The 14- year plan [1999 to 2012] that I put together in 1999 to bring worldwide awareness about kidney cancer was a commitment that I would complete at least one worldwide marathon each year, for 14 years, and to run at least one marathon on all 7 continents by 2012 – when I turn 75. By 2008 I had finished 12 worldwide marathons on 5 continents [North America, South America, Europe, Australia, and Asia], which meant that I needed to finish marathons on the remaining two continents – Africa and Antarctica.

On May 28, 2008 I signed up for the 2010 Antarctica marathon by paying my deposit of $300.00 to the company that manages the Antarctica marathon, Marathon Tours & Travel of Boston, Massachusetts. I was told that my deposit would ensure me that I would be on the list of runners who would be running the 2010 Antarctica marathon on March 6, 2010. The cost of the trip to Antarctica is $7,090.00 and includes 3 nights in the Marriott Plaza Hotel in Buenos Aires, round trip flights from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia, 2 day boat ride to King George Island to run the marathon – three meals daily on board ship, sightseeing trips to Paradise Bay and through the fjords near the Lemaire channel, and the 2 day boat ride from Antarctica to Ushuaia.

The package that I received from Marathon Tours informed me that there would be two ships going to the marathon with 150+ runners, race support staff, and the ships Russian crew. The ships, the Loffe and the Vavilov, that we would travel on were built in Finland in 1987 and sold to the Russians, allegedly for scientific research but more likely for spying on U.S. submarines. They were specifically designed for the Antarctic and built to withstand eighty-mile-per-hour winds, sixty-foot-high seas, and to plow through ice three feet thick and were converted to carry passengers to Antarctica. I selected to go on the Loffe as the ship that I would travel to Antarctica on.