The athlete ran 50 km in temperatures of -42 degrees, finishing the distance in 4 hours and 45 minutes. Smertin finished seventh overall, but won his age category.
After the finish, I was talking to journalists; my feet were frozen within 10 minutes. My sock was so frozen to my sneaker that I needed help removing it—there was ice inside. When I took the sock off, my toe was blue. I was even afraid I’d have to amputate it. “I was immediately taken to the hospital, given an IV and a painkiller injection,” Match TV quotes Smertin as saying.
A year ago, Alexey already demonstrated outstanding endurance, covering 252 km in an ultramarathon in the Sahara Desert. Now he is aiming for a new peak: a 24-hour marathon awaits him in the spring. At a press conference, Smertin announced the year’s main competition: he will compete for the Altai Territory, his small homeland, and the competition is scheduled for May 1, his birthday. Alexey doesn’t hide his ambitions: he wants not only to accept the challenge of the 24-hour run, but also to achieve the standard of Master of Sports of Russia.
I have endurance, character and patience, – the athlete emphasized.
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