Who would like to run a marathon at the North Pole (for free)? Does spending several hours running in sub-zero temperatures further north than even polar bears are willing to go sound like a fun adventure?

Brad Feld and YourRunning.com, a new participative online community and website for running enthusiasts, is giving away an entry to the 2007 North Pole Marathon and travel to the event -- valued at well over $12,000.

The winner will be selected from applicants who submit their running resumes to YourRunning.com by midnight US Eastern time on January 31, 2007. A winner will be selected by Feb. 15, and run in the marathon on Apr. 15.

Feld, an avid marathoner and an investor in YourRunning.com’s parent company, the Enthusiast Group, was signed up to run in the 2007 North Pole Marathon. While initially excited about the polar run, he reconsidered the prospect of running for eight hours (his projected time in that environment) in the sub-zero conditions at the top of the Arctic Ocean -- so he decided to pass his already-paid entry on to and sponsor another hardy entrant.

“When I came up with the idea of running the North Pole Marathon last summer, I thought to myself, ‘This will be a fun challenge.’ As the time (and the miles) passed, I started to think it was a crazy idea -- which was reinforced by my friends who simply shook their heads (side to side) whenever I said anything about it,” Feld explained. “Last month, as I suited up to go for a run in minus 20 degree weather, I realized that it was a ‘stupid idea.’ So, I came up with a better one. Since I’d already paid for the entry fee, I’d sponsor someone instead to run for Team Feld.”

YourRunning.com will award Feld’s entry to the person deemed most worthy and capable of succeeding at running long distance at the top of the world -- and documenting the training and actual Arctic marathon experience.

The North Pole Marathon is run at ... yes ... the North Pole, making it the only marathon to be run on water! The winner will be flown to the Pole, where he or she will run on top of a thick sheet of ice on the Arctic Ocean. There should be no worries about polar bears -- they’re usually not crazy enough to go this far north -- but race organizers keep weapons handy just in case. This year, some 50 competitors are expected to run.

Racers will be flown to the North Pole where a two-mile loop will be set up, with warming tents and runner support. Depending on snow and ice conditions, marathon entrants will run in either trail shoes or lightweight snowshoes.

YourRunning.com is inviting hardy marathoners to submit their running and athletic resumes to a North Pole Marathon application. Entrants in the contest must demonstrate not only their athletic prowess and endurance, but also their media savvy, for part of winning will be the duty to write about the experience of training to run 26.2 miles at the North Pole and to document the race itself, shooting photos and video, and recording audio reports.

Entrants in the YourRunning.com North Pole Marathon contest should demonstrate:

• Extensive marathon experience. The winner should be a marathon or ultra-marathon veteran, and perhaps harbor confidence of actually winning the race. This is not a marathon for beginners.

• Experience in cold-weather running. (Do we really need to say more?)

• Strong writing and blogging skills, with experience writing about adventure and sports topics, especially documenting their own athletic exploits.

• Experience with video and audio reporting. We don’t expect network-correspondent quality, but the winner should be comfortable doing audio reports, or shooting a video with a small video cam.

The winner will be expected to maintain a daily blog about training for the race, the race itself and the aftermath, as well as a weekly podcast audio report. Shooting photos and/or videos of the race also is expected.

The winner will not necessarily be the best and strongest athlete; it could be a middle-of-the-pack runner with an unusual story to tell who demonstrates the fortitude to complete the North Pole Marathon.

A marathoner with excellent and creative media skills could beat out a better athlete. The selection will be made by the judges based on the criteria set forth in the official rules -- and their decision is final.

In addition to selecting a winner to go to the North Pole Marathon, YourRunning.com also will choose a runner-up, who will participate in the event that the winner falls ill (or chickens out). If the winner can’t participate, the entry fee and travel will be transferred to the runner-up.

When Feld originally signed up to run the race, it was his intention to blog about preparing for the race and give publicity to the International Polar Year (2007-08), a major scientific initiative designed to draw attention to the changes occurring in the Arctic region due to global warming. With Brad not running, this competition and the winner will serve that purpose, helping educate the world’s population about the situation and supporting polar research programs.

More information can be found at www.npmarathon.com and YourRunning.com. The contest application is located at www.yourrunning.com/north_pole_entry_form.

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