Minutes after the calendar ticked over to 2014 this past New Year's Eve, Fyodorov set off on a solo¹, out-and-back marathon run from his home in the Siberian village of Oymyakon, completing the 26.2-mile course - his first marathon - in just over five hours. During the run he experienced² temperatures as low as -36 F (-38 C).

 

And that was just the way he wanted it.

 

"I [heard] about other marathons around the globe, naming themselves 'the coldest', like the most recent North Pole marathon with runners going at -28 C [-18 F]," Fyodorov told the Siberian Times. "I thought surely this cannot be right. Our Oymyakon is the coldest inhabited³ place in northern hemisphere⁴. Why don't we arrange a marathon here?"

 

Oymyakon is widely considered to be one of the coldest places on the planet⁵, and its record-low temperature of -90 F, recorded in 1933, is tied for the coldest recorded temperature for any inhabited place on Earth. The average January temperature in the area is -50 C (-58 F).

 

Not only did Fyodorov finish the marathon in high spirits, but he also wants it to be colder the next time he tries it.

 

"I really want to organize [the] next Oymyakon marathon in January when the air goes down to -50 C or -60 C," he said.

 

Fyodorov is not the first person to take on a cold-weather athletic⁶ challenge like this. In addition to the North Pole Marathon that he mentioned, the Antarctica Marathon is held every year in late February, taking runners on an out-and-back tour from Russia's Bellingshausen Station. A second Antarctica event - the Ice Marathon - has been held at 80 degrees south since 2006.

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