Iditarod Trail Invitational Part Duex-over

First things first. Thanks to Geri, Dad, Sachi (RIP pup), Revolution Racing, Speedway Cycles, Longevity Lab for helping fix my shoulder, Fatback Bikes and Ariel the Mermaid for all the support. Each of you have been helpful and selfless. I appreciate the heck outta you guys. We really kicked butt this year. 💖

I don't know about you guys but sometimes my mind is racing a thousand miles an hour! One positive of this Coronavirus reality is that I've had time to be mindful. About everything...😏

Blank Stare Really GIF from Blankstare GIFs

I guess I should start the actual race report now. 😜

Imagine, a class room setting.

Teacher:  The Iditarod Trail is.... (what do you think reader? Don't worry, I'll wait.)

Rando student:  It's a route that dog sled teams blah blah blah virus blah blah blah vaccine blah blah blah Nome blah blah blah

Another Rando kid:  Balto is such a cute dog!

Aaron Thrasher and myself at the start. PC Geri Hodges

• Ten years ago today (April 5th, 2010) I bought my first nice bike. Just some useless trivia info that no one will ever ask you or that you will ever need to remember. 😆

Teacher:  Anybody else? 

Whatever you thought about the Iditarod Trail is wrong. But also right. You're probably wondering what the heck I am talking about. It's the reason why we adventure. Whatever your preconceived notions of what this race is, or is going to be, is right and wrong.

• It must have been the toughest year? This was the hardest Iditarod you've done right? How many miles did you guys walk? Sufferfest, slog, frostbite, heartbreaking, windy, snow...... 
• Yes, it was hard. Yes, it was tough. I walked about 35 or so miles. Yes, it was windy sometimes. Yes it was really cold in the interior. 

Switching gears, I felt like the buzz was a little thick at the start this year, amongst racer, organizer and fan alike. I think there was excitement regarding the racer field but this time there was a "weather" buzz that I had not quite experienced in years past. I think many athletes seemed to be ignoring the impending snowfall and began about their usual pre-weekend race prep. But the excitement seemed to be a little less from some. (Nothing personal, just my general observation.)

There's some heavy hitters here. PC Corrie Smith

Starting our adventure across Knik Lake. PC Andy Pohl

Aaron Thrasher on the road to McGrath and fat bike greatness! Haha

More Thrashing about! LOL

I spoke with Aaron Thrasher a little bit on the road. I enjoyed chatting with him, I was a little envious of him as a rookie because I have such fond memories of my first time on the trail. :end proud dad moment:

It's important at this time to just get into your natural position of the race but don't let yourself get bogged down in less than ideal conditions. I don't want to be too far down the field as the trail conditions go from rideable to difficult and you don't want to squander an opportunity either. I noticed Tyson and Kurt were making their way towards Ayeshire in a hurried fashion and moved on my way after them.

 I'm always happy to see a crowd gather along the course. I miss high fives. 😞PC Julie Saddoris

More friends on the trail! PC Sean Grady

Making our way to Flathorn Lake. PC Kurt Refsnider

We made our way into the snow. It became apparent to me quickly that we were gonna have a slow first day. Tyson, Kurt and I were riding but with a decent amount of effort and not very quickly. My attention quickly turned to body temperature. The slower conditions, warmth and snow could cause some issues with sweating my gear out too much. Because of that I decide to just keep those two guys in sight. It sounds like the three of us made it through this first part of the race in much better shape than others.

Teacher:  This is the first opportunity that I invite you to think about what the Iditarod Trail means to you. Are you ready to walk your bike? 

Teacher's Pet to class:  When was the last time you dropped the tire pressure down to "wrinkle?" You ever run out of water on the trail? 

Smart ass at the back of the class under their breathe while putting gum under the desk:  "shut up teacher's pet, bet you brush off teacher's car when it snows..." 😏

In the past four years that I've started this event, the lead pack made it to Yentna Station in anywhere from 630PM in 2016 to 1AM this year! After crossing Flathorn Lake very slowly the three of us found ourselves walking. By the time we hit the Wall of Death we were together in a pack. The three of us wondered if Pete Basinger and the folks that went down another trail were ahead of us. When we hit Susitna Station we saw no visible trail which calmed our nerves and we went back about our business. We traded spots a few times while riding on occasional sprinkles of harder trail but we were mostly walking all the way to Scary Tree (Yentna and Susitna confluence.) I knew that at this point we were going to be turning our lights on, pumping tires back up, dealing with water supplies, and back to riding again. Kurt took some time to boil water while Tyson and I motored on up the river. When we got to Yentna Station, we were drying out, having cheese sandwiches, chicken noodle soup and a couple cokes while chatting nicely. Tyson and I have spent time talking together but this was the first time that the three of us were together in close quarters and we took this time to just talk and enjoy what the trail was at this point. About an hour after showing up we each made our way out the door and back on the trail.

Now I don't want to mis-represent what it means to race. We were evaluating each other, much like a poker game. I think the three of us were comfortable and confident with ourselves and were looking forward to the trail. We were starting to get the "feel" for it and how fast we could do the event in.

In 2016 we arrived at Skewentna at 9PM. We were almost 12 hours behind that time already.

I wasn't trying to reel anyone in but I wanted to just focus on my pace. Thus I caught and passed Kurt and caught Tyson within a few miles of the checkpoint. Together we rode for the remainder of the night until just before the checkpoint with Kurt not far behind us.

• Tyson is somewhat a known quantity to me. I have raced him before and I've seen just how fast he can go. I felt like at this point Kurt had turned on the cruise control and was just managing his energy output. I think I had even told Tyson that I felt Kurt was "throttling back." 

We each had a nice meal and drinks while in Skwentna Roadhouse. (That makes it sound like we had dinner together like it was a date. Haha) It was neat to see the Census workers in the lodge doing their thing. I decided to get a bed at the lodge. I know that my each year my back is really tight after the first 90 miles so I decided to get a nap and to put my legs up on the wall. Those guys kind of gave me a weird look when I said I was going to sleep, but again, I was feeling comfortable and confident and felt like prioritizing my body was the right thing to do at this point for my race.

I didn't need a long sleep, just about 20-30 minutes then about 15 minutes to put my feet up and get some of the kankle action to subside. This felt great! I paid my bill, hopped on the bike and proceeded to make my way towards Finger Lake.

Grizzled ITI competitor. Hahahaha Just outside of Skwentna on the SnowCat track. Notice my legit Bend, OR SingleSpeed World Championship Buff.

The trail was in really good shape outside of Skwentna! I've never seen the Shell Hills in the daylight. There is a contractor that built a snowcat trail that you could probably drive a large tired vehicle on! That's been a common theme this year on the trail from multiple competitors. Seeing sections of the trail in the daylight is one of those side stories that develop each year on the trail. For sure slow conditions are hard, but it comes with its own set of positives. Again, the trail is everything you think it is and not. Thanks Teach.

What was going to happen next was just the beginning of our true adventure. This was just the appetizer...

Summer & Fall update '19

"Alaska’s  sweltering summer is ‘basically off the charts’"

"Alaska records its warmest month ever; future records likely"

It's been damn hot in Alaska this year. There have been some great positives to our weather, I participated in the Kenai 250 on a whim, traveled to Canada for the first time since I was 9 years old.

Seward, AK pit stop during the Kenai 250

Shasta and Corrie putting in the miles on Russian Lakes Trail.

Old Iditarod Trail pre-nap. :-)

My gear for the 250

Carcross with Ryan, Kim, George and Laura. I really gained some confidence here. Maybe a bit too much.
PC Laura Fox

But not everything is rosy when it's dry and hot. There have been multiple fires on the Kenai peninsula, north in Talkeetna, all the way up in Fairbanks. My dog Sachi, who is somewhere around 14-16 years old has had a hell of a time with the smoke. Bad enough that I thought I was going to lose her a couple times. It doesn't matter how much you prepare, losing one of your best friends is never easy...

Gladly, she seems to have rebounded from the smoke and the heat. She's a tough cookie.

I ended up separating my AC joint the day after my birthday. That wasn't fun. The silver lining was that I rediscovered hiking.

I hit the deck pretty hard. I had to have an ultrasound to see if there was any internal bleeding or by the off chance that I was having a baby...PC Laura Fox

This adorable puppy Luna is my friend Oscar's. She's a little crazy.

I just came back from a trip to NYC and watched a Yankees playoff game with my Dad. That was fun to spend time with my dad in the big city. We ate good food, drank some good beer, saw some cool stuff and got to catch up a little bit.

2019 ALDS Game 1! Yankee Stadium

Walking the Highline

My dad is my best friend. It was really great to see and spend time with him.

Cross season went well considering my shoulder injury. Each week the joint becomes more stable. I'm still contemplating whether or not I should go to Washington for Cross Nationals. 

The Fam! PC Megan I think

The sand pit at Service. PC Nathaniel Banish

One of my favorite humans! It was fun racing with Megan this year. PC Amber Myers

More of my favorite humans! It's not often I got to lead these guys but the final race I was starting to get some speed back. PC Joshua Estes

The snow is starting to creep down the mountains, the morning dew seems to be freeze occasionally. I guess it won't be long before this happens. I can't wait!

2019 Little Su 50k

Wow what a finish!

Congrats to Jason Lamoreaux for winning the 50k. Nice job rebounding from the late ride running sprints!

A couple weeks ago I strained a muscle in my hamstring and decided to see how it was feeling. I started with the lead pack, stayed with the guys on the hills and had some strong pulls on the front. I would say that it's pretty much back to operating strength.

The race was pretty calm through the first 20+ miles. I told myself that I would ride the first 10 miles with the lead pack and re-evaluate how I felt and whether or not I should back off the effort or continue to race. I found I was not suffering on the hills to keep the wheels of Oliver Sternicki, Eric Flanders and Jason so I motored on. We were pretty much on our own until James Stull covered the gap after getting hung up in traffic at the start. Then, Mike Crawford covered 2 or so minutes after the water stop and caught the pack by the power line. Nice job guys!!!

After turning off the power line, I could tell the pace was starting to pick back up. Eric, Jason, Oliver and I were getting strong pulls at the front. No doubt because we didn't have to cross the gap that Mike and James did.

Things got a little interesting after the Gnomes. A few of us developed a little gap which was perfect. I think we knew that it was going to be really difficult to pass someone at this point because the snow was starting to soften the trail conditions.

I was pretty confident in my position and my choice of tires and wheels. I have been using my 4.8" Husker Du's and 100mm HED rims with Hadley hubs for a good part of the year. They roll really well and have lots of air volume.

Jason, Eric and I started to get a little gap and I was thinking that we were going to get a strong pace going. We approached the railroad crossing and to our surprise we dropped down the other side and found ourselves on the wrong trail! Eric, Jason and I ran through knee deep snow back on course and did a cyclocross remount and started to hammer! I felt really good that I could hang with Jason's wheel after that. We quickly caught back up to James, Oliver and Mike.

Bummer, we lost our positioning in the pack. Instead of 1st-3rd we were now 4th-6th. This was going to be challenging. :-P The good part was that the pack had slowed down a bit allowing us to recover a little bit from catching back up.

Now here comes the fun part! Within a mile or so of the finish we caught one of the dog teams taking some visitors from Happy Trail Kennels! That never happens! The pack basically piled up behind the sled. I heard some folks talking back and forth with the musher and all the sudden the team stopped right in the trail! It was a mad house. All the sudden our $$$$ fat bikes were just getting pushed through knee deep snow again and were were in an all out sprint to get around the musher and his team.

This really broke us up this time. Oliver went to the right and was able to re-mount quickly, Jason and I made good time through the snow and remounted quickly. James was right behind me, then Eric and Mike.

James is really good at putting in accelerations and recovering quickly and that is something I'm not trained as well in. I tried as hard as I could to cover the small gap to Jason and Oliver but just couldn't cover it the whole way. I pulled over because I knew James could give those guys a go and I just settled in for a fourth place finish.

In the end, it was Jason, Oliver, James, myself, Eric and then Mike. Boy what a finish! I had a blast and it really pumped up my confidence going into Iditarod Trail Invitational next week.

Iditarod Trail Invitational 2018

Have you ever felt the scales of a salmon? I mean, not just touched but felt individual scales? They serve no purpose when pealed from the skin but no less than hundreds, probably thousands cover a salmon. And those thousands of useless flakes suddenly become something. 

Fucking slippery. That’s what they become. 

That’s a little bit how I feel about the Iditarod Trail this year. Sometimes, you pull in a fish and you eat well that evening. This year I went home having felt the salmon just slip from my hands. 

PC:  Laura Fox!

I left Knik lake this year with great fitness. My strength was there, my knowledge of the trail is good and my food and gear are pretty amazing. I’m not going to bore you all with recalling my trip up to Skwentna. Basically, I pulled over to lower my tire pressure in the first couple miles and lost site of Jay and Neil. I put in a huge effort the first 90 miles. Jay and Neil pulled really hard up the river. I trusted my intuition and pace and kept my head down and after eating some amazing spaghetti at Cindy’s lodge I popped back onto the trail to head up to Shell Hills. 

I felt great heading up the hills. The trail was in decent shape and I figured I just need to keep putting miles in. 

I pulled into Finger Lake and I was glad to see that I had pulled back some time on Neil. This gave me a lot of confidence in my race plan. I decided that this next day I was going to eat well, conserve energy and keep my mind sharp as the race really starts for me after Rainy Pass. 

Neil took a short break at Finger Lake. I decided to get a rest in. I left the checkpoint and headed up towards Puntilla Lake. As I go up the Happy River valley I noticed that there was a good amount of cloud cover. This meant one thing to me, snow. 

• I hung out on the side of the trail enjoying a dehydrated Heather’s Choice lunch. That was really helpful this year. I brought a 26 oz. Yeti Rambler thermos. It has a large mouth and fits in a Revelate Designs Mountain Feedbag. I would just put hot water and food at each checkpoint. Then, when I got hungry I would just pull over and have a bite. Traveling in style baby!

Back to the snow. I figured both Neil and I would hit a wall and the mileage and gap would be a wash till after the Pass. Remember that slippery ass fish...

I got up to Puntilla Lake and sure enough there was snow falling. I noticed that my goofing off and lax pace gave Neil a couple hours head start into the Pass. No big deal. Still sticking with my plan. I felt strong. I hadn’t used much energy headed up the valley and felt like my plan was working well.

Jay rolled in not long after me. He then left before me. Not long after that Jussi and Casey rolled in. I decided that it was time to leave. Can’t get too comfortable. The moment I got onto the lake the wind started picking up. 

There are just some things you can’t control. Weather being one of them. I caught Jay on the plateau of the valley but my heart was broken. We were getting hit with a decent amount of snow and the wind just completely blew the trail in. I could see that the gap I allowed Neil to pull came back and bit me in the ass. Both Jay and I noticed that while we were berm busting and walking across the valley that Neil was able to ride quite a bit more than we did. I figured that we must have lost hours because of that. 

Neil and Jay have a lot of bike packing experience. It shows in their actions. Jay just kept plugging along. This really helped my spirits. He stopped to bivy at the entrance to the Pass and I continued on. My plan was to get over the Pass and into Rohn.

Rainy Pass is tough. There’s videos to watch and pictures to look at if you’re so inclined. I got most of the way down Pass creek and after I dropped down to the creek a bit too soon and having my bike tumble over me while crawling up the cut banks I decided it was time to bivy. I slept for three or four hours. I woke up, saw a headlight and it was Casey. He pushed all the way over the Pass to Rohn with no sleep. Impressive! The ride into Rohn was nice, pretty much right where I stopped to bivy was where the trail was once again ride able. Dazell, Tatina rivers were both in great shape thanks to the ITC workers. 

• Adrian and crew at Rohn are so awesome and amazing. I was surprised to find out that Neil only had a few hours on me. With a renewed heart I headed out the door after getting my bratwurst fill. I thought to myself I could catch him. 

I did some of the best riding I’ve ever done out of Rohn. All eight cylinders were firing and I was on a mission to pull back three hours. 

Mother Nature is a mother fucker sometimes. As soon as I got to Farewell Lakes the winds began-a-whippin’! Damnit we couldn’t get a break! Within minutes the trail was completely gone and within what seemed like half and hour I was stomping through a LOT of snow. 

I’ll be honest. I was mentally spent by then. My strength was fine but I just didn’t see how I was going to catch Neil then. I was falling off the side of the trail, I was spending a bunch of time trying to figure out an easier way to push the bike. I began to think that perhaps I was going to have ration my food and break up this section into a couple of days. That’s how hard it was to push through. We were seriously up to our nutz in snow! Haha

Of course, the trail got better and eventually so did my attitude. 

• Sometimes you just crash while riding on snow. It's kind of fun and entertaining. Sometimes when you crash you twist up your handlebars a bit. Well, I didn’t know it until days after the race but I pulled the derailleur cable housing out of the shifter. When we got to a point on the course where I could ride again my bike with regularity it wasn’t shifting right. It was all over the place, too much tension, too little tension, wouldn’t shift into many of the gears. Also, my rear brake pretty much jammed up and the disk was rubbing really hard. I was also getting tired with darkness rolling back over the interior. I knew that my bike had iced up a bit with all the snow we were pushing through. I have never stopped at Bear Creek cabin but it was looking pretty good at this point and I could do some repairs to the bike. 

But I knew this meant one thing. The gap between Neil and I would get much, much larger. I had to accept this reality. I tried a bunch of things to bike after getting some food and a short nap. Ultimately I got it work well enough to get me to the finish.

I started getting some miles in again and passed Jay while he was sleeping on the side of the trail. He's got a good setup. Quick in and out of the bag. Pretty cool.

I stopped to get some water at Sullivan creek, kept on riding. Then another mechanical started to creep up on me. My rear tire started to lose air. This really sucks. I decided I would try and just pump the tire up and see if it would hold. I tried this three times, during this Jay had caught me and passed me. After pumping the tire up a few times over the course of an hour or two I realized that I was going to have to put a tube in. I believe it was around -15 or -20 around this time and I knew it was going to be a long install so I wouldn't get frostbite again. Looking back, I actually think this was a good experience and I gained a bit of knowledge. I got the tube in, stayed warm enough to not get frostbite and was back on the trail. I think it probably took me about 20-30 minutes to change that tube. Haha

Eventually I got to Nikolai, saw the gaps to Neil and Casey. I dried my gloves and socks in the social hall and checked how much food I had to finish up the event. I was a bit short on hand warmers which was the driving factor behind drying my clothing there. I wanted to be sure that I was starting with warm hands and feet. 

At this point, unless something happened to Neil I wasn't going to catch him. I told myself that I would put in a strong ride to the river and see if he had any problems. When I got to the river I chatted with Billy from Iditasport and that was nice. He mentioned that Jay and Neil looked good. I knew that my race was done then. I wanted just to make it to McGrath and get some rest.

Some of you may know that in December of 2017, our lab Palmer passed on. I carried a picture of him with me and while taking in the sunset I felt a rush of emotion roll over me. I really miss that dog. I decided to take a short break, a remembrance if you will.

Clipping in! PC: Laura Fox

One of the best human beings out there. PC/Selfie Credit: Laura Fox

Mt Susitna PC: Will Ross

The Gorge!

My bike was there too.

I didn't have a Rainy Pass picture yet. Here we go!

Rainy Pass Selfie. The ITI sure has changed in the past few years!

It was really deep. I had just pulled my bike out of a deep hole and needed a little break from the pushing.

Finger Lake checkpoint tent PC: Iditarod Trail Invitational

Farewell Lakes area PC: Gary Baumgartner

ROUGH! PC:  Laura Fox

I'm swole??? PC:  Iditarod Trail Invitational

MANCAKES!!! PC:  Laura Fox

Caution Bikes! PC:  Laura Fox

The finish in McGrath! PC: ITI or Laura Fox

She's such a badass. Thanks for surprising me at the finish. That meant so much to me. <3 PC:  Laura Fox

ABC IPA Beer hand up station with Andy Pohl PC:  Laura Fox

 I want to say great job to Neil! He did a great job. It was great to share the trail with everyone. I've learned some more, and I'm ready to head back to McGrath again this year with a little more knowledge. Thanks to all my friends, family and supporters for cheering and watching their trackers. It really means a lot. 

-Cheers!

Little Su 50k

If you haven't started looking at the weather on the Iditarod Trail, now might be a good time. Haha

Iditarod Trail Invitational

A couple teammates of mine are racing the Iditasport, Tim Kirk is going to McGrath and Andrew Cunningham is riding his bike to Shell Lake and back. See their trackers here.

Iditasport Live Tracking

This past weekend, one of the best 100 mile races was put on by a great group of folks. The Susitna 100 is such a fun event (sadly I haven't raced the 100 mile distance the past two years with it being a week before the Iditarod Trail Invitational.)

Susitna 100 start. Front row starting with Megan Chelf on the left, Laura (1st place lady,) Dusty, Josh (1st Place) David (3rd Place) and Tim (2nd Place.) Photo Credit Andy Romang

I participated in the Little Su 50k which races on the 100 mile course with exception of a couple miles to close the loop. I enjoyed riding with my good friend and awesome teammate Danielle and another teammate Brant for the first 6-8 miles then decided I felt a little racy and started to put in a bit of an effort. I was happy with my pace on the second half of the race and caught my teammate Oliver who followed our team motto (Blow up early, struggle to finish.) Just kidding buddy, nice job out there hanging with the fast folks for so long.

Little Su 50k Start. Danielle is in the Grey/Blue coat with grey helmet, Brant is in the Revolution Racing jacket. Photo Credit Andy Romang

Photo Credit Andy Romang

 Then the fun part of the event weekend starts, I boogied up to Deshka Landing and EagleQuest Lodge to see the racers come through mile 62 on the 100 mile event.

Laura, Dusty and Nick at Eagle Quest. Photo by me

Josh Chelf edged out Tim Berntson at the finish. They both had a great race and are awesome dudes! Way to go guys.

In a weird twist of fate, my emotional support human Laura Fox finished fourth overall in a sprint finish after the second group missed their turn after Cow Lake and rode 14 miles off course. Part of me is really bummed for my friends who went off course, but part of me is really happy that Laura, Nick and Dusty did a great race and benefited from their prep work and knew the course well.

Just finished a sprint with David Berg. Damn near a podium! Photo Credit Andy Romang

Dusty with a cool beardcicle. Photo Credit Me

Laura and Nick at the finish line. They look pumped? Photo Credit Me

I'm going to ride my bike a little bit with some gear and see how it feels. Till next time. :-)