Hortonville runner joins seven continents marathon club

Ray Miller, a new member of the Seven Continents Club, will have mind-freezing marathon tales to share when he takes center stage with the Fox Cities Pacesetters next month.

The business executive from Hortonville finished the Antarctic Ice Marathon on Dec. 1, and fulfilled his quest to run a marathon on all seven continents at 60.

For a preview of Miller's talk, check out the story in the Appleton Post-Crescent.

Miller shared this description of his run in a temperature of minus 19 and windchill of minus 25: "But when you run outside there, you really don't notice the cold because the sun is so bright. With all the snow - looking out, you just saw snow forever - when it's that cold, you don't feel the cold. So you have to be careful because you don't feel it.

"We were all covered up pretty much. We had ski goggles on. What little part of our skin was exposed, we had to use SPF 50 (sunscreen) so not to get sunburned. Because of the ozone being so thin there, the sun is very intense and you have the 24-hour daylight.''

The marathon took Miller 6 hours, 16 minutes, about two hours more than his standard for the distance.

"The biggest problem was you could not tell how far anything was away,'' he said. "You just can't tell how far you've gone. You just see snow forever. When I finished, I wasn't sure what my time was because the battery on my watch died. I didn't know how long I was out there, but it didn't feel like six hours.''

Miller will start his presentation at 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 22, in the Harmony Cafe, 223 E. College Ave., Appleton.