The VIKING proved once again to be the toughest guy in the neighbourhood. Now in his 55th year (that's older than me) Gordon decided it was time to test his body, and will power, by running the Ultra Marathon, 110+ km from Halifax to Lunenburg. While the 600 people running the relay portion of the race were still tucked in their little beds, I picked Gordon up at 3:30 am and delivered him to the 4:00 am start line at Historic Properties.

Off he went with the beloved Egor Egan falling steadily behind and a Bruce Barteaux pulling steadily ahead.

After he was safely onto the #3 Highway I went to Exhibition Park to join with the rest of the GONZO guys and girls, under the leadership of Jerome, to get the 60 teams of 10 persons and their armada of vehicles safely, and with some semblance of organization, down the road to Lunenburg.

All we heard from Gordon over the next12 hours was by cell phone--feeling great, now in Queensland, feeling OK, now in Hubbards, feeling not too bad, now in Chester, still have some feeling-----

We past him for the first time a couple kms from the finish of leg#8 in Western Shore, he was looking great when his body allowed him to run, looked even better when he was in his shuffle walk-amazing how he conserves energy by not lifting his feet but still moves forward.

He past the finish line while we were waiting for the relay runners. He had a big grin on his face making me ashamed how tired I felt and looked. I had not even run a relay leg.

We past him (and his buddie Malcolm Payne-yes the last name is correct)about 3/4 of the way into Mahone Bay, he was still moving?, maybe now looking a bit tired--I was almost asleep sitting in the car.

Just as he was passing the finish line in Mahone Bay at 5:00 pm the skies opened up with major rain and then stopped and the sun was out again

We started to do the mental math about his chance of finishing by 6:30, probably not unless he can put an equivalent of a 60 minute 10km--Not likely!!!!!!!!!

My next contact was at the reception around 7:15 when I asked Gregor if he heard how Gordon had done. He said ask him yourself, he was sitting right in front of me. I went over to shake his hand---he didn't get up.

Aftermath--I went over to drop some stuff off today to find him walking around the yard, showing me his new canoe and in general looking normal. The man is amazing.

Cheers

Oh yeah, Barteaux finished a couple hours ahead of Gordon and Egor pulled out at Gold River

--

The Sun god