Polar Bear Marathon lives up to its name for organizers from Steinbach

This year's annual Polar Bear Marathon in Churchill definitely lived up to its name, and a man from Steinbach had a front row seat. 

The 14th annual event took place this last Saturday. Albert Martens of Steinbach heads a team that organizes the race each November through Athletes in Action. 

One of those team members is David Peters of Steinbach. Peters, who has helped organize this event on numerous occasions, says this one was the most fun of all the races he has been a part of. Peters says they saw a lot of bears this year.

One of Peters' tasks last weekend was putting up road marker signs prior to the race and then removing them afterwards. Peters says each time they went out, they would see about six bears, noting it is possible that some of those bears were spotted multiple times. He notes they also heard a report of as many as 15 bears that were seen in one area. 

A mama bear and her two cubs spotted in Churchill. (Photo credit: David Peters)

"And a conservation officer told us at a meeting the night before that this was the highest number of bears they had at this time of the year, ever," recalls Peters.

He explains that the unusually high volume of bears this year has to do with the fact that Hudson Bay is not yet frozen. Peters says that means the bears cannot go onto the ice to hunt for seals. 

"And, so they are just waiting it out," he says. "I guess they are hungry by now, and they are waiting for the ice to form so that they can move north."

Peters says on Friday he had a very close encounter with a polar bear. He went out with David Colley and Tarrant Cross Child to put up road signs. When they got to Kilometre 10 of the course, they could see another vehicle parked on the road ahead of them. Peters says this typically means that another motorist is watching a bear nearby. 

"So, we stopped, and we saw the bear was right in the middle of the road," says Peters. 

He guesses that the polar bear was about 100 metres away, and so the crew decided to quickly stake the sign into the ground and paint lines on the road. They then jumped back in the vehicle and watched to see what the bear would do. It started walking towards their vehicle.

"And all of a sudden it just goes straight for the sign, starts smelling it a bit, and then grabs it, pulls it out of the snow and carries it away," he says. "And then it pulls the sign from the stick and just starts chewing away on it."

Peters says the bear removed quite a chunk of plastic from the sign and then spit it out. They were later able to retrieve the mangled sign. 

Peters says the adult polar bear was probably within two metres of their vehicle. Though the windows were rolled up and he felt safe, Peters says this is the closest encounter he has ever had with a polar bear. 

Watch the full video of the polar bear encounter below.

Marathon mile marker sign mangled by a polar bear. (Photo credit: David Peters)

The uniqueness of the Polar Bear Marathon is already on full display the night before the race. That is when a conservation officer will meet with the team to offer tips on what to do if a bear is spotted nearby. In Churchill, residents are encouraged to leave their homes and vehicles unlocked, in case someone has an encounter with a bear and needs to take shelter. As for the runners on Saturday, Peters says they were told that, for the most part, polar bears do not like to be close to humans, and that they generally will not attack people unless they feel they are in danger. If a bear is close by, runners are encouraged to hop into the support vehicle and start honking, as that is usually enough to send the bear running. 

"There were runners that had seen bears as they were running," says Peters. "I don't think that anyone actually had to get into the vehicle at any point of the run, so that was pretty good."

He notes conservation officers were using bear bangers at Kilometre 15 of the race to scare away a mother bear and her two cubs that were walking close to the road.  

"I guess they just wanted to make sure, because the mothers can be a bit aggressive if they think their babies are in danger," he says. "So, they scare them away."

Peters says they had very good weather for Saturday's race. Past years have seen blizzards, blowing snow and extreme cold, but Peters says at the start of the race it was about -10 degrees with a wind chill of -19.  He adds 15 runners took part this year. 

Group of runners at this year's Polar Bear Marathon. (Photo credit: David Peters)