Engadin Ski Marathon 2005. Slow conditions but a great day overall.

Sunday 13 March 2005 - 30 Marahontistas got themselves to the start...

• There were a total of 10,689 finishers on the day, 8838 men (83%) and 1851 women (17%), slightly down on last year;
• Fastest man was Gion-Andrea Bundi, in a very slow time of 1 hr 34 mins 01.7 secs;
• Fastest woman (Natascia Leonardi) finished in a positively supine 1 hr 40 mins 19.2 secs;
• The Engadin Marathonistas recorded an average time in of 4hrs 37' 56". Once again this is down on the record 4hrs 23' 40" for 2003, and a little worse than the 4hrs 37' 36" from 2004. Most of that was down to the course.
• The 13 Marathonistas returning from the year before recorded an average 6 minutes 46 seconds slower than 2004.
• For the first time yet, I wasn't the fastest marathonista - this honour went to Chris McSweeney who recorded a Hall of Fame top rookie performance of 2hrs 39' 16" to my frankly disappointing 2hrs 41' 05". Well done Chris.
• Fastest woman Marathonista was Astrid Oyehaug, with an excellent 3hrs 16' 04" - her best by over four minutes, and an impressive improvement given the slow conditions. No doubt she was spurred on by the thought of replacing friend and arch-rival Carine Smith at number 2 in the all-time women skater Hall of Fame.
• Guy Spier recorded the worst physical decline, his 4hrs 59' 33" being some 21.3% worse than his epic performance in 2004, when he entered the record books as fastest improver. He did have a good excuse though: the arrival of his first baby in the intervening year (Congrats to him and Lory - don't let him have your email address unless you really like baby photos!).
• Special mention goes to Dr Katherine Henderson, who switched to skating and scythed 26 minutes off her time, to finish as the year's best improver, just outside 4 hours. Not quite enough to get into the Hall of Fame, but a fine effort in a tough year. Another good improver was Ben Black, who cut 13 minutes off his 2004 time to finish in a very creditable 3hrs 08' 05".
• This year Maren was down in 65th place with a "slow" time 2hrs 09'mins 20.8 seconds - around six minutes slower than last year - thus underlining how slow the course was.
• Finally, a heart-felt thankyou goes to Andrew Little and Alison Cater, who provided warm drinks and munchies in the finish area to all incoming Marathonistas. I am sure we could figure out a way for Alison to fit skis to her wheelchair...