Day 4, Last race of the Ultra, but stories abound!

For the diehards that have been following the Diamond race, everyone is following the cat and mouse game between RN 420 Phil Villeneuve and 419 Micheal Argue. These two national level athletes who are also friends in the x-country ski division have been shadowing each other since day 1 like lions looking for dinner. Waiting for a hint when the other will break and then pounce. Phil informed me he has an unusual bit of swelling in his feet but being a true sportsman he didn’t take advantage of a very late opportunity in yesterday’s stage when his competitor broke his pole with less than a kilometer to the finish line.

The crazy brits, 402 and 404 continue to enjoy their first ultra race or should I continue to repeat, their daily first marathon or the first time they have ever been on cross country skis ever race. Their feet are quite blistered but they continue to laugh and carry on.

It’s hard to talk to all the athletes because they don’t come out of their warm quarters until just before the race start. I don’t even dare to enter their inner sanctum in the mornings.

After watching the wind burned, very stiff but ready for the day’s challenge Diamond athletes leave Matrix village I bumped into RN 002 Martin Parnell who won the Cold Foot Classic Solo Foot / Snowshoe single day race. He gave me an idea of how brutal the weather conditions were that day. He ran his first 30 K in 3 hours and 50 minutes, the final 15 K took him 3 hours and 15 minutes. This was the result of a cold snowy head wind that resulted in whiteouts and numbing wind chills. Ugh! Martin was at Matrix headquarters to be awarded his 1st trophy by volunteer extrodinaire, Elaine.

Another fascinating unbelievable story involves the Japanese and Korean athletes, RN 427 Miho, 236 Yukako and 414 Jesse. Rumor has it which is great about blog writing since I’m not a real reporter, I’m smiling, can write about chatter, when they showed up prior to the start of the race some of their gear still had the price tags and plastic attached. They have this wonderful non rush attitude which is confirmed when you check out their respective race results at www.sleepmonsters.com . Even at today’s race start time of 9:00 AM this threesome didn’t even start their race until 9:28 AM but still had time to pose for my camera. Say Sushi, which I did have for dinner tonight from Sushi North.

As a race sidebar, last night the media and the race crew enjoyed evening beverages at the Black Knight Pub, being a true gentlemen, Race director Scott Smith politely excused himself to brush his teeth in the bar before joining our table. If you ever meet Scott he is a gentle giant, massive in size yet genuine and grounded with emotion.