Shirley : Audio Report Day 1

The Yukon Arctic Ultra is about to go into its second day. Plenty has happened in the first 24 hours. Here’s a round-up of how it’s gone so far, and a report just in from Shirley Thompson, who, approaching dawn Yukon time (9am), was mid-way between Checkpoints 1 and 2

<img src="http://raceblog.pmachinehosting.com/images/uploads/Shirley_and_Michael__in_tent_s.jpg" border="0" align="left" alt="image" name="image" width="200" height="150" /> The first surprise was Rocky Riefenstuhl, who sped off so fast on his mountain bike that the organisers could barely keep up with him. He reached the marathon mark and compulsory stop in less than 2 hours and 30 minutes. He was followed Hungarian Laszlo Kovacs 30 minutes later (on cross country skis) and then an hour later by German Sven Riedesel (also on a bike). The first runner, Peter Mild from Sweden, reached the Ranch at 4.08 pm, and he was followed 6 minutes later by two Canadians, Ray Zahab and Rob McWilliam.

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Soon after them came the winner of the marathon course, which has finished. It was won by Udo Moeller from Germany in 4 hours 21 minutes. There was a close battle for second, with Tammy Reis (5 hrs 25) beating fellow Canadian Sue McKinnon Dunn by 8 minutes. Janet Constable Rushant and Kim Outridge, also both Canadians, tied for fourth in 7 hrs 11.

That leaves 40 competitors out on the 100 mile and 300 miles courses. Shirley Thompson called in from about half way between PC1 and 2, having covered about 45 miles in all since midday yesterday, about 16 hours racing.

‘It’s about 8.30 in the morning on the Dawson Trail and we’ve stopped for something to eat, and it’s absolutely bloody freezing.’

It’s currently –6 degrees in Whitehorse, but if they are on a frozen river it can be quite a few degrees colder. Overnight it reached about –10 in the town.

‘It took us about 7 hours to get into the checkpoint last night where we had to spend four hours. That was the marathon distance, and it would have been really tempting to drop out at 26 miles… but we’re in for the long haul, the full 300 miles. That’s about 10 times what we’ve done so far… But hey, there are actually 8 people behind me’, she says cheerily, ‘which is something of a miracle. Real competitors too…’

‘We’re now about half way to the next checkpoint which is 37 miles,’ she says as she signs off. ‘We covered about 20 miles through the night last night. And it was very, very cold.’


Click here for the Audio Clip (approx 1mb .wav)

Shirley and Michael in their tent

<img src="http://raceblog.pmachinehosting.com/images/uploads/Shirley_and_Michael__in_tent.jpg" border="0" alt="image" name="image" width="480" height="360" />