The PowerBar Three Peaks Yacht Race
The Last Gasp
Rob Howard / 01.07.2008
On the line he fell into the arms of Chris Jones, and stayed there for some time. Without support he would have fallen over and for some minutes he was unable to speak. His face was gaunt and his eyes glazed and Jones said, “I think Greg is here in body, but not in spirit.� He’d not even managed a smile and when the TV crew did persuade him to speak his voice was a pained croak.
The question to him was; “You said the runners have it much easier in this race ... how do you feel now?� A very low blow!
“I don’t think I have ever pushed myself so, so hard,� Marsh said. “I didn’t know if I could do it, but I did know I’d give everything. I don’t think I could have done it if I hadn’t seen what the crew have achieved these past few days.� That was all he could say.
His team were all smiling, including his running partner Gordon Baxter, who was chirpy, smiling and talkative. He was sore too. “I took a tumble, right in front of a film crew of course, and will have a big bruise I’m sure.� He said. “We took the path up and then saw the other runners as we came back down the zig-zags. They were going straight up the mountain but we decided to stay on the path and leg it down the zig-zags.�
Their rivals didn’t gain any time on them on the climb, and at the finish Martin Beale said, “I just didn’t have the power to keep up with Andy. I don’t know what was wrong but we didn’t climb fast enough – we should have been 15 to 20 minutes quicker.� They did gain 17 minutes on JourneyMaker, but it wasn’t enough.
The JourneyMaker crew were all smiles at their win – hardly able to believe what they’d done. This was the crew’s third race and they’d bought the yacht specifically to take part. The first year they aimed to finish and did so, last year they aimed to win the Tilman Trophy and did so ... and now they have won the race outright against the most experienced of teams.
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