Michael Ketchmark

Home with the family!

2007-12-25T15:28:00.000-08:00

Mark and I arrived back in Kansas City at 11:30 a.m. on Christmas day. It is great to be home! This is my final blog entry and I thought I would share a few pictures from the ice.

After a few miles into the race a massive storm set in with low fog, wind and snow. It was a complete whiteout. The picture on the left gives you an idea of the conditions. The track was groomed and about 10 feet wide. If you lost the groomed track, however, you found yourself in up to waist deep of snow real quick. This was okay if you found your way back to the tack. The problem, however, was that was hard to do. You completely lose your sense of direction. It is an odd feeling.

When I got the first aid station at 6 miles there was no water available because of a snafu by the organizers. I walked a bit waiting for a promised snowmobile that eventually brought water. I came upon one of the older competitors from France who, despite being 71 years old, is in amazing shape. He was competing in the 60 mile race and has run more than 500 races over that distance. He had taken his goggles off because he had a hard time seeing with them on. As a result, he went "snow blind" and was unable to see at all. I walked with him for quite a while until help arrived. This put me well behind the race pack. This made it impossible to stay on the groomed track because you really had to rely on the people in front of you as markers to keep your way.

This picture give you an idea what I am talking about. The runner is on the groomed trail. If you remove the runner that is what you see. Pure white. You can only see your own shoes. At one point the runners who were ahead of me turned around at a loop and started back on a parallel track. I thought they were on the same track I was on and I kept running towards them and getting lost off track. It was a nightmare, but at the same time an amazing challenge.

I was so happy to see the finish line. I am actually happy the conditions were so poor because it made the whole thing a tremendous challenge.

I want to thank all of you for your interest in our efforts. It meant a lot to us to know that our family and friends were tracking our progress. Thanks again and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

THE FINISH LINE -- remember this is the middle of the day. It gives you a sense of the whiteout. Take care and hope to see you soon!

WOW --- Home at last (kind of)

2007-12-24T01:56:00.000-08:00

Hi! We are safely back at our hotel in Chile. It was an amazing experience. The antartic is truly the last great frontier in our world. Late last night a plane from our our camp rescued a skier who was skiing solo from the coast of the antartic to the south pole. Mark and I talked to him for hours. He spent 28 days skiing solo to the south pole. He had never skied before. He almost made it but a blizzard set him back and he ran out of food. He made it further than any other solo before. He was from Washington. Mark and I have I taken a lot of pride in our Country during our time down south. We were truly proud of his accomplishment. It is hard to explain, but it meant a lot to us.

Once the plane took off it felt good to know we were headed home, but I have to admit that the contintent touched my heart. It is so pure and rugid. I want to go back...

Mark and I struggled to find a flight that would get us home by Christmas Eve but we missed our last chance by 2 hours. It is tough. My kids, Steven and Chloe, are old enought to hopefully understand that Santa is coming a day late, and, as a result have agreed to set the presents back a day. Mark´s kids, however, are much younger. It has taken a tough toll on him.

I cannot explain in words how much we want to get home NOW... It is really hard being away at this time of the year. We are leaving shortly for the airport and, after 28 hours of travel, we hope to make it home around 3 p.m. on Christmas day... I will enter a final entry upon our safe return....

Finished Marathon -- White Out Conditions!

2007-12-20T13:46:00.000-08:00

We started the marathon at 7:00 AM and after about 2 hours the snow and wind came. Throughout the race there were complete white out conditions. The best way I could describe it was like running through a cloud. You can't tell right from left, or up from down. The course was well groomed, about 6 ft wide with orange flags. But it was easy to lose sight of the flags. On several occasions I wandered off the trail in knee deep snow and lost my sense of direction. Sometimes I wandered for a half hour until I could find the trail again. Ten and one-half hours later, I finished dead last. I am in much need of food and sleep. Mark finished in 7 hours and is currently wearing his oversized mittens on his feet in our tent. We hope the weather clears so we can get home for Christmas. We will be on the next flight out. More later after dinner.

Mike

Marathon in the Morning!!

2007-12-19T18:03:00.000-08:00

Tuesday night one of our new friends, Wiliam Tan from Singapore, set out to complete the first wheelchair marathon in Antarctica. Wiliam contracted polio at age two and has an amazing life story. He was competing in honor of a nine year-old girl who recently died of leukemia. A group of runners took turns running alongside Wiliam to provide him support and supplies. Mark and I were scheduled to run from 9:15 - 11:15 PM last night. When our two relief runners came, I headed back to the tent because I was very tired and cold and in need of sleep after running 4 miles with Wiliam. Mark said he would stay for one more mile. Six hours later, Mark came into the tent! He stayed with Wiliam for the remaining 14 miles of his race. Wiliam set a Guinness record by completing the marathon. It was his seventh continent in 28 days in his wheelchair. It is impossible to explain how amazing this accomplishment is. It is difficult for me to walk 100 yards to the restroom in all the snow. Wiliam pushed his wheelchair over 26 miles literally wearing through many pairs of gloves. He has completed 98 marathons including one at the North Pole earlier this year. That one took him 22 hours! He is a testament to the human spirit and one of the most humble and amazing people I have ever met.

On a lighter note, Mark and I have completed day one of the AICC (Antarctic International Cribbage Championship). After a grueling 5 games, the score is Ketchmark 5, Andresen 0. Day two provides new hope.

The marathon will start tomorrow at 7:00 AM. A big storm is expected later in the day and we hope to complete it before the winds arrive. The temperature dropped to 22 below last night and we expect the same tonight. Mark and I sat at dinner tonight next to a scientist who is good friends with Stephen Hawkins. Another man at our table has taken a submarine down to the Titantic wreckage and also to the ocean floor at the North Pole. He is setting out tomorrow on a snowcat for a 20 day trip across the Antarctic with a group of other scientists. We are having a great time and hope to complete the race tomorrow. One of the major topics of discussion has been everyone's desire to be home for Christmas. This led the group to vote to run tomorrow under less than ideal conditions. We hope to get the race in before the next storm hits.

The sun shines here 24 hours a day and it was impossible today to distinguish the ground from the horizon because the sky was cloudy and the snowy ground blended in. Yesterday, one of our friends did not wear goggles or eyeglasses while outside. Both Mark and I warned him against it but he thought he would be ok. Today his eyes were burned and bloodshot and he had difficulty seeing. The good news is that he will be alright. The only way to sleep at night is with a blindfold over your eyes. I need to go to sleep now and will write more later. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers!! Check out a picture of our tent on Mark's blog.

Mike

Here At Last!!!

2007-12-18T15:26:00.000-08:00

We got a call at 4:30 AM and were told it was a GO. We took a bus to the airport and loaded on to a massive cargo plane. There were flip down seats attached to the side of the plane and all of our luggage and gear was in the middle, including a huge snow tractor. We were all given earplugs for the 4 1/2 hour flight. We couldn't talk or hear each other because the engines were too loud. We passed the time by throwing a soccer ball around the plane. We landed safely at Patriot Hills on the ice runway. We set off for a 1 kilometer hike to the tents. It was very difficult and grueling because of the snow. It was a real eye opener of things to come. Mark and I unpacked our gear in the tent and proudly displayed the American flag! My brief time on the cargo plane gave me a new appreciation for the men and women who serve our country. Another snowstorm is expected tomorrow and it is unlikely that we will run for at least two days. It is impossible to describe the vast, wide open emptiness of this sheet of ice we find ourselves on. Right now it is 10 degrees below zero with a 10 mile and hour sustained wind. The staff says this is one of the nicest days in recent memory. After we unpacked our tent, Mark and I dug down through the ice and built a 3 foot snow wall around the tent. Our current goal, while aggressive, is to install plumbing and electricity tomorrow. Mark spent six years in the Army and his side of the tent would pass any rigorous inspection. He looks at my side of the tent and continuously hums the tune from the Odd Couple. I am too cold to care. The food is great, we are safe and I will post more later. Thanks again for your interest and support.

Mike

Next Stop...

2007-12-17T10:27:00.000-08:00

This is a picture of the tents at Patriot Hills. This is our next stop if all goes well..... more later

De Plane!!! De Plane!!! - Good News

2007-12-17T10:12:00.000-08:00

Goods news!!! Just got back from the briefing. It is has finally stopped snowing. The runway is being cleared. We are headed to Antartica sometime after midnight if all holds. The company said that if the runway were already cleared we could land right now.... The weather can turn quick, but if all holds, it looks like we caught a break.... Off to the race and hopefully home for Christmas with the family. Mark & I are off to do some shopping for our kids in celebration! I will post again once we get the final word that the plane is leaving.

Meeting at 3 p.m.

2007-12-17T09:00:00.000-08:00

We have a meeting at 3 p.m. today to update us on the status of the weather at Patriot Hills. We remain hopeful for good news. I will update everyone once we learn our fate....

More Pictures

2007-12-16T15:20:00.000-08:00

Hit the link to the left to Mark´s blog for more pictures (he is quite the photographer). In all of the group shots he sets the camera up on a remote timer and runs over to the photo. It is quite funny....

Picture of Glacier from our Campsite

2007-12-16T11:54:00.000-08:00

This is a picture of the massive glacier in the park. It is impossible to describe the scale of the glacier. A huge piece of it broke off in the middle of the night and woke us up. The following morning we set out on a long hike to the glacier. It was an amazing day. We ended the day by hiking back to the base of the mountain and taking the boat out. We spent the night at a small town on the way back to our hotel were everyone is stranded. We are having another meeting on Monday at 3 p.m. for an update. Everyone is VERY focused on getting to the Artic to get the race in as soon as possible. The only thing that is making things bearable is the quality of people who are assembled. The race director, Brent, has completed an amazing 150 marathons and ultramarathons (races up to and past 100 miles) around the world, including in the Arctic and Antarctic. He is a geography teacher and cross-country coach at a Junior High School in Wyoming. His positive attitude is helping us all deal with the gloomy news. We remain hopeful that it is wheels up on Tuesday. More later....

2007-12-16T11:42:00.000-08:00

This is the view from the lake. We took a boat across the lake with our gear and set out on a 7.5 mile hike at 7 p.m. at night. It stays light until well after 10 p.m. We were a sight to see.... One of our freinds some total of gear was the clothes on his back and a sleeping bag and tent that he carried. Mark and I did not have a whole lot more. We made the entire trip in order to camp by the side of a massive glacier. We hit camp aroung 10 p.m. and hung out talking for a few hours. The group included Fredrick, from Sweden but living in London, James from London, Raj from London, Mark S from Ireland, Mark and I. It would be hard to assemble a better group of guys. Everyone is easy going and we all have the same caustic sense of humor. We had a blast.

Picures From Our Trip....

2007-12-16T11:36:00.000-08:00

This is a picture as you go into Torres Del Paines national park. It was about a 6 hour drive from our town. Mark and I had a great time with the group of guys we traveled with to the park. They are an amazing mix of people. We laughed a lot. The views are impossible to describe.....

The Storm of the Century

2007-12-15T22:08:00.000-08:00

The logistics company (the one that provides the airplane and ground support) says this is the "storm of the century" at Patriot Hills (they have live updates at www.icemarathon.com). Mark & I are holding out hope that once it stops we can somehow get on the plane, land on the ice runway (surrounded by piles of 4 feet of snow), get on the snow, run the marathon and make our flight on Saturday... As many of you know, Mark is running this race in honor of his dad who died from cancer after an 8 year struggle. This race is important. It has turned into a quest. My hope and prayer is that it works out for us.... More later....

Update..... More snow or plane?????

2007-12-15T17:38:00.000-08:00

We left for the mountains .... We drove 6 hours, arrived in the national park and took a boat across an amazing lake and went on an 8 mile hike. We camped at the side of a massive glacier and saw all kinds of wild animals. The next morning we woke up and called the logistics company. We were hoping for news that the plane would that very night (today Saturday). If so we knew we had to run 3 hours through 8 miles of mountain terrain in order to catch a boat at noon and then drive 7 hours to catch the plane. You are getting the idea of just how bad we had to get out of town.... The verdict.... BAD NEWS. The strom continues. The worst in anyone's memory. We have a nothing meeting at Monday at 3 p.m. Mark and I know that we have to get on the plane by Thursday.... We continue to put hope over experience. . More later.

Friday - Start of a New Journey

2007-12-14T02:08:00.000-08:00

We will not have an update on the weather until Sunday morning. Yesterday a group of us, two brits, an irishman, a swed and Mark and I, went out and bought a tent. We are off into the mountains today for some fishing, backpacking and camping by a Glacier. Hope all is well at home. Thanks for your interest. Mike

De Plane De Plane....

2007-12-13T12:04:00.000-08:00

This is the Russian cargo plane that we are waiting to load. It is pictured on the runway at Patriot Hills. The runway is made of ice (the only ice runway in the world). It is currently under 2 1/2 feet of snow. You can see why that is a problem....

2007-12-13T11:53:00.000-08:00

This is where we are headed once we finally get out... The picture above is from last year. Mark & I are headed out to pick up our laundry. We found the laundry mat by jumping into a cab and holding our nose and pointing at our clothes. I think, however, that the cab driver understood just by looking at us. We are getting a bit ripe after a week in the same stuff (the rest of our gear is already packed on the cargo plane).... We are still trying to convince our friend from Ireland to go to the same laundry mat.... If we are not on the plane headed south by the middle of next week things look bleak for a return by Christmas. Mark and I just decided that Christmas with our family wins hands down. It is not even a close call. So keep your fingers crossed. If we are not on the plane by Wed we are headed home without the race.

2007-12-13T11:37:00.000-08:00

Front

Page

Pic

from

Local

Paper

This is the group that we are running with... The guy in the red coat in the front row is 71 years old. Mark is in the front row on the left. Our friend Mark S is the crazy Irishman in the back row throwing his hands out. Mark S was upset that the paper didn´t crop out the photos of everyone else in the picture. Looks like his bribe to the photographer was wasted....

Thursday - Worst Storm in 20 Years

2007-12-13T10:39:00.000-08:00

Just got back from our meeting with the group. There are 20 runners, 20 climbers and 10 scientists trying to fly down to Patriot Hills. We just got back from a meeting with the logistics company and learned that it is still blizzard conditions at the ice runway down south. There is over 2 feet of snow and massive winds. Best case is that we fly down there on Sunday. Everyone is very focused on getting the run in and getting back in time to catch our return flights in time for Christmas with our families. Sounds like that is still going to happen.

A group of us are renting a car and camping gear. We are going to head south and camp along the way for 2 nights. I will report more later....

Wed - Snow, Snow and more Snow

2007-12-12T15:50:00.000-08:00

Just got back from Torres Del Paines. Spent the night in the moutains and took a nice hike this morning. Upon arrival back at the hotel we learned that it is still snowing at Patriot Hills. There is 17 inches of snow and the storm continues to hammer the area. It takes 36 hours to clear the runway once it stops snowing and the winds calm down. There is no way we are leaving on Thursday and it is very unlikely that we will leave anytime soon. The challenge is not only getting there but running in that much snow. I will update more later.....

Chile - Tuesday Update

2007-12-11T05:57:00.000-08:00

The logistics company told us that we would get a call at 6:30 a.m. if the plane could leave and if not we were to meet at 10 a.m. for an update ... I woke up at 7:15.... no call. Just left the 10 a.m. meeting. Patriot hills were were are landing is getting snow. The plane cannot land on the ice runway until the snow is removed. We were told that because of the bad weather at Patriot Hills we are to meet again Thursday at 1 p.m. for an update. YIKES. Mark and I are making lots of friends from around the world and remaining positive. We decided to rent a driver and a 10 passenger van and go explore Chile. We are leaving for Torres De Pine -- the national park -- in an hour. We are going to see some Pinguen colonies, glaciers and lakes. We will stay at a hostel at that park (6 hour drive each way) and return tomorrow. No one speaks spanish so it is an adventure. Our hope is that we fly out on Thursday or Friday.

On other news, last night a group of us went out to dinner and heard some english speaking people (very rare event). We started talking to the guys they are two pilots from Seattle who quit their jobs to ride motorcycles across South America. They are both around 27 years old. One of the two has enlisted in the Airforce and is going to boot camp in January. Spent some time hanging out with them last night and learning about their travels.

Okay, have to pack an overnight bag for the trip. More later....

Mark´s Quest

2007-12-10T12:45:00.000-08:00

My friend Mark has run two marathons. While he is a solid runner, and a decent athlete, he has never run an Ultra Marathon -- a distance of more than 30 miles. After a few beers the other night he agreed to sign up the the 100k race two days after the marathon. In otherwords, we run 26.2 miles he has a day off then he is going to attempt to run 62 miles. I only hope that the increasing peer pressure being placed on me to join him in this quest fails to catch hold....

Monday - delayed in Chile

2007-12-10T12:27:00.000-08:00

We were supposed to fly out this morning but there is a major storm in the Antarctic. The winds are over 30 mph with gusts up to 35. It is snowing and the plane cannot land. We were hoping to fly out at 4:00 p.m. but once again it was a no go. We will learn more tomorrow mornign but it does not look promising. We are planning a poker game at 6 p.m. Take care more later.

Mike

Sunday in Chile

2007-12-10T12:21:00.000-08:00

Mark and I were supposed to wake up for a 10:00 am meeting with the group, but our jet lag got the better of us we missed the meeting.... Ironically no one noticed. This is an unbelievable group of runners. You can check out their profiles on www.icemarathon.com One of the runners is very competitive and is clearly hoping to win the entire race. He asked me how fast my friend Mark was and I decided to have some fun so I fibbed and said that Mark runs a two hour and 15 minute marathon -- world class speed. He is actually a 4 hour marathoner. I just logged into the computer at the hotel and saw that the other runner was googling mark´s name along with marathon times. Pretty funny. All is well. We are supposed to leave on Monday morning at 6:30 a.m. if the weather hold out. More later.

Arrival in Chile - Saturday

2007-12-10T12:15:00.000-08:00

We had a 23 hour flight from kansas city to puntas arenas chile. My friend, Mark Andresen, is down here running the race with me. We were killing some time on Saturday afternoon and decided to stop by a local pub for a beer and ran into two fellow runners, one from Ireland and one from Sweden. There are 19 people running the race from 13 different countries. We are scheduled to leave on Monday morning. More updates later....