BHP Billiton Rock and Ice Ultra
All the Racers Are Back
Rob Howard / 28.03.2008
Through the afternoon and into the evening the exhausted and elated finishers approached the finish line back in Yellowknife. All reported that the trail for this last day was one of the best with more firmly packed snow, and again it was a glorious sunny day, with little wind and temperatures comfortable at around -10C.Although he had planned to greet every racer on the finish line, Race Director Scott Smith felt he should to go back onto the trail to check on the snow-blinded racer, Marvin Overgaard. Although Overgaard was determined to continue from Trout Rock Lodge at the start of the day there had been some debate over whether he should be allowed to. He was clearly in great pain and still had limited vision, but with specially adapted glasses and medical advice that his condition would not deteriorate or cause long-term damage he was allowed to set off. Wendy McKinnon and Diarmuid Smyth offered to walk with him and guide him, but it was fellow Dane Michael Randrup who accompanied him until Smith came back onto the course to ask Overgaard to come in.
But this determined athlete, who has never quit a race, insisted that if he left the course and the eye specialist at the hospital said it was safe to go on, he should be brought back out to the point where he left the race … and that is what happened. Smith then decided to accompany him all they way through the remainder of the final day to ensure his safety and to help him complete the course, even though they would most likely finish long after dark.
So, as the finishers crossed the line they were given their Rock and Ice trophy, in the shape of a diamond, by other race officials, but all understood why Smith wasn’t there on the finish line. Some managed a final sprint over the line, but Shawne Kokelj, a popular Yellowknife athlete, had to race to the line to beat off a last gasp challenge by Nicki Haugan and Tracy Garneau, who have run the whole race together. Kokelj just held on to finish a step ahead of them and was greeted with a hug from her children.
French racer Gerard Verdenet completed yet another tough endurance race to add to his long list of successes, which spans 50 countries. He’d been faster today and put that down to the firmer snow conditions suiting his pulk better. “The snow was hard today and this suited me. My pulk has not been so good for most of the race, but it is a beautiful, beautiful course!� He promised to come back … with lots of other French athletes.See All Event Posts
