posted Nov 7th, 2009 - The videos of Round 4 at the 2009 USPA National Skydiving Championships are coming along with an interesting story related to the reigning 4-way world champions and the old and new US national 4-way team, Arizona Airspeed.

The actual videos of Round 4 are showing Airspeed delivering the second heavy blow to the direct rivals for the top spot. Airspeed came already out of the gate very strongly and had a 2-point lead over Spaceland Force XP after Round 1, three points over Perris Fury.

The Force fought back in Round 2 and eliminated the Airspeed advantage. Then Airspeed won Round 3 by one point and had the lead back alone. Fury was already five points behind the first place.

Round 4 then was the round where Airspeed won more points over the Force than in any other round. The 3-point difference created a 4-point lead for Airspeed after four rounds.

Mark Kirkby, Airspeed's Tail, who is actually the most successful 4-way competitor in the history of Formation Skydiving competition, won another USPA 4-way gold medal at the USPA Nationals 2009, plus two more gold medals in 8-way and 16-way. He was still not done with competition once the skydiving event was over.

He is also a passionate long-distance runner. Many skydiving competitors run to maintain fitness and support good health. Mark Kirky is literally going a littler bit farther. He runs very long distances and does not even stop at the Marathon mark.

A few weeks after the USPA Nationals 2009 he participated in the "Javelina Jundred" race, which is a 100-mile run in the middle of the Arizona desert. Not the flat desert, the one that has some elevation...

Airspeed's Tail did not only participate. He is a competitor, so he competed in this brutal race. 250 runners started the race, seven stopped after 46 miles, which is already way past the Marathon distance. The next 15 runners gave up after 62 miles, and the next 81 runners made it to the 77-mile marker. 31 more runners dropped out of the race before the 100-mile finish line, and only 125 participants made it all the way.

Mark Kirkby did not only complete the 100-mile distance. He finished in 14th position after running for 21 hours, 47 minutes and 18 seconds. He commented his 100-mile race very simply, short and sweet: "Run fast and survive!"

He also added that his wife Sandy and his mother Pat were very supportive to make it all happen.

He had two Airspeed helpers during the actual run. Chad Smith was pacing for him for 25 miles, and Todd Hawkins added another 15 miles to keep Mark Kirkby going fast enough. Chad Smith trained and competed with Airspeed years ago. Arizona Divewerkz was his last 4-way team.

Todd Hawkins was an Airspeed 8-way member at the World Meet in France 2003 and won the silver medal there, together with Mark Kirkby, after a jump-off with the Russian 8-way team. He trained and competed with the Paraclete XP 8-way lineup this year and won the bronze medals at the USPA Nationals 2009.

Arizona Airspeed is now making plans for the 2010 season. The 4-way world champions have already taken their winning streak farther than anybody else before, and they will try to stretch the 20-victory run next year. Mark Kirkby will keep on running his other races at the same time.