Ultra Fiord
One Hundred Miles: Part One
Anne-Marie Dunhill / 18.04.2015
The first distance to start the Ultra Fiord was the 100 mile race. It takes a specific type of person to run one hundred miles, no matter what the continent and 36 of that specific type toed the starting line at 00:00; 32 men and 4 women. The start line was in barren land about an hour outside of Puerto Natales. After a relaxed pasta dinner in the Remota, hotel vans moved the racers to the start line while press and photographers piled into a van with the race director, Stjepan Pavicic. The ultra runners appeared relaxed and anxious to finally start racing.
The night was overcast, humid and chilly but not unbearable and Candice Burt (USA) remarked before the race start that perhaps she was over dressed with her down sweater jacket. The race started on time and the only sound was the whirring sound of the drone filming. Specks that were the runners headlamps soon dotted the horizon.
At the first aid station Jeff Browning (USA) and Enzo Ferrari (Chile) were the first runners through. Over breakfast back in Punta Arenas before the race start, Enzo admitted that he felt like “a new chicken in the coop because I don’t know anyone here.” This would be his first experience moving to running a 100 mile distance and after the first aid station he wisely realized that he was starting out too quickly and dropped his pace.
The first two women through were Nikki Kimball (USA) and Kerry Bruxwort (USA) and because of their chattering we could hear them five minutes before we saw them. There seemed to be an easy camaraderie as they spoke about mutual friends and races; never once breaking pace or becoming short breathed.
Candice Burt came in alone a few minutes behind them and she had stripped down to a T-shirt and was covered in sweat.Another runner, Kendrick, also decided that he was over dressed and took off his trousers with the help of Matias Bull who was covering the race for his website before competing in the 70km the next day.
It started raining around 01:45 and at the second aid station in the Bahia El Bote refuge Kerry came in saying “it’s gettin a little wet out there.” The change in weather was a pity as it had been sunny with clear skies and no wind for the last three days. Stjepan seemed happy that the race was finally underway after months of work; as he observed the ultra runners coming in he said, “there are a lot of very special people here.”
Photographers hovered around the runners snapping shots and Candice cracked a joke saying, “make sure you get the snot, it’s all about the snot.” The mood was relaxed and concentrated: each one of these high level athletes knowing exactly what they needed to do to efficiently make their way through the aid station and out into the drizzling rain.
We than drove on along the race route, stopping at one point to indicate to racers that they needed to leap over a wooden fence to continue along the course. Once everyone was through we continued, stopping occasionally to speak to different members of staff who were posted along the way. Members of the press dozed off around 04:00 and Stjepan drove silently through the night with an album of Queen playing on the radio. Given Stjepan’s description of how he envisaged his new race, when the song “Another One Bites the Dust” came on, this SleepMonsters journalist couldn’t help wondering if this was a presage for what lay ahead.
The third aid station was at the Las Torres hotel and the ultra runners once again quickly transitioned: Jeff Browning came through at around 06:30, and Enzo Ferrari had dropped several places back in the pack. Nikki and Kerry continued their non-stop chattering as they grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed out again. It was good to see how much fun they seemed to be having racing together. At some point during this first night Veronica Bravo (Chile) dropped from the race.
The first night of racing on the 100 miler was over and the press and crew drove over to the Hotel Rio Serrano where the 70km and the 100km were due to start at 08:30.
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