He's one of Manila's top property developers—but far away from the boardroom, Victor Consunji has a daredevil side to him that has shaped his career
Most people’s epiphanies happen in a slightly less dramatic way than Victor Consunji’s, which sounds more like a scene from a Jason Bourne film than your typical ‘Ah-ha moment’. The property developer, construction heir and Filipino mega-athlete spent 48 hours stranded on a cracking ice floe on the North Pole in 2016, unsure if he would survive to see his family again. Unsurprisingly, it changed his outlook on life.
“Getting to the North Pole was straight-forward enough,” he says, breezily on the phone from Manila, describing his icy marathon. “I did a GPS reading, laced up my boots and set off. But there are a few major problems you face: the first is the actual running. When the temperature outside is -40°C, you are trying to keep warm, but equally you know you can’t sweat, as that ends with you looking like a popsicle and most likely getting hypothermia. Then there are the bears. But most of all is the fact the North Pole is made of floating ice.”
Consunji—who is the only Filipino to have run a marathon on all seven continents—had taken 10 days out of his schedule to sprint towards the earth’s northernmost point. But on his way home, he found himself trapped on some particularly unstable ice.
“The year I did it, the ice was particularly thin, and you suddenly realise that one wrong move can obliterate your chances of getting back to civilisation,” he continues. “There is nothing like feeling the ice cracking below your feet to put your problems back home into perspective. Most issues really are surmountable—but Mother Nature? That's a different story.”