It’s official...

The race results are in and by unanimous decision, everyone decided that it was the hardest race course anyone has ever done. The weather deteriorated during the race day so the longer people were on the course, the more challenging the mud and wind became. At times, the wind was so fierce that people could barely walk, never mind run. The tour company put a laptop in the lounge and invited people to load their top 10-20 photos which will be included in a DVD presented to each of us at the end of the trip. As aresult, the lounge has now turned into THE place to tell stories and share pictures of the race. I’ll post photos and some video when I am back to the States.

Here are the top finishers and their times:

Marathon: Men (1) Robert Youngren (3:50:02); (2) His Royal Highness Pieter-ChristianVan Oranje-Massau (4:22:55); (3) Peter Barbera (4:23:28) Women (1) Kathryn Youngren (3:58:59); (2) Marit Janse (4:57:40); (3) Kelly Hansen (5:04:11)

Half Marathon: Men (1) Fred Lipsky (2:25:52); (2) Olav Bekker (2:45:55)*; (3) John Shull(2:56:29); (4) Libor Pilar (2:57:56) Women (1) Cynthia Tan (2:56:16); (2) Kasey Jenck 2:57:20); (3) Judy Boyd(3:00:01)

*Olav Bekker hurt his ankle and dropped out of the marathon and just did the half marathon. He will not be eligible for a prize for the half-marathon. I think John Shull will therefore get second place and the Libor Pilar may get third place.

Yesterday we went to Half Moon Island and had our first chance to get ashore and visit a penguin colony. It was so cool to sit or kneel on the ground and watch penguins going about their daily business. In case you were wondering what penguins do all day when they are on land-- they sit around in groups and jabber away, poop, molt (shed their outer feathers and have a new batch grow in), and periodically follow the penguin highways through the snow pack down to the water to take a bath. The weather was foggy and the winds began to pick up as the morning progressed. By the time we reached Deception Island a few hours later, the fog, rain and winds had gotten worse. The captain made the decision that it was not safe for him to anchor by Deception Island and let zodiaks go ashore. Instead, he just kept going south along the Antarctica Peninsula. The winds and waves increased enough that I put another motion sickness patch behind my ear. It makes me a little sleepy but that is better than getting sick! Spending more time on the ship meant we could do more of what we are all very good at--eating and drinking! Someone joked that the only exercise he got yesterday was walking from one side of the boat to another and yet we are eating enough each day to run another marathon. We have a breakfast buffet, four course meals atlunch and dinner, plus a full spread of cakes and cookies at tea time (5pm).

Today we reached Denko Harbour. When I looked out of the port hole in our cabin this morning, I was amazed to see huge icebergs and that it was snowing fairly hard. We bundled up and spent quite a long time on shore among the Gentoo penguin colony. These penguins had no fear of humans. We always maintained our 15 feet safety distance but if you were still, the penguins would come right up to you. They were quite curious. It was also funny to watch groups of penguins do the Happy Feet dance (Happy Feet is an animated penguin movie, for those of you not familiar with the reference). I am not kidding--three or four of them would run around, flap their wings and make noises as if they were dancing and singing. Often they would lose their balance or grip on the ice and have to use their beak or wing to catch themselves.

We did not return immediately back to the ship but rather took a zodiak cruise around the bay and explored the icebergs. They were amazing in their texture, shapes, and then varying intensity of blue. The bluer the color, the older it was.
The ice compresses over time and all of the oxygen is squeezed out. That somehow results in bluer color. The water is incredibly clear and we could see the bottom of the bay in some places, along with the portions of the icebergs beneath the water line. My zodiak driver noticed a leopard seal swimming in the bay and quickly turned off the boat engine. We then watched the leopard seal swim around and under our boat. They are huge seals--about 8 feet long and have a giant mouth that contains sharp teeth. Some can be aggressive and bite the boat. This one was more curious than aggressive. After about 2 hours out in the heavy snow, we were all very wet and getting a bit cold. It was time to return to the ship and get warm and dry again.

We are now sailing to Paradise Bay (sounds nice, doesn’t it?). If the weather is nice, there will be a BBQ out on the deck and the race awards presentation. Also, people will have an opportunity to do a polar plunge off the gangway of the ship. If you go all the way under water, you get a certificate of accomplishment. Lot's of people have said they are going to do it but that may have been false bravado inspired by a few glasses of excellent Argentinian wine.