On your marks, get set, freeze!
The world’s coldest inhabited place, a northeast Russian village nicknamed the “Cold Pole,” hosted a race in sub-zero temperatures over the weekend.
The extreme race attracted 16 athletes aged between 21 and 71 in Oymyakon, a rural locality in the Far East republic of Sakha, The Siberian Times reported on Monday.
“We wanted to make running in -45 C and colder more popular, and to show that athletes can adapt to extremely low temperatures,” runner Yegor Abramov was quoted by the local outlet as saying.
Another runner Sargylana Neustroyeva told The Siberian Times that tourists from Australia, Japan, India and Taiwan watched the race in “utter amazement.”
Photographs showed ice sticking to the runners’ hats, neck warmers, eyelashes and facial hair.
A thermometer reportedly read minus 52 degrees Celsius when the race began, and minus 48 degrees Celsius when the last runner crossed the finish line.