Ireland's Garry Thornton and Germany's Anne-Marie Flammersfeld won the 2014 UVU Volcano Marathon, which was held in the Atacama Desert, Chile on 11th November.
The Volcano Marathon is among the highest and toughest marathons on the planet with athletes this year enduring strong headwinds at the start, an altitude of 4,500 metres, temperatures soaring towards 100F at the finish, and a very hilly woute with a lot of sand conditions in between. Several competitors required oxygen on finishing the event and there was one withdrawal due to dehydration.
However, Thornton and Flammersfeld, both winners of the North Pole Marathon (the world's coolest marathon), showed their versatility to win the standard 42.2 km marathon distance in times of 4:10.13 hrs and 4:37.58 hrs, respectively. Thornton's time was almost two hours slower than his regular road marathon time, perhaps demonstrating the severe nature of the race.
Enzo Ferrari (CHL) was second in the men's event ahead of Christoph Zitzmann (GER) with Carla Lopez (CHL) and Audrey McIntosh (GBR) taking second and third places in the women's division.
The Volcano Marathon is a member of the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races and Japan's Masao Maki became a member of the 7 Continents Marathon Club by completing the race. He had previously run marathons on the other six continents, including the Antarctic Ice Marathon
See volcanomarathon.com and facebook.com/thevolcanomarathon
