MEDALSOME:  Tee has completed seven continents twice, including the Triple 7 quest. Right:  MILES TO GO: Tee runs marathons not for competition but for herself and her health.


By Umer Nangiana

It is official now. Already a marathoner of seven continents, including the Antarctic, Tuedon (Tee) Morgan, a Nigerian-British expatriate living in Qatar, has become the first female Qatar resident and the first Nigerian to have ever run the North Pole Marathon, dubbed as the most demanding and ‘coolest’ of all races.
In a message shortly after completing the marathon, Tee told Community that she had finally achieved her target for which she had been preparing for a very long time.
“I am the first woman from Qatar to have ever run the North Pole Marathon. I am also the first Nigerian too,” said Tee in her message.
She was one of the six women who completed the 42.2km race from among the 45 contestants in all, according to the provisional results announced on the Facebook page of the North Pole Marathon.  
The athletes were flown to the area and snipers were placed around the running circuit to protect the athletes from polar bears or other dangerous animals. Also known as the ‘World’s Coolest Marathon’, the race offers a running surface that is a mixture of slippery hard ice and knee-deep snow.
The competitors assembled at Spitsbergen, the largest island of the Svalbard archipelago, before departing by specialist Russian cargo plane for the Arctic ice floes on  April 8. A temporary ice camp and runway had been established, which floats about the North Pole with the drift of the ocean.
During the marathon, athletes experience extreme sub-zero temperatures that could be as low as -40C and only a few feet of ice separates them from the Arctic Ocean below. The conditions are energy sapping, with soft snow and small ice hillocks to negotiate, but there is constant daylight at this time of year as the sun won’t set for several months.
The organisers provided armed polar bear guards to protect the runners, as well as medical personnel with expertise in cold weather injuries such as frostbite and hypothermia. The marathon route was a multi-loop course to avoid ‘leads’, or breaks in the ice. Tee, who started running marathons only in 2011, had drastically reduced her body weight from 120kg to 62kg in two years.  
In less than four years, Tee, a mother of four, has successfully completed marathons on every continent, including Antarctica. For her it all started from Doha Bay Running Club which she joined as a runner in 2011. Soon she had found herself running a half-marathon in Dubai in December 2011. The North Pole Marathon was her 31st marathon that she has completed so far.
“It is going to be a challenging run but I am looking forward to it. I think you just have to learn to believe in yourself. You have to be consistent, focused and determined and I do all that,” Tee had told Community in an interview last month before heading for the North Pole Marathon.
She added that whenever she crosses a finish line of a marathon she experiences emotions. “In fact, when I am near 41K, I start feeling bad and I already start thinking about my next race, it is an addiction,” said Tee.
She has run Antarctica twice. She also has the Two Oceans race coming up which is named as the most beautiful race in the world.