Arrowhead Winter Ultramarathon Race Report

Things got rolling on Sunday with the race check-in and gear check. I'm on the right, fellow bloggers Dave (kneeling, center) and Matt (bearded on left).

My turn to have my gear checked. That's Don "the gear nazi" varifing my bag is indeed rated to -20. The only gear he checked was the required 15 lbs of gear stipulated in the race rules. To my surprise I came in just under 15 lbs. I had to throw in a peice of clothing to meet the minimum weight. All the other people in front of me came in 3 or 4 pounds over. Added to that weight on my bike was another 15 or so pounds in food, water, and extra clothing.

Next up was the pre-race meeting. That's Pierre and Cheryl Ostor, Race Director and organizers of this wonderful event.

Then the group photo. After that it was the nervous wait until the start the next morning. We had weather reports of -26 degrees for the next morning. That's air temp and does not include wind chill. You know you are in a place that gets cold when there are posts in the hotel parking lot with outlets to plug in your car. We took the opportunity to plug our car's engine block heater in. One of my many worries last week was trying to avoid the viruses going around. I managed to do that. Susan did not. She got hit hard with a head cold Friday. She was quite misable most of the time. We ended up taking advantage of the two double beds in our hotel room. We slept in separate beds during our stay. Race day we turned on the Weather Channel and discovered the morning temp was -28F. We loaded up the car for the 10 mile drive south of town where the race starts. The car thermometer read -22F until it went blank. I didn't feel that was a good sign. In the past the Arrowhead race has had a group start. Due to the extreme temperatures and logistics of getting everyone to the start line at the same time, the decision was made to allow riders to start whenever they arrived, between about 7:15 and 8:30. I was concerned how I would stay warm while waiting for the start. I was glad to hear they made this adjustment.

The Arrowhead Trail is mostly a state snowmobile trail. This is the starting area. The first 14 miles is an out and back in order to make the race 135 miles. When you start you head off in the wrong direction essentially. For me it was difficult mentally to start off this was. The first few sections were all flat like this.

There is no parking area. We parked on the side of the highway. Some people took a shuttle to the start. I quickly got the bike out of the car loaded it up and started riding towards the race official to check in. It was so cold you couldn't stop moving.

I'm all checked-in...

...and away I go. This is just after 8:00 so the sun hasn't been up long.

Above is Dave Simmons just about to complete the out and back. Heading out I tried to find a nice rhythm. The legs werre feeling good and the cold didn't seem to be penetrating my layers. I did stop within the first 200 yards and take off a fleece layer. I could tell right away I was overdressed slightly. That would be the only clothing adjustment I would make all day other then a neck gaiter change. I had it dialed in quite perfect. I started with chemical heat packs in my boots but never found the need to replace those. My feet stayed warm all day. Keeping my feet warm is what I considered my biggest obstacle when I started thinking about doing this race over a year ago. At the turn around point I stopped long enough to eat something. It was fun to see 5 Pugsleys all in one spot out in a snowy landscape. This would happen again at the Gateway General Store later in the day. There I counted 7 Pugsleys leaning against the building. There were other types of bikes in the race, but at least 50 percent of the bikers were on a snowbike like the Pugsley.

I had hoped to do the 14 mile out-n-back in about 2 hours. When I made it back to the start area Susan told me it had been three hours. I couldn't believe it. It didn't feel that slow. I was working hard. I passed some bikers and was passed by others. But three hours? About 2 miles before the start area I touched the rear brake lever. I hadn't used the brakes at all since it had been flat. The brake lever didn't move. I dismpunted and discovered oneof the rear brake pads was dragging. I wasn't sure how long this had been going on. And I wasn't sure how to fix it. I purposely had purchased mechanical disc brakes because I had heard that hydraulic brakes can freeze up in extreme cold.

I decided to dig out my tools and back off the cable a bit. That seemed to work. Later in the afternoon I would have the same problem develop with the front brake.

Me after the first three hours. Lots of frost and some icicles hanging from my eyebrows. Later when I tried to take off this frozen neck gaiter I nearly ripped my ears off. It was frozen solid.

Things got better after this. I was feeling good, staying warm. I had good energy. I was eating and drinking on a regular basis. The trail conditions would change from section to section. Some had snowmobile tracks some didn't. The Pugsley was the right bike to be on. I never felt a lack of traction. But I heard complaints from people on skinnier mountain bike tires that the snow was very "greasy".

Once I got the brake unstuck the first time I made up time on a few riders. I made it to mile 38 and stopped at the Gateway General Store. There was a group of racers there. One had already pulled out. I started shivering in the store. I couldn't stay warm whenever I stopped, not even inside. My stay was short. All day I couldn't stop. The only way to keep warm was to keep moving. After the store the terrain got a little more rolling. I was still doing fine. This was about 3:00.

Susan was meeting me at road crossings and cheering encouragement as I rode on by. I couldn't even stop long to talk to her.

Somewhere after 50 miles there was one more road crossing that Susan had planned to meet me at. The next stop would be at the MelGeorge's Resort checkpoint at around 74 miles. When I planned for the race I looked at last years times. The winner finished in 16 hours and few more finshed 4-6 hours behind. So I figured I could finish in 20-24 hours. That is how I planned my food. I also planned on ridng straight through, unless I got into trouble or ran low on energy. At the store I had already decided riding straight through wouldn't happen in this cold. It just takes too much energy. I told Susan my plan was to make it to the checkpoint, rest and eat up for about an hour, then ride another two hours and stop for the night. If I could sleep out the -20F degree night time temps until the sun came up I could make it to the finish. The daytime high for Tuesday was supposed to be 4F above.

That plan would soon change. The hills slowed my pace down. The downhills were a problem because I had essentially unhooked the brakes to keep them from dragging. If I squeezed the levers as hard I could I was able to slow myself on the downhills. Today my right hand feels like I punched a wall it is so sore from squeezing the brakes. Slowly my energy level, that had stayed good ALL day started to drop along with the temperatures and the small hills. Somewhere along this stretch I was caught by Josh Peterson, a veteram of the AH135 and finisher last year. We talked briefly before he rode on. Not long after that I caught back up to him. His freehub had frozen up and his bike was done for. At this point it was already dark, we had our lights on and Josh figured it was another 20 miles to the checkpoint. My energy was gone despite eating all day. To make matters worse for me I figured I now didn't ahve enough food to get to the finish. It was going to take me a lot longer to then 24 hours to make it. In all reality I would run out of food before I made it to the end. Low on food with low energy and bitterly cold does not make a good situation. I told Josh my wife should be at the next road crossing. He told me she was giving him a ride back to his van near the start line. I decided the that I needed to pull out also. We didn't ahve room in the car for the bikes so we left them in the ditch, drove Josh to his van and came back for the bikes.

I now realize I made the best choice. I thought my outdoor experience and winter camping experience would get me to the finish line. Just the opposite, it helped me realize the best thing I could do was pull out. So far it looks like some others didn't pull out in time and got themselves into trouble. As of this writing the results are still coming in. Of the 49 entrants, 3 did not start and 31 have dropped out so far. That tells you how extreme this cold snap was. Amazing anyone could find the energy to do this event. Susan said it best when she said, "There's a reason animals hibernate".