DAWSON CITY – Perhaps one of the biggest gaffes regarding the Yukon River Quest would be to underestimate its difficulty.

Hungarian teammates Dr. Kristóf Szám and Dr. István Münch came next to last in this year’s race, earning them the Red Stove Award at yesterday’s awards banquet.

After receiving the trophies – a stove cut in half – before the crowd, the two 40-year olds gracefully took their feet out of their mouths and talked to the Star about how wrong they had been about the race.

Coming to the Yukon to do the River Quest was an alternative sightseeing venture.

“I don’t like to visit a country as a normal tourist,” Szám said.

While on a train to Berlin last year, a man who told Szám about his own adventures on the Yukon River, inspiring Szám to go there and see it with his own eyes.

He then stumbled across the race online and decided that would be the way he and his friend Münch would explore the North.

Both men are athletic and play a lot of sports, Münch being a water polo player in Hungary.

But they had no prior paddling experience.

“I saw the pictures from the last racers, and I said: ‘Oh, come on. If 60- and 70-year-old people can do it, then we can.’

“It will be hard, but it will be fine.”

They quickly discovered that there is something to be said about having experience in a canoe before tackling 715 kilometres of river.

“Technique is important as well as experience. Power is not always enough,” Szám explained.

The men persevered until the end, finishing the race in 70 hours and 39 minutes.

Although it was a tough haul, the men were somewhat open-minded to the idea of trying the race again.

“Let’s wait and see,” Szám wavered. “If we are lucky, we might be able to finish one place past the red lantern.”

Münch was more enthusiastic, adding that if they did it again, they would reassemble the stove pieces “to symbolize the theme of the race and their friendship.”

The last place finishers were tandem kayakers Laura Maclean and Lisa Brougham, from B.C.

Both teams were recognized at the awards banquet for completing the race, despite the difficulties they encountered along the way.