Another Yukon Arctic Ultra is over

And every year I think next year routine will kick in. Well, this year I finally learned that there is no such thing as routine in a race like ours. Or I should say that there are new challenges every year.

This time, our main challenges were caused by the unusually warm weather prior to the YAU and during the first couple of days of racing. Unfortunately, the warm weather brings on more difficulties than one would expect. To add to it we had also lack of snow on quite a few parts of the trail. Especially the race course from SIR North Country Ranch to Dog Grave Lake was very demanding. The YAU was still fast. For some it was so fast that records were broken. However, the lack of snow cover meant that on some of the lakes and rivers athletes had to run, bike and ski over ice. A lot of the Quest markers kept falling over as the Rangers had not drilled holes in the ice and we had no time nor equipment to start drilling, either. It turns out we were not the only ones who some times found orientation difficult. Even Quest winner Lance Mackey go lost on his final run to Dawson city. His dogs knew where to go but he thought he knew better. We now know that reflective spray paint is no
t the ideal solution for people looking for the right way at night. And next time we will have a crew ahead of racer that will take care of nothing else but marking. Having said this I must also say that at times part of the problem is the fact that athletes push themselves so hard to get to checkpoints. They get there, are extremely tired and make simple mistakes. I won?t mention anyone in particular ;-)

For the marathoners it was a fairly easy run. It was relatively warm and the surface was hard. 7 athletes went for this distance. The winner is Han Frenken, the marathon man from the Netherlands who reached the finish in 4:52. He was followed by locals Polly Thorp (4:55) and Rosemary Plaskett (5:23) from Whitehorse. They all had great fun. For the gang from Whitehorse it was their first marathon and judging from their smiling faces after the YAU my guess is they will do many more.

As already mentioned the trail from checkpoint 1 to checkpoint 2 was very tough. The overflow that was found in places did not make it easier. The winner of the 100 miles was Jonathan Lucas, an Englishman who lives in the Yukon and did the race as the first skijorer. Jon did really well and his dogs seem to have liked it, too. Our race veterinarian, Carolynne, had a close look at the dogs at the checkpoints and said they looked great. We will see if other skijorers will follow in Jon?s footsteps. Jon himself would like to do the 320 miles next year and we will try to make it possible for him.

The fastest guy on foot was Mike Scherman from Canada. He arrived in Braeburn after 31:41. So, it seems the training tipps he had received from former YAU 100 mile winner Ray Zahab did work for him.

The third finisher at the 100 mile mark was Thomas Muhler from Germany. After finishing the 320 miles with his mountain bike in 2005, the crazy adventurer was back to the YAU with a special project. From Braeburn he went on to the highway to bike 1,000 miles north to Tuktoyaktuk.

Our xc-skiers Ian Thompson and Alan Chambers had decided to switch to running after the marathon. Ian had enormous blisters and I was surprised to hear he would keep on trying. He finally did have to give up at Dog Grave Lake while Alan literally ran to the finish line afterwards.

Everyone who finished these 100 miles did a really good job. However, a special mention goes to Denise and Alison Pickering, the mother-daughter team from England. They are a very good example that this race can be done without suffering, too. The right training, gear and strategy saw Denise and Alison reach the finish without any major problems. On the contrary, the two looked so good in Braeburn that they easily could have gone on. And it looks like they will be back in 2007 to try the 320 miles.

Talking about the 320 miles. I knew that Andrew Matulionis from the USA would be fast. When he won the 100 miles in 2003 he was so fast at night that I thought I see a dog team in the distance. However, he did surprise us all with his pace anyway. At one point we had to have 4 checkpoints operational to be able to keep up with him. Not only did he finish the race. He also broke Andrew Barnetts record by more than 15 hours and reached Pelly Crossing after 129:40.

Not far behind him was Stuart Gillett from England. Thus Stuart has shown that he is not only fast in desert races. He can also cope quite well with the cold. He finished after 132:22.

Bruce Thompson reached Pelly after 145:55 as the third athlete. 15 athletes out of the 34 had to scratch and could not finish their 320 miles. Everybody else made it. Phil Lloyd did not make it within the time limit but he did finish the entire race course and thus was awarded a finisher medal, too. From the feedback I have received so far everybody enjoyed the experience (minus some of the suffering). Some will be back whilst others will probably stay away from any winter trails for a while. I enjoyed the experience, too. And once again I want to thank all the athletes for coming to the Yukon. Also, I want to thank my team, Shelley Gellatly, Jessica and Mike Simon, Martin Like, Gary, Murray and Thomas, all the volunteers, our checkpoint hosts, sponsors and supporters!

Best regards

Robert Pollhammer
Race Director