After South Pole marathon, Morgan Hill runner Sarah Oliphant is
youngest to complete Grand Slam
By Angela Young
Special to The Weekend Pinnacle
There was ice, wind, snow and miles of bleak terrain, and no
sign of spectators, rock bands or cheerleaders. Not even penguins
were present in this part of the Antarctic Circle
— it’s way too south for their liking.
But after running 26.2 miles in the Antarctic Ice Marathon,
Morgan Hill’s Sarah Oliphant and her father, Arnold, accomplished
the long-awaited goal of joining the coveted Marathon Grand Slam
and Seven Continents Club.
After South Pole marathon, Morgan Hill runner Sarah Oliphant is youngest to complete Grand Slam
By Angela Young
Special to The Weekend Pinnacle
There was ice, wind, snow and miles of bleak terrain, and no sign of spectators, rock bands or cheerleaders. Not even penguins were present in this part of the Antarctic Circle — it’s way too south for their liking.
But after running 26.2 miles in the Antarctic Ice Marathon, Morgan Hill’s Sarah Oliphant and her father, Arnold, accomplished the long-awaited goal of joining the coveted Marathon Grand Slam and Seven Continents Club.
The idea is to finish a marathon on each landmass around the globe, with the Grand Slam including the North Pole. And the younger Oliphant has not only completed this difficult task, but she also became the youngest girl to pull it off.
On Dec. 15, 2010, marathon winners Bernardo Fonseca of Brazil (4:20:31) and Clare Apps of Great Britain (4:47:37) carved a path to the finish line with the 15-year-old Oliphant in pursuit, nabbing third place in the women’s division in 6:32:48, while Arnold finished right behind his daughter in 6:37:45.
Oliphant never regarded the Antarctic Ice Marathon as something hard or arduous. She loves challenging courses with extreme weather conditions.
“I like it when it’s hard because it makes me happy. I feel joy running in that type of environment,” she said.
Her father has another perspective in mind. Arnold, who works for a biotech company and holds a doctorate in genetics, is thankful he can even run at all after fighting debilitating rheumatoid arthritis four years ago.
“I was in bed for two years and slowly worked out on our home elliptical trainer five or six minutes at a time until I was able to go outside and walk around our block,” he recalled.
One thing led to the other, and the Oliphant family took up running. They began with tiny treks around the block, increasing the distance over the ensuing months.
In January 2008, Arnold and Sarah began their long-distance training and capped it with a Utah marathon six months later. The most difficult obstacle they faced was finding a marathon that would accept the younger Oliphant’s entry. Sarah was 12. Now, she’ll be in the Guinness Book of World Records.
“Age doesn’t matter when running a marathon. Anyone can do it,” Arnold said. “Too many adults hold children and teenagers back from accomplishing their dreams because of age.”
Sarah can run effortlessly when it comes to slogging through snow, rain and nasty headwinds in harsh conditions such as the North Pole and Antarctica. After the Ice Marathon, she and several others decided to run the Punta Arena Marathon in southern Chile two days later for kicks.
Unlike most runners, Sarah never feels sore or has stiff muscles after race day. However, both Oliphants got slightly sunburned on their foreheads and hands, and each lost a single toenail after completing the 26.2-miler on ice. That was the extent of their so-called injuries.
The organized event consisted of two distances: 42 kilometers (26.2 miles) and 100 kilometers (62 miles). Participants had to run two laps to complete the marathon. One lap was 25 kilometers; the second covered 17.
Conditions were perfect with sunny skies and a balmy temperature of 14 degrees. Sarah didn’t bother wearing a parka because it was too hot to run in it. The sun never went down; it circled the frozen continent, brightening the white landscape for 24 hours straight, thus enabling the Oliphants to stay perky and wide awake throughout their stay.
However, when they returned home to Morgan Hill, they felt more tired and drained due to the sky darkening after 5 p.m.
“I missed the sun,” Sarah said.
The teenager looks forward to doing more marathons in the future and doing other athletic activities such as snow boarding, skydiving and skiing. Aside from athletics, she plans to attend Gavilan College in spring and study astrophysics.
Her father plans to stay healthy by exercising daily and is contemplating a 100-mile snow-backpacking trip with family in the future.
