The Baikal Ice Marathon is a full marathon on the ice, more precisely on the frozen Baikal Lake, Siberia ( Russia). Due to the extreme conditions—ice, snow, wind and cold—it is considered one of the most difficult marathons in the world. Held last month, Laurent Lecamp, Executive Vice-President of Carl F Bucherer, was one of the participants.

A regular long-distance runner Lecamp who is based in Lucerne trained about 50-60 km a week for the marathon. “It was one of the most challenging experiences of my life. I was a bit stressed and couldn’t sleep well the night before and the night after, due to the excitement,” he told Watch World in a chat.

This year marked the 15th edition of the Baikal Ice Marathon which was started as an initiative “For Preservation of Clean Water” and Carl F. Bucherer has been supporting the cause.

“When I started out, I prayed to Baikal to protect me during the marathon and felt connected to that mystical lake. I feel like visiting the sights as I speak to you, giving me goosebumps because I have this emotion engraved on my heart and my skin: for parts of my skin were affected by the cold. It wasn’t an easy run but it mesmerized me to witness how human beings are just as limitless as they intend to be and are limited by their own minds,” reminiscences Lecamp whose final ranking was 26.

The marathon began at 09.30am and it took Lecamp and his partner and veteran pacer Vladimir Voloshin— both with the brand’s Patravi Scuba Tec on their wrist— took 4 hours and 8 minutes to complete the 43 km run on ice.

125 people from 24 countries participated in the 15th Edition of the Baikal Ice Marathon. Anton Dolgov from Moscow (Russia) won the marathon finishing the course within 3 hours 05 min. 05 sec. The second and the third places were taken by Sergei Kalashnikov from Irkutsk ( Russia) clocking 3:12:56, and Jan Ďuk from the Czech Republic clocking 3:15:58. Among ladies all the first three winners were from Russia-—Ekaterina Lykasheva finishing the full course within 3 hours 49 min. 30 sec followed by Anastasia Naidenko (4:09:47) and Lybov Timofeeva ( 4:10:57).

“It was a dream for all of us, and crossing the finish line meant that you belonged to the very small population of people who dare take up this challenge,” adds Lecamp.