Lake Baikal Ice Marathon

The 9th annual Lake Baikal Ice Marathon was held on March 3rd with 143 participants. Have you ever thought about running a marathon? Maybe, but what abour running one across a frozen lake in Siberia? It probably never crossed your mind!

Of the 143 participants, 106 were foreigners who traveled all the way to the small town of Listyanka on the banks of Lake Baikal specifically to partake in the extreme marathon, which has been held for 9 years in a row now. 

Many of the participants have run other similar marathons such as the midnight sun marathon in Tromso, Norway and the polar circle marathon in Greenland, but they say the Lake Baikal Ice Marathon is unique and very difficult because of the many different surfaces that you have to run on, not to mention the freezing temperatures. 

Next year will be the 10th Anniversary Ice Marathon, and the event coordinators are planning something special. Currently the race is quite small and has grown modestly, last year there were 125 runners. The race however isn't advertised, if it was organizers say they would have thousands of runners, something they are completely not prepared to in the small Siberian town of Listyanka.