Canberra's first declared independent candidate for 2016, animal activist Marcus Fillinger, has completed the North Pole Marathon, but not without a mishap that had him on the ice for a gruelling 14 hours and finally finishing at 3am, tears frozen to his face.
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Mr Fillinger was one of 45 people, including six Australians, to line up for the race on the weekend at a Russian base at the pole.
He ran with two huskies and retired on the third lap of the 12-lap course to look after one of the dogs, who had kennel cough.
Five hours later, after sourcing antibiotics and feeding the dogs his food (food at the base was strictly rationed), Mr Fillinger resumed the race. But with nine laps still to go, he was running for hours more and is listed as the last man of 33 to finish the race.
He hadn't eaten for 24 hours and, by the time he had finished the marathon, hadn't slept for more than 36 hours.
"As it was getting into the wee hours of 1am and temps dropping to minus 41 degrees and a cutting wind and snow drift I had to dig deep to finish the final laps," he wrote.
"Wearing my boys' [the huskies] race numbers 47 and 48, and my first ever rescue husky's collar of my late girl Niki, gave me the push I needed to complete my final lap at 3am.
"I loved every minute of every lap. The final three laps were the best, I was the last on the course, and I was out there by myself, and armed with a pistol for protection from polar bears.
"With frozen tears, I was met by the race doctors, and a few of the Russian crew who were most complimentary in the fact I wanted to finish and did it for the dogs."
Mr Fillinger, who runs animal rescue operation Alphadog in Canberra, ran the race under the banner "Ks for kangaroos" to raise money for a trial he wants to carry out into kangaroo fertility control.
A firearms tranquilliser expert, he is a critic of the ACT government's planned trial of fertility control.
He also strongly opposes the annual cull, which is one of the issues that has motivated him to stand in the 2016 election, when he will go head to head with the Greens' Shane Rattenbury, who is the minister in charge of the cull.
Mr Fillinger's trip to the North Pole coincided with the announcement this week that nearly 2500 kangaroos will be shot on Canberra's nature reserves in May, June and July.
Mr Fillinger said his driving force was the thought of "all those dogs and other companion animals that are thrown away in council pounds to be euthanased".
"Enduring 42km in minus 41 degrees is not even close to the mental hardship they endure. The thought of the crime against our wildlife that is about to be bullied upon us again by the ACT government also provided me the anger I needed for that additional motivation as well," he said.
After the marathon, Mr Fillinger dived at a Russian research hole with under-ice free dive champion Christian Redl, of Austria. Redl was to attempt a free dive to 80 metres but did 30 metres, with Mr Fillinger as dive companion and photographer.
Mr Fillinger reports breaking two ribs as he climbed out of the ice, and was treated at Longyearbyen Hospital in the north of Norway.
"It only hurts when I walk, lay down, cough, sneeze, laugh or breathe," he said.
