First Woman to set a World Record in the North Pole Marathon (completing the race in under six hours)
February 2011, St James’s Park, London
b.1973, Macclesfield
In 2006, at the age of 33, just 8 years after she took up running, Alison Hamlett completed the North Pole Marathon. She was the first woman to run the 262 mile marathon distance in under six hours, setting a new world record in this event. This marathon event, which was started in 2002, is run entirely on ice and can take up to 20 hours to complete in freezing temperatures of up to -60 degrees C. Hamlett completed the marathon in under 6 hours – 44 minutes ahead of the next competitor.