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.

As he takes in the landscape, Tan keeps thinking, I'm going to achieve my dream. But he's still nervous that something might stop it. He has already come close to having that dream dashed: Just before his plane took off in Chile, he was deported back to the United States due to a paperwork mishap. Storms delayed the other runners, who had to stay an extra five days in Chile before departing. Tan made it back, but by the time they land on the blue ice, they have just under 34 hours to exit the plane, set up tents, run 26.2 miles in subzero temperatures, take a few photos, pack up, and leave. At a pre-race meeting, Richard Donovan, the race director, tells the runners that their time on the glacier will split their lives in two: before Antarctica and after.