The Pioneer Press is reporting that a 27 year old won the recent Frozen Otter Ultra Trek and his prize included losing 2 of his toes.

The 27-year-old from Davenport, Iowa, was one of only two competitors to make it past the half-way point of the 64-mile race that started at noon Saturday. He spent nearly 17 hours on the Ice Age Trail in the Northern Kettle Moraine State Forest.

At one point, the temperature dropped to nearly 15 below zero.

[Andrew] Wells was the only person to make it past the fifth check point near the 40-mile mark.

Wells is quoted as saying:

“My feet were obviously frozen, so I couldn’t feel them,” he said. “And it was too cold to take my shoes off to check my feet. On my hands, I had mittens on, and just to take them off for 30 seconds, my hands got really cold, painful.

“I thought my toes were OK.”

Wells was wearing shoes, wool socks, and water proof socks to cover his feet. I wimped out and thought it was too cold this weekend even for a 5 mile run, I can’t imagine trying to run 10x’s that far, what were those crazy people thinking?? Remember the Green Bay game? It was -23 with wind chill Brrrr!

On a similar note there is a Frozen 5K and Half-Marathon this weekend as part of the Winter Carnival!

Yesterday’s Workout

I did an easy 4.42 on a -4 degree morning with wind chills around -20 in 41:44. There was a fresh layer of snow (less than a 1/2 inch) that helped make the sidewalks less slick, but still dangerous. I’ve been avoiding the roads still since I don’t have any lights! Less than a week and we’ll be moved into our house and settle into a gym and stuff!

[tags] Frostbite, Tundra, Ultra Marathon, Ultra [/tags]