BHP Billiton Rock and Ice Ultra
The Winners Are Back In Yellowknife
Rob Howard / 27.03.2008
A crowd of media, race staff and supporters waited to greet Greg McHale as he crossed the line to win the Diamond Ultra foot category of the BHP Billiton Rock and Ice Ultra at 12.58 today. He ran through the line at Matrix Village having been the fastest foot racer on every stage of the race, and the fastest overall for each of the past 3 days. Standing on the finish line he said, “This race is so great for this community. It’s an impressive race and with all the beautiful lakes and portages is a fantastic course. This is my first visit to Yellowknife and I’ve had such a great time.�
Asked why he chose to come for this race he was candid enough to admit, “I guess the diamond had something to do with it!� He added, “There are other winter ultras around but this is the one to win and as far I’m concerned the diamond is my wife’s now. She ran the half distance race and did fantastically well, so she deserves it as much as I do.� (His wife Denise was standing in the crowd behind the TV cameras and looked suitable pleased when she heard this!) “I came to win, but you never know what might happen over a 6 day race. I maintained my focus and it paid off. I’m really happy with my race.�
“We train full time, so there was no special preparation for this, but obviously living in Whitehorse we can train in the right conditions. We train for adventure racing, so we ride and paddle too and I think if you were only a runner this race would be hard – cross training was the key.�
Throughout the race his sled has been the smallest and lightest, and quite a few other racers have taken a look at it with envy, so it was no surprise when he said, “I didn’t carry any more than I needed to. Luckily temperature has not been an issue and my layering system is well dialled in – I didn’t need to change my clothing at all. I’d say I ran 75% of the race on snowshoes and although yesterdays stage was the shortest it was the toughest as the snow was so bad.�
He was greeted on the finish line by Deana Twissell of BHP Billiton, who invited him on a special charter flight to the Ekati diamond mine tomorrow, to see where his prize has come from, and 13 minutes later was making the same offer to the Diamond Ultra ski winner, Dennis Colburn. He has been as dominant in his race as McHale has, but neither was going to let up the pace today, and they had a good race against each other.See All Event Posts
