All posts filed under: Antarctica 2016

I Sprained My Ankle

Published by Colin Nanka

Less than four weeks out from starting my 6th Adventure race in Antarctica and training was right on pace! That was until I stepped into a pothole last week! I was on my way to the gym, stepped in a pothole and rolled my ankle. Instant shooting pain! I felt it, and I could see the wince in the womans face on the street beside me. Sympathetic and feeling sorry for me all in one look! I leaned against a lamppost surveying the internal damage as eight months of Antarctica training flashed before my eyes. Was I done? Could I recover? After a good 30 seconds of getting over the shock I knew I was done for the night. Time to limp home and lick my wounds. First thing to do, call the expert. My good friend Janette! An amazing athletic therapist in Toronto to the rescue! What was the challenge I was dealing with? Within two hours I had the answer. A good sprain. Pit in my stomach. On the other hand, we had …

Control What You Can Control

Published by Colin Nanka

There are thousands of people running in NYC this weekend and unfortunately going in, I hadn’t run in almost 10 days! This ankle injury has been hampering my usual training and I’ve had to get creative. I’ve spent a lot of time on the bike. Typically on a weekend like this I would measure myself by steps, number of hours in field, Km/Miles run. Without the ability to run and get in many steps, I’ve had to focus on new metrics. This weekend I wanted to get the same amount of time in (9 hours), and sat down to create a new list. Take Sunday as an example: Hours of exercise – 5 Calories burnt – 3,000-4,000 Hours on the bike – 4 Hours of strength training – 1 Number of leg exercises – 6 Core exercises – 3 Sprints on the bike – 8 Bottles of water w / electrolytes – 6-8 Number of injuries – 0! Finding new gears – 2 Time in suffer mode – 60 min Time running – 10 min! …

Two Lessons On The Way To The Start Line

Published by Colin Nanka

Greetings from Ushuaia! On my 2nd adventure to the Gobi Desert in Western China, just getting there was a roller coaster adventure. From attaining and presenting all the proper country visa forms, to navigating airport obstacles in the middle of China where no English was spoken. To negotiating baggage payment (while they hold your passport) to figuring out what local delicacy in Kashgar, China may or may not upset your stomach prior to the start of the race, it had it all. On the 24 hours from JFK through Buenos Aires to Bariloche to El Calafate to Ushuaia, my bags and I arrived in one piece. It’s crucial to keep your running gear with you on the flight. Losing a bag can cause major challenges in being able to start the race. I’ve already negotiated bag limits and weights in two cities, helped load my bags off and onto the right cart to the proper flight and successfully reduced some risks. Never forget the lessons you learned overcoming past obstacles! The journey is the reward. …

At Sea…On Way To Antarctica!

Published by Colin Nanka

We set sell from Ushuaia after dinner on Friday night, next stop the Shetland Islands North of Antarctica. We put our sea sickness patch on, in anticipation of a potential rough ride through the Drake Passage. It’s the most violent sea crossing in the world. Guidance says you will either get the “Drake Lake” and a smooth ride or “The Drake Shake” and a very rough ride. So far we have been very lucky and it’s been smooth, minus some pitching side to side from 1-4am. I got an ok sleep, but trying to get comfortable as you rock back and forth in your buck, makes it difficult for a consistent sleep. The meals have been good so far, having tested out dinner, breakfast and lunch. It will be welcome to fuel us and revive us each day. We had to education talks from the ships Polar and Marine experts today. Lynne (originally from Australia) walked us through the history and lessons of Antarctica. She showed us how mammals and plants hibernate and migrate to …

Running On Empty

Published by Colin Nanka

You can typically sum up a day or even a race in a couple special moments. You hope they are good. I came into this race with an ankle injury and needed to reset my expectations just to get the start line. Sometimes you forget and push forward with a regular intention. In some cases, that works, on others you are quickly reminded and brought back down to earth. After four days of grinding down the body and barely making it through each day, I was reminded of that intention and focused on being kind to myself. Everyone is running their own race, dealing with their issues and injuries and day 5 for many was no exception. We had already completed the long day which is usually day 5/6 so the body had already dealt with that. Do you remember that scene from Apollo 13 where Tom Hanks and Kevin Bacon are up in space with a damaged Space capsule and only 3.4 GHZ of battery power and Gary Sinise is back in the NASA …

The Final Lap

Published by Colin Nanka

Well it was more than one, it was five. 2KM laps around an incredible lake that looked upon an Everest like mountain range with the other side flowing into Half Moon Bay Antarctica. Sometimes you get a flat track where you can plod along and contemplate the week, other times you get crusty snow that as the micro climate changes every 15 mins goes from breaking through 1.5-foot-deep snow to trudging through slush. Everyone is pretty banged up. Most hobble along, some find second winds of inspiration to finish out the epic adventure in the final three hours before the finish line. For me after 175Km over the week it was mostly a hobble. If I could highlight the week it would be “absolute stunning views, stillness and harsh landscape” all wrapped in one. We were very fortunate with the weather, with only one day shortened due to inclement weather. I am always in a reflective mood going through the last day. Sometimes it’s about the friendships you have made, the hardships you have encountered …

Dinner With A Friend

Published by Colin Nanka

I had dinner with a competitor from China in Buenos Aires last week. I first met him in Egypt 5 years ago. He’s done many events and has been a conduit to introducing these types of adventures to Chinese competitors and he’s creating smaller versions of these races inside China. They are really taking off. He gave me an example of one of the competitors who completed his fourth race in Antarctica. His family has a rich history in China. His father is the most well known member of the Communist party. He has gone another route and into investing in start up companies. He’s the founder of one of the largest venture capital companies in China. However, you wouldn’t know it you followed him around the course in his home country of China. He isn’t one of the faster competitors but he makes impact everywhere he goes. You will find him picking up garbage when he sees some along the course and dropping it off at the next check point. He’s very proud of …

Acceptance

Published by Colin Nanka

As we are on the tail end of the 1,000KM Voyage back from Antarctica and almost back to land in Argentina, I put some thought towards the lessons learned or leveraged for this trip. Four I leveraged from past races and three new ones I learned in this race. An overall theme for all my adventures is from my number one strength of being a lifelong learner. Everything flows from there. Where I would like to start today is acceptance and I will continue with some others over the next couple of weeks. I have used and talked about acceptance in the past and felt like it was operating in real time during this race. In past races going in, I would accept the crappy set of circumstances (usually the terrain and sleep deprivation), see myself half way through the obstacle and be ready on the other side to finish it out. In this race I felt I was quickly able to take the challenging circumstances and reframe the situation to a positive. Positivity in …

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Day 6 – The Final Lap

Published by Colin Nanka

The Last Desert (Antarctica) 2016 Well it was more than one, it was five. 2KM laps around an incredible lake that looked upon an Everest like mountain range with the other side flowing into Half Moon Bay Antarctica. Sometimes you get a flat track where you can plod along and contemplate the week, other times you get crusty snow that as the micro climate changes every 15 mins goes from breaking through 1.5-foot-deep snow to trudging through slush. Everyone is pretty banged up. Most hobble along, some find second winds of inspiration to finish out the epic adventure in the final three hours. If I could highlight the week it would be “absolute stunning views, stillness and harsh landscape” all wrapped in one. We were very fortunate with the weather, with only one day shortened due to inclement weather. I am always in a reflective mood going through the last day. Sometimes it’s about the friendships you have made, the hardships you have encountered or the terrain you have conquered. I would say in this …

Day 5 Recap Part 2 – Running on Empty

Published by Colin Nanka

The Last Desert (Antarctica) 2016 You can typically sum up a day or even a race in a couple special moments. You hope they are good. I came into this race with an ankle injury and needed to reset my expectations just to get the start line. Sometimes you forget and push forward with a regular intention. In some cases, that works, on others you are quickly reminded and brought back down to earth. After four days of grinding down the body and barely making it through each day, I was reminded of that intention and focused on being kind to myself. Everyone is running their own race, dealing with their issues and injuries and day 5 for many was no exception. We had already completed the long day which is usually day 5/6 so the body had already dealt with that. If you remember that scene from Apollo 13 where Tom Hanks and Kevin Bacon are up in space with a damaged Space capsule and only 3.4 GHZ of battery power and Gary Sinise …