North Pole Marathon: At the very top of the world – 90° North, where every direction points south and the Arctic Ocean itself becomes the racetrack – the Indian tricolour was carried not by a flagpole, but by a runner determined to make history. On July 13, 2025, Kolkata-born entrepreneur and explorer Ram Gopal Kothari became the first Indian to complete a full marathon at the Geographic North Pole. The feat places him among a handful of global athletes who have braved one of the world’s most hostile and extraordinary racecourses, reported Times of India.
A Marathon Like No Other
The North Pole Marathon is unlike any other endurance event. Runners compete on drifting slabs of sea ice, just a few metres thick, floating over freezing waters. Temperatures hover around -8°C, winds cut through multiple layers of clothing, and polar bears occasionally wander close to the course. Logistics include an icebreaker ship, armed polar bear patrols, and a full medical team – reminders that this is not just a race, but an expedition, said the report.
This year, participants travelled from Longyearbyen in Svalbard, Norway, aboard the French icebreaker Le Commandant Charcot. The ship journeyed through solid sea ice from 78°N to 90°N, offering breathtaking encounters with polar bears, seals, walruses and even blue whales.
For Kothari, who was attempting his first-ever full marathon, the race was a trial of willpower. The first 21 kilometres went smoothly in 2 hours 45 minutes. But from the 28th kilometre onwards, slushy melting ice caused his legs to sink with every step, soaking his shoes and sparking severe cramps. He suffered nine muscle cramps and an injured toe, but refused to stop. “I wasn’t just running on ice,” he later said. “I was running on a promise, and on the belief that India has a place everywhere – even at the top of the world.” He finished in just over eight hours.
From Burrabazar to the North Pole
Kothari’s achievement carries extra weight given his personal story. Raised in Kolkata’s Burrabazar in a two-room home with an asbestos roof, he grew up in a joint family where the entire floor shared a single toilet. He studied at Shree Maheswari Vidyalaya, a school whose community now proudly celebrates his achievement week after week.
By his own admission, he was an average student, but he credits his parents with instilling resilience that later shaped his journey.
In 2012, life nearly broke him. Facing financial collapse and emotional exhaustion, he even contemplated ending his life. A call from his wife, Shipra, urging him to live for their children, pulled him back. Starting again from scratch, he began his insurance career literally from the footpath, going door-to-door with quotations.
Life Reimagined Through Travel
Travel soon became both passion and purpose. By 2018, Kothari had run his first half marathon at the Tata Mumbai Marathon. By 2022, he had already stood on all seven continents, including Antarctica after a turbulent passage across the Drake Passage.
His explorations read like a catalogue of extremes: staying in an igloo in Greenland, experiencing the Polar Night of Svalbard – the last human settlement in the north, where the northern lights dance in 24 hours of darkness, braving Yakutia, the coldest city in the world, and skydiving at Empuriabrava in Spain. He has also stood at Ushuaia, the southernmost inhabited place on Earth, and swam in the Pacific Ocean alongside whale sharks and humpback whales, even touching one while scuba diving.
Closer to danger, he once fell nearly 100 metres while attempting Mount Elbrus in Europe, yet survived to continue climbing and running.
What Comes Next
Having conquered the North Pole, Kothari is already planning new goals: to run seven marathons on seven continents in seven days, to climb the Seven Summits (the tallest peaks on each continent), and to visit 100 countries by 2027. He has already set foot in 71. For a man who once nearly gave up, the finish line at the North Pole was more than the end of a race – it was proof that resilience, purpose and belief can take you to the top of the world.