At 9:51 a.m. local time, Heidi Telstad from Canada, Will Comiskey from Australia, and Marcia Hefker-Miles from New Mexico, crossed the finish line, arms together, to take a triple dead heat in the 2016 Mongol Derby, the world’s longest and toughest horse race.
They gave thanks to the horses, herders and people of Mongolia for an incredible experience and said they wanted to share the experience of winning as a team just as they had shared the experience of the trail.
Comiskey, 28, ‘Dingo’, a cattle rancher from Longreach , said: “There were slow ones, there were wild ones, but ****, we had fun!
Hefker-Miles, 45, from New Mexico, said her most memorable memory was: “Riding through a high mountain pass, past a boy and a girl both herding goats; making eye contact with them and waving. I saw myself in that little girl…”
Telstad, 43, a lawyer from British Columbia, said hers was: “Camping one night with a poor family; they gave everything they had to spare to me and my horse and treated me as one of their own.”
Next to finish in the Mongol Derby were Tatiana Mountbatten and Venetia Philipps, from the UK and Courtney Kizer from Texas.
You can still follow the race via Twitter or if you use the + arrows on the tracker you can home in and hover your mouse over the blue dots so you can see exactly where the riders all are and how far they have travelled.
Learn more about the course here and the horses here.
Read Heidi’s blog, Chase Endurance, here.
Check out an interview with Heidi on the Candy Palmater show, here.
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