Gobi March: Stray Dogs – Stage 1, Fourth Place

Team Stray Dogs GoLite completed the first stage of the Gobi March in 5:45 (5 hours 45 minutes), putting them in fourth place in the team competition! The first place team, No Limits, finished in 3:42, only 4 minutes behind the individual stage winner, Henrik Eiber from Denmark (who we met at the Sahara Race in Egypt in October 2005, a nice guy… I wonder if his wife is volunteering again too? But, I digress).

The second place male finisher and the first place female finisher crossed the line in 3:42, right along with Team No-Limits. Other team finishes were: second place 4:46, third place 5:09 [the Stray Dogs, fourth place 5:45], fifth place 6:21, and sixth place 6:58. Other teams ranged from 7:17 to 8:39. Now, I know Marsh, Mace, and Dr. Bob didn’t set out to necessarily race for a top team spot, but you can’t stop that competitive drive in these guys!

Marshall, as many of you know, started ultrarunning in 1989 and now has completed over 100 races averaging over 100 miles each. He climbed the Seven Summits, the highest mountain on each continent, including Mount Everest – in less than three years, in large part because he was lucky enough to summit each mountain on his first attempt. For more information about Marshall, including the Triple Crown of Extreme Sports, go to his Web site at http://www.marshallulrich.com/.

Marsh, Mace, and Dr. Bob all started adventure racing in 1995 when they all competed in the first ever Eco Challenge in Utah. Marsh and Mace were on the same team, with Dr. Bob and Lisa Smith-Batchen – both of whom Marsh and Mace had not yet met – on another team. As fate would have it, both teams “blew up” and had two members drop out. In order to continue on the course, you had to have four people, so Marsh, Mace, Dr. Bob, and Lisa formed an ad hoc team and finished the course together. Because they were from all over the country, wandering occasionally aimlessly along course (read: lost, sometimes) they decided to call themselves Team Stray Dogs. Thus, the Stray Dogs were born!

Marsh and Mace have gone on to race in 8 of the 9 Eco Challenge together as Team Stray Dogs (Mace only missed a second Eco Challenge/ESPN Extreme Games later in 1995 in New England, where Marsh raced with a different team), as well as Primal Quest 2003 near Lake Tahoe. Dr. Bob joined the Stray Dogs for the Eco Challenge races in British Columbia in 1996 and Australia in 1997, the last time the three of them raced together. But, ever since meeting out in the Utah desert, the Stray Dogs have stayed great friends, teammates whenever possible, and each one has gone on to achieve amazing things.

In addition to 8 Eco Challenge races, Mace has completed the Hawaii Iron Man (and Marsh counts on Mace to keep him afloat in during any swimming portions of adventure races!), is a record-setting snowshoe racer, and has completed Badwater, Iditiasport, several Leadville Trail 100s, and numerous other ultras and extreme events. Mace completed the Marathon des Sable the same year Marsh did, and recently told me that he has “probably seen Marshall suffer more than anyone else has seen him suffer” and mentioned the dysentery problems Marsh had during that race. In return, Marsh often tells me that “Mace gets the worst feet I’ve ever seen” during adventure races, yet “he never complains, so you’d never know, until he takes his socks off and you see the blisters, and peeling skin that looks like raw hamburger.” Yep. It’s a glamorous sport.

In addition to three Eco Challenge races, Br. Bob had competed in the Iditasport, the Leadville Trail 100, Old Dominion 100, and Badwater. In October 2005 he climbed the Mexican Volcanoes with Marshall. The thing that Marsh always mentions about Dr. Bob is his ability to “suffer with grace.” For example, after Eco Challenge Austrlia Marsh reported, “In an effort to stabilize himself as fatigue set in, Dr. Bob had grabbed just about every plant in Australia that had hide-ripping barbs and thorns. He lost about 20-pounds, and his hands, arms, and legs were cut and swollen. I remember him sitting on the plane on the way home, just barely able to move, looking straight ahead in a comatose-like trance. But he never complained.” Just like Mace with his feet. No whining!

Even more than their athletic accomplishments, Mace and Dr. Bob have been mentors for Marsh in the way that they conduct themselves in their “real” lives. Mace is an attorney and Dr. Bob… well…yep, you guessed it… he’s a physician. Both have been married for almost 30 years (to wonderful women, Pam Macy and Dabny Haugh) and have raised wonderful kids. Their honesty and integrity, and the way that they set priorities in their lives, has been an inspiration. I am grateful that Marsh can count them both as friends, and am *thrilled* that they have the opportunity to race together again!

So… anyway, back to the race…

By 8 p.m. local race time, Racing the Planet, the race organizers, reported that all competitors were at the campsite Yarkand River, and that everyone made it within the allowed time limits. Tomorrow will bring Stage 2, Datong Fork, another approximately 22 mile stage. Wish the Stray Dogs well. I know they are in my thoughts and prayers!