Iditarod Trail Invitational: The Final Saga (LMAO)

Yay! More Singletrack in Anchorage. Photo Credit:  Kate Ginsbach

June 11th:  I recognize that some of you reading this might be going through a myriad of emotions and feelings. I hope that you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Know that there are people who care for you and that you'll be alright. Wash your hands, cover your mouth when necessary and treat people nice. Back to your regularly scheduled program.

Teacher:  Adjusts reading glasses.  Let's see, where were we.....Oh yeah! Rohn!

Students:  Sitting at the edge of their seats. Yeah, you left Rohn!!

(I have a weird imagination these days. Must be all that cold weather and darkness. Haha)

• Bikepack racing is as much a mental challenge as it is a physical challenge. I would venture to say that it's even more mental than physical at most times. But not always. 😂 

After rolling into Rohn and seeing Tyson there my heart picked back up. My mind all of the sudden snapped back to attention and I was energized. I got to chat with my buddy Adrian Baer and new friend Tina Scheer who are both volunteers for the ITI and for the Iditarod. I had a couple of the infamous brats with mustard!!! This is one of my favorite parts of the race. 

I proceeded to layout my sleeping system and take a rest. I knew that Tyson and Kurt were probably going to leave earlier than me but that was ok. This was all part of the design. I had visualized this exact situation for the past two years.

• I did say two years. In 2018 I busted. I let too large of a gap build between Neil and I and when the weather hit us for the second time I had a tough time keeping it together. In 2019 I knew I would have my hands full racing Tyson and Jay but I felt that if I could keep it together between Rohn and Nikolai then I would have a fighting chance! I felt like I was ready to race but dealing with frozen boots really slowed me down. I’ve spent a lot of time over the past two years thinking about Rohn to Nikolai. 

It wasn’t much sleep but it was enough. My heart, mind and body were charged up and I was ready to go!! After drinking some coffee and fueling up more I loaded up my bike with my drop bag items, went to the outhouse to do some body maintenance and took off after my goodbyes!

The trail outside of Rohn is a mountain bikers dream. It’s a wonderful backdrop, rolling hills, usually a nice bit of dirt, and some high speed swoopy turns even! The sun was out, I was totally buzzing! Near the climb up Post River Glacier I rode past a carcass/innerds of a bison. I hadn't seen that before, maybe I would see some bison finally! I continued on down the trail, building momentum as the sun continued to charge my internal battery. I really have visualized myself riding this section over and over. I remember large swaths of it. I have a sweet, light bike to ride. A gear setup that allows me to stay warm, yet not hot so that I can push the pace when I feel like it. I am much better about staying on top of food and water intake. I was just enjoying the great conditions!

Mid day rolled around and sure enough I had reeled Kurt back in. We chatted for a few moments, had a snack. We rode together for a while and not long after catching him we encountered not one but two Bison on the trail!!! I was so stoked! We chased these two giants for about 2 miles or so. They must have taken three giant turds trying to out run us. After each lake or opening in the vegetation we would see them and they would take off running again. After those two deflected from the trail I started to concentrate one the task in hand. I had my eyes on Tyson. The section of Iditarod after Farewell Lakes can be really physically demanding. The little ripples of land go up and down over and over. Each time you rip downhill there's a spicy little uphill that follows. I wanted to stay out of Kurt's eyesight, but I was really focused on catching Tyson.

But I did realize something, after a few hours I had not shaken my tail. I realized at this point that perhaps I had not factored Kurt into my race/equation for the past day. It was at this point I knew that it was going to be a tough finish no matter how it played out. The stakes started to rise, as the temperature began to drop...

During this time though I was looking for signs. It's always tough to lead. But Tyson is very good at it, he's known as a guy who likes to set the pace. And he can set a really high one.

This is a bit passed where we all were when the snow machines passed by. Here, I knew that I would be able to approximate how far Tyson was ahead of us.

As we were nearing Sullivan Creek I heard a noise. The distinct sound of a snow machine! Perfect! Now I'll be able to tell how far ahead Tyson is! I also noted that the trail conditions were getting softer and softer, maybe these big hunting/touring sleds will give us some sort of base to ride on! (Hahahahahahahahahaha!!! Oh boy how I was wrong!) I chatted with the guys a little bit and started moving forward again. I figured at Sullivan Creek that I would pump up my tires, fill up my camelbak bladder with water and get ready for a battle!

I got to Sullivan, filled up the bladder and made sure that it was sealed well. I checked/adjusted my gear, tightened down my boots and put on another layer as the temps were dropping quick. I went up the trail a ways to take a pee then filled up my tires with a good amount of air in preparation for the night time trail conditions. I continued to ride and wouldn't you know! I saw where Tyson had pulled over for the snow machines and calculated that he was only about 30 minutes in front of me!!!

But something was happening that I didn't expect. I continued riding down the trail and it kept getting harder and harder to pedal. Not the type of difficulty because I was tired, but because the trail had not gotten any harder from the traffic. The sun set, still no base. I let some of the air out. Continued down the trail...still very difficult to pedal. I was getting a little worried. I stuck with my gut and let more air out of my tires. Before I knew it I had let all the air out that I had added, and proceeded to let even more out. Then, I noticed that I was going pretty slow. Ugh...

But there's something about a race. The chase. There's a spark in your gut that happens. The world around you begins to slow, and the outside conditions no longer grab your attention. I knew that I was going to catch Tyson in front of me. I began to think that perhaps this was my chance. I needed to make my move when/if I caught him.

This was it. Time to turn and burn!

Guess what? While crossing one of the many swamps I saw a light flicker ahead. My heart rate must've spiked 20 beats! I pause for about half a mile or so. I just followed him at his pace to see how he was going. It felt like I was super comfortable so I knew that he was starting to get tired. I started to get myself hyped up, I knew that I was in for a long stretch. If I made my move this was it. No turning back. He started to slow down and I think he may have been waiting for us to catch him. When I pulled up to him he sounded very tired. I passed him and wished him luck, took another look back to see Kurt's light and decided to light it up!

Students:  How cold was it? Wasn't that scary? 

Teacher:  It was around -40, and yeah, it's risky at that temperature. But experience and lots of training prepares you to handle these kind of situations. You can practice visualizing what you're going to do in these situations. 

What happened next was my most intense 3MPH bike race I've ever been in. Hahaha I knew I was digging deep, I proceeded to sweat a large amount. I was committed now. After about 30 minutes to an hour of pushing the pace I decided that I needed to slowly dry my layers by dropping the pace gradually. I looked behind me and didn't see a headlamp but I didn't want them to see mine so I shut it off. I think I only turned my light on for a handful of minutes just to change the view for my sanity. Midnight, one o'clock, two o'clock, three o'clock. At this point we were no longer riding our bikes. It was a HUGE effort to grind out 2.5-3mph. I could quickly hike at basically the same pace. I started doing this process of running/shuffling from bush to bush. 10 feet, 50 feet at a time. It was a bit scary putting out this much effort but amazing at the same time. I started thinking about how long I needed to rest in Nikolai.

Eventually around 4AM I was greeted by Nicholas Carmen of Baja Divide fame on the trail. He was touring/volunteering for the ITI at this checkpoint. I was happy to see him, perhaps I spent a bit too much time chatting with him but my spirits were high and I wanted to be stoked.

It was cold, Tyson's thermometer read -44 for a long time. PC: Nicholas Carmen

Yeah, this is how I roll. Haha PC:  Nicholas Carmen

Nikolai has usually been a quiet destination. If you've ever interacted with small village folk you know that they express their pleasantries and usually go about their business. But the ITI volunteers are a hearty breed! They were super stoked to see the leaders coming in! And honestly I was pretty stoked to see them! I got into the town community center and proceeded to give them a trail update and had a nice burger! High class living. As I was eating I would fall asleep mid sentence, mid bite. Haha

I put my head down. The world quickly turned to black...

Hours passed. I woke up quite a bit later than my alarm.

The gap that I had worked really hard to build was gone. I was a little bummed. But there was nothing I could do about that now and I had to snap out of it. I was super groggy, my body was tired from days of walking and riding and I was facing the last 50 miles racing against two really fast dudes. We had a great breakfast that the checkpoint volunteers prepared for us and the sun was out, we were at least going to have a nice afternoon! Kurt asked a question about how this could go down. In a very inviting way, he was open to however we as a group wanted to race. I can't remember what I said, it was a little bit of a groggy response that didn't even make sense to me and Tyson I think basically remained silent and didn't respond to the question. I could tell that we all realized that it was time for the group to go on their own now.

We gathered our gear, said our goodbyes and set up. David Frearson flew his drone around us as we left the village of Nikolai. I started out a little hard hoping to see those two drop off the pace. And proceeded to get really hot. I had to stop, let air out, drop a jacket and get my stuff situated. Tyson had also started a bit hard. Kurt was the caboose but within an hour he had passed me as I had got my ear bud wrapped up in a low hanging branch. He bolted up to Tyson.

Then he was gone. It happened so fast, after many days it almost didn't seem like it was real. I caught up to Tyson and he mentioned that we were a long ways out and that we would probably catch him. I just remember thinking I don't know man, he's a strong dude and if he didn't think he could hold the lead then he probably wouldn't have done it. I told Tyson that I had to at least try to catch him.

Looking back at the Trackleaders page he had pulled 20 minutes out by the Kuskokwim River. Around 2:07PM Kurt's battery died in his SPOT, right along with my bodies battery. I was delirious, every part of my body was tired. I made efforts to hold a high rate of speed for what felt like hours on hours. I looked back and didn't see Tyson, and at every swamp and lake I would look across hoping to catch a glimpse of a bike rider. Eventually, as I kept coming to openings I realized that time was running out. The road outside of McGrath has a long viewpoint into town. I didn't see Kurt.

I realized that I couldn't let off the gas. I didn't know how far back Tyson was. The trail outside of McGrath is littered with moose tracks. The fastest way over them is to just sit and hammer through them. Each hit radiated through my seat and up my back, through my arms to my shoulders. After a while I realized that I was going to pay for this but it was too late to do anything about it. I just wanted to get to the plowed road...

The finish! PC:  Corrie Smith

FOOD!!!  PC:  Corrie Smith

Tyson and I were just about to leave for the Airport, Aaron Thrasher had just finished. Kurt was resting up in McGrath and preparing to move on down the trail at a touring pace. PC:  Corrie Smith

I sit here June 11th thinking about how much fun this race was and how close I was. I think about how this last year was pretty damn tough for me and represented a lot of change. I faced a lot of difficult times and emotions. I think about all my great friends who supported me and propped me up when I needed it. I think about my furry little friends, Sachi (RIP) Palmer (RIP) Dot, Emma and that little terrorizer (he's actually a mini Aussie, not a Terrorizer) Chucky. I think about my family and their unconditional love that they show me. I think about all the help I get from my bike friends and their words of encouragement. I think about how lucky I was to travel on the Iditarod Trail again with such amazing and awesome competitors. I think about the great volunteers who always have a helping hand.

There's a great Bruce Springsteen song "Dancing in the Dark."

     You can't start a fire, Sitting around cryin' over a broken heart, This gun's for hire, Even if we're           just dancing in the dark.
     You can't start a fire, Worrying about your little world falling apart, This gun's for hire, Even if we're just dancing in the dark.

I may not have won the race, but as I rolled into McGrath I felt accomplished. I no longer am searching for the finish line. I left everything out in the swamps, lakes and tundra of the interior. It's as if, the wind picked up my worries and swept them away. This race was what I needed, it was a spark, even if we're just dancing in the dark.