BOSTON -- What's your idea of a vacation? Going to the beach? On a cruise? A little tennis or golf?

NewsCenter 5's Anthony Everett reported that those are among the choices for most of us. But for a growing number of adventurous souls, vacationing means running a marathon -- some in the far off reaches of the world.

It's the coldest, most remote place in the world, but for some people Antarctica is a great vacation spot.

The penguins were just a small part of the package. Matt Bergin was also there to run a marathon, trudging through snow, ice and slush, up a two-mile glacier and down again. He paid thousands of dollars to do it.

"It's a wonderful way to see the world," Bergin said.

Tom Gilligan runs Marathon Tours in Charlestown. Most of his business is vacation packages geared around running: from a Kenya game park to the Great Wall of China.

"We have a generation of travelers who no longer are looking for fun in the sun vacations. They're goal oriented. They are type A personalities. The travelers we deal with set goals to run marathons," he said.

Bergin is now an exclusive member of Marathon Tours' Seven Continents Club. He's run them all.

"A 500 stage race at mostly 11,000 feet in the Himalayas. I'm taking in sights along the way, talking to different runners, seeing the different cultures along the way," Bergin said.

Other touring companies go to even greater extremes, organizing 100-mile plus treks through the world's deserts. Gilligan said that's extreme even for his clients but they all seem to share a no-pain-no-gain philosophy.

"I think a lot of these people feel they have to pay a little bit of penance before they can sit and relax and enjoy a vacation like normal people do," he said.

In October, Christina Harding is using her vacation time to run a marathon in Dublin. In 2007, it's on to Antarctica, which is already sold out.

"I definitely have a goal to do marathons in every continent, and I can do that on vacation," she said.