Marathon Club.