This was the big one, the one I had been awaiting over a year for. The disappointment I suffered the year previous was starting to leave me, there were only a few days to go, I had lived with the hype for a year now and the waiting would now soon be over. I’ll explain a little of the disappointment I mentioned earlier. I was supposed to go the North Pole the year before but it got cancelled a couple of days before I was due to leave.

The safety of the group could not be guaranteed by the Russians and the French therefore the trip was cancelled by the race director, personally I would still have gone but the decision was not mine to be made. The Russians and the French were in the middle of a logistical dispute, the Russians made it clear that if we got into any difficulty at the North Pole then we would not be rescued, we could have reached the North Pole but there were just no safety measures in place.

I got the news on a Saturday and Clare and I were going out to a restaurant in Glasgow that night to spend some time together before I left. I had finished my shift at the pub and went home and the bombshell was dropped. We still went out for dinner that night but I really wasn’t in the mood, I was absolutely gutted, I was in a state of shock. It was strange, the previous Saturday I had been cooking dinner and I was cutting an onion and sliced the top of my thumb off and ended up in casualty where they sorted me out. My only concern was that my thumb would be okay in the sub zero temperatures the following week; little did I know what lay ahead. Anyway I put last years problem’s behind me and here I was on my way to the North Pole.  Before going to the North Pole I had to go to the dentist and get my metal fillings taken out and replaced with another material, if I had left them in it would have been too sore when I was breathing freezing air in and out. My mate Currie also gave me his heavy army gear to run with when I was doing my training for the marathon, it was very heavy and very uncomfortable but I wanted my training to be as difficult as possible to fully prepare me, I also went out with damp clothes on, I ran after having a big meal and ran wearing clothes that would cause friction, I figured if I could suffer this I could suffer anything that the North Pole threw at me. I knew for sure that it wouldn’t be plain sailing up at the Pole and I wanted to be ready.

At the airport in the departure lounge, I was holding Meghan and Maia and cuddling them, I didn’t want to put them down, looking at Clare’s eyes I could tell she was nervous, uneasy and the girls weren’t their usual bubbly selves. I think Clare knew in herself that if I encountered any problems at the pole while running that there was no way I was going to give up and I think that worried her especially after seeing the state I was in on return from the Sahara and listening to some of the stories of what happened when I was there, she really did think I was off my head putting myself and her through this. It’s difficult enough leaving your loved ones behind when you are going somewhere but knowing that you are going to be running on 3 feet of ice on 14,000 feet of water, with no land where polar bears roam at sub zero temperatures makes it a whole lot worse. As I was on my way to board I looked behind to see that they were all really upset so I ran back and cuddled them all again and told them that I loved them and made my ways towards boarding but this time I couldn’t look back.

I got off the plane in Oslo the first thing I could see was queues of very unhappy people. I switched on my phone so that I could phone Johnny- the guy I met in the Sahara- I was meeting him in the airport. When I got a hold of him he told me the bad news, all the flights to Spitzbergen were cancelled. My heart sank, I thought oh no here we go I am going to miss it again for a second year running. I then got in tow with a lot of other runners and we were told there would be no flight to Spitzbergen, this was the most northern town in Norway before you go onward to The North Pole. There were lots of people there in the same boat as me, they had been booked in for the race the previous year, and at this point I honestly thought that this just wasn’t to be and it it wasn’t to be, I was giving up on the North Pole I wasn’t prepared to be disappointed a third time. In amongst the marathoners there were some American big wigs who basically went round all the runners and asked them if they would like to chip in and hire a plane and pilot for the trip.

They made a few phone calls but we eventually told that it was a no go. The Americans then found out that there was a marathon in Germany a couple of days later so everyone agreed that if we didn’t get to the pole we would run the marathon in Germany. The next thing we were being told by the airways was that there was a flight to Spitzbergen but there was only 6 seats available and there were 30 of us so we agreed to draw lots, I was not successful. It was chaos, the next thing we were being told was that there was now a flight to Spitzbergen for everyone of the marathoners, the other non marathoners were given money to let the runners get priority, little did I know that our predicament in Spitzbergen was news worldwide. There already was a BBC crew in Spitzbergen awaiting the marathoners so the BBc made a few calls and made it possible for us to get on the

flight. Clare was watching it in the house and I was keeping her updated at my end and she was then keeping all of our family and friends updated. After all the commotion we arrived in Spitzbergen, and we were all exhausted, with all the plane delays I had been on the go for about 40 hours. Spitzbergen is a lovely little mining town on the west and the hotel was equally as nice.

Everywhere was white with snow and the 24 hours of daylight took a bit of getting used to. We had a briefing and headed to our Russian jet to take us to 90 degrees north, we were all absolutely buzzing and a little scared because the jet had to land on an icy runway. When we boarded everyone just kind of looked around in wonderment, the plane had little round windows, no carpets and most importantly no seatbelts, surely it must be okay I thought- or rather hoped!! During the flight to the pole I went into the cockpit and I couldn’t believe my eyes, the pilot was sleeping and he had blinds drawn in the cockpit to stop the sunlight coming in. I went straight back to my seat and told all the runners, none of them believed me and had to go and check for themselves, yep the pilot was asleep, typical Russians. As we were nearing time to land we were looking out the windows at the vast expanse of snow and ice, everyone was trying to hold onto something whether it was each other, their seat, their bags anything that they could grip. Put it this way it was not a plane journey for the faint hearted and I really didn’t relish the landing, my heart was in my mouth, I was the most scared I had been since stepping in the ring. I was absolutely petrified and I am not ashamed to admit that.

The plane landed with a bump – and I mean a bump, then the plane started skidding sideways then it would be straight again then it would start skidding until it came to a stop where everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Clare watched the landing on the BBC when the plane landed it also cracked the runway which was just ice that was the bump that we felt. At least Clare knew we had arrived safely if not a little frightened. As soon as the doors were opened all you could feel was freezing cold air, something I probably won’t ever feel again. Within taking 10 steps from

the plane my eyelashes, hairs in my nose and eyebrows were all frozen, there were icicles hanging from them, not surprising at minus 30 odd. We were briefed very quickly and informed that we had to run straight away, the logistics people told us that the weather was not going to be very good, so we had a small window to run in, we had to get organised as quick as possible.

Here I was going through the ritual again, got my battle dress on but this time I had protective layers to wear over my vest and under my kilt and snow shoes to wear over my running shoes. It was snowing so conditions underfoot were soft so the snow shoes were to prevent you from sinking into the snow. I got my I Pod out along with my lucozade and my sports mixture sweets. The only part of my body uncovered was my eyes, nose and mouth. The snow was getting heavier by the minute but there was no wind. Here I was at last, I had waited a year for this moment and I here I was a young man from a small town called Saltcoats who had a dream to run a marathon at the North Pole, not many people world wide have done this and here was I on top of the world, no West and no East everything was South, every time you took a step you could hear the echo below you travelling down the 3 foot of ice then travelling 14,000 feet of water to the earths core, what a feeling this was. The race began, the route was a loop system where organisers could see you at all times in case the weather changed very quickly or in case any polar bears were spotted. Half of the race was 2 feet deep snow with little hillocks of ice here and there that was stronger than stone so if you hit them you knew all about it.

With a broken foot thankfully I couldn’t feel it because from the knees down I was numb. Within 2 minutes of running my lucozade sport was frozen as were my sports mixture, I could barely see because my eyelashes were frozen and my eyes were starting to freeze, that was harmless but it took a bit of getting used to. Even though it was so cold, I felt good I was taking over people and even lapping some of them, only a few people actually overtook me. Michael Collins was one of these people; he is a world renowned author from the States and what a runner he is, he has won really tough races all over the world. At this stage I was in the zone and I loved every minute. I was getting over every obstacle put in front of me. I am at my best when I am in the trenches. All those years of fighting in the ring gave me the mental toughness, I would never ever give up anything I started in life, they would have to carry me

out first. The harder the race got the more I enjoyed it. Looking at my girls names which were stitched onto my jacket, I was like a snow plough up there, at this point I could do no wrong. I then bumped into Johnny and he was in pretty bad shape, the weather had also taken a turn for the worst, there was lots of snow and very bad visibility, it was mostly an ice course now due to all the runners taking the same path, we had to run up and down these ice hillocks – I say run down them it was actually more like falling down them but you had to pick yourself up and get on with it, after a while it got really annoying but you just had to deal with it and run on.

At this point I couldn’t drink any of my lucozade as it was all frozen, I had to squash it into my hand and eat it, it was like a slush puppy and my sports mixtures tasted great frozen. Running, falling, running, running, falling that was what every runner was doing, everyone had to cope with it. All of a sudden I felt really tired and talking to Johnny didn’t help as I was using up energy doing that but I felt I had to keep talking to him because he looked awful, I was feeding him sports mixture and lucozade, there were people dropping like flies it was a nightmare. On the last lap I asked the race organiser to keep an eye on Johnny and I because I knew that if anything happened to him I wouldn’t have had the energy to carry him back I would have had to stop and I knew that if I stopped I wouldn’t start again and there was no way that I would have left him to go it alone, we were in this together. I was desperate for something to boost my energy but I had given all of my sweets and lucozade to Johnny as he was struggling big time. This is the last place you want to be when you are not in total control of your body. I now know how those old explorers  felt doing what you do to keep you and your friends going and believe me it is very hard and there is a very fine line between life and death , running a marathon is tough enough but in these conditions well what can I say. The finish line was then in sight and I told Johnny to go for it, he tried to sprint and on looking back it was quite funny, he was like a duck on ice, his legs and body were all over the place, he had made it and I felt good, I had kept going for the second half of the race.

I on the other hand had another agenda; I was going to do another lap to get to that magic 30 mile mark. I had no juice, no sweets and I was absolutely shot this would show me what I was made of. It took me about 2 hours to run 3.8 miles, my concentration and my body were gone, I was running on empty. The conditions were terrible, I could barely see in front of me, I was lonely and there was not a sound in any direction. I had flashes of my parents playing with my girls and Clare watching and I was thinking of the SAS boys in the Bravo to Zero book, lost, frozen and I guess scared. ‘In God I have put my trust, I will not be afraid’ I kept saying this over and over out loud. I could see the end was getting closer and closer and I stumbled over the finish line. I had just become the 1st non American to run 30 miles at the North Pole and boy did I have to work for it but do you know what I wouldn’t have had it any

other way. You don’t do the things in life that you think you can do, you do the things you think you can’t, that is the sign of a man. I went to my tent, got changed jumped in my sleeping bag and went straight to sleep. Johnny woke me up about 6 hours later and we went to the food tent for something to eat, the food was awful. A normal meal up there consisted of mushrooms, potatoes, and peas all in hot water; it was not nice to say the least. If anyone wanted to leave their tent and go for a walk or something, they had to ensure that other people knew in case they went and didn’t return for a while, the organisers were continually doing head counts. When we went out of our tent we noticed a big fancy tent being put up near our camp so Johnny and I went for a nosey and as we got there 2 Russian army helicopters landed, the pilots were very friendly, letting us get photos of the chopper and they also let us have a look around it.

The Russians dug a hole in the ice because there was a Russian submarine down there and it was going to end up breaking through the ice. If the cold was had still been going on we would never have gotten the chance to get near any of this. The fancy tent and the presence of the subs and choppers could only mean they were expecting someone or something, we discovered it was the Prince of Monaco. He was coming to take part in a husky competition, and the dogs he was using were absolutely beautiful, strong looking beasts, these dogs were the most amazing creatures I had ever seen Living and working outside constantly in sub zero temperatures. After doing our nosey, a group of us decided to walk round the course to kill some time when we noticed that the ice cap we were on had broken and we were on an island, there was an 18 metre break and we were moving about on the water.

I found my lucozade bottle on the course which reminded how much it had kept Johnny and I going. Our plane was due to arrive to take us back to Spitzbergen but the weather was really bad and the plane was finding it very difficult to land, the pilot attempted to land the plane time and time again but he could not get it down, what a sight it was watching all this unfolding, the Russian pilots were mad, the plane was only flying about 15 feet above our heads, then going back up again.

The plane eventually managed to land, the people on the plane had gone through what we had experienced a few days earlier – The White Knuckle Ride of landing on the ice. When we were taking off the plane only stayed on the runway for about 60 feet and then it shot straight up into the sky like a space shuttle, these are special jets to get you up as quick as possible. I was on my way home, now I couldn’t wait to see Clare and the girls. I stopped off at my sisters in Surrey and then caught my flight to Glasgow the next day. When Meghan and Maia seen me they ran towards me and I couldn’t stop cuddling them. We all jumped straight in the car and headed home. I was home and I had achieved something, I was the first non American, the third person world wide to run 30 miles at the North Pole and all with my kilt on, it was amazing. I now just had South America, Antarctica and Oceania.

5 down…..3 to go.

How difficult was it?...............................9/10