It relieves tension and stress. Events like the Iditasport Extreme offer that kind of environment and racers like Stamstad provide the competitive bug that infected Reifenstuhl 15 years ago and keeps him going today. Andy Sterns' life. No looking back. No wondering how good he might have been if he hadn't broken his neck.
Sterns is too busy living life to regret it.
Just two weeks ago Sterns finished 22nd overall out of 86 finishers in the 100-mile Iditasport. The thought of doing the Iditasport Extreme didn't appeal to him at the time. But that was two weeks ago. In 1990, Sterns was a cross country ski racer at Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vt. when he ran into a tree head first while skiing after a race. He suffered a compression fracture, resulting in a swollen spinal cord.