Prologue
The Arrowhead has
become a part of me. I think about it all the time all year long. Some might
call it an obsession. I know that my wife does. I prefer to think of it as a
healthy distraction from day to day life but that’s just me.
This is the fourth
time that I have stood at the start line of this 135 mile winter ultra marathon
which traverses the Arrowhead State Trail in northern Minnesota. Every year I
make a few changes in an effort to improve over the year before and every year
I have managed to improve my time but I have also always ended up facing some
kind of problem that has almost stopped me from finishing. So I have to ask
myself, “How long can I keep this up?” and “Will this be the year that I crack
and fail to finish?”
The day before the
start conditions looked to be pretty much ideal. I took a short pre-ride with
Lance Andre and Dennis Grelk and we were all amazed at how good the trail was.
It was hard packed and fast. We agreed that a bit more tire pressure would be a
good idea to help us roll even faster. I was feeling confident after that
pre-ride. My bike was working great and I was feeling great. What could possibly
go wrong?
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At the pre-race
dinner I met lots of old friends that I rarely get to see and met some new
people that I hope to see again someday. The race has grown since it started in
2005. That year 11 people signed up. This year there would be 102. During the
dinner Rodrigo from Brazil asked me if one of the Brazilian runners could stay
in my hotel room with me. He knew that I was at the race alone and his friend
wanted to be near the start line in the morning. My hotel was right beside the
start line. I always like meeting new people and I was happy to share my room
with a foreign racer. His name was Marco. Rodrigo didn’t tell me that Marco
doesn’t speak a word of English. It made for an interesting evening to say the
least.
I woke at 5:00am
and immediately started the coffee pot. Marco and I didn’t need a translator
for that. We enjoyed our pre-race coffee together and I showed him the weather
on my blackberry. It was -29C. We didn’t need a translator for that either.
-29C is cold in any language. Marco is a runner and I am a biker so at 6:30am
we wished each other luck and headed off to the start line knowing that we
would not likely see each other again.
The Start
The start line was
a busy place with everyone checking in and trying to stay warm. At 7:00am we
lined up and at 7:03 someone yelled go. I don’t think that it was the race
organizer who said it but we went anyway. There would be no re-start. We were
on our way!
The trail was just
as good as it had been the day before, hard and fast. There also wasn’t much
wind so the -29C was tolerable. The field quickly separated with the race
favourites screaming away like the race was a 200 yard dash. My general
strategy is to start slow and then go even slower as the race progresses so
that is what I did. I found a comfortable pace and enjoyed the rising sun.
Riding into a sunrise is always a great way to start the day.
It wasn’t long
before the sun started to warm the day up and I was making good time. The first
16 miles of the trail are quite flat so it was easy riding but quite
monotonous. I was glad when that section was over and I got into the rolling
hills that really define this trail.
At about this
time, I started leap frogging back and forth with another rider on a fairly
regular basis. Each time I had to stop to eat he would pass me and then I would
pass him when he stopped to eat. He was also going much slower up the hills
than me but then would pass me on flat sections. Even though we were always
close to each other, we never rode together since our speeds were always
different. We continued this process all the way to the first check point, a
Gateway store just off the trail. It was the 35 mile mark in the race.
Gateway to Melgeorge’s
At the Gateway store
I checked in and got down to the business of refuelling right away. This store
has a large variety of food but I knew that I had to be cautious. For the past
few years I have been having problems with nausea during long races so this
year I made some changes which I hoped would fix all that. I was acutely aware
that if I ate the wrong thing now I would pay dearly later. The memory of that
from last year was still fresh in my mind. I finally settled on two bottles of
Gatorade and two Macadamia nut cookies. I even passed on having a Coke! My
stomach would thank me later.
While I ate my
cookies and drank my Gatorade, another racer sat down beside me named Nicholos
Wethington from Iowa. I knew Nicholos from some other races that we
participated in so it was good to see a familiar face. After a bit of talking
we soon realized that we were the two who were leap frogging back and forth
before the check point. We just didn’t recognize each other with all our winter
gear on. We had a pretty good laugh about it.
I finished up my
food, refilled my camelback and headed out onto the trail. My total time at the
checkpoint was under 20 minutes. It was right around noon now and I still had
roughly 100 more miles to go. The best part of all this is that I was still feeling
great so I was able to keep riding at the same pace as at the start of the
race, maybe even a little faster.
About an hour
after leaving the checkpoint I started feeling hungry. That’s always a good
sign. It means that my digestive system is still working properly in spite of
the stress that I am placing on the rest of my body. I restarted my regular
eating and drinking routine that I had been using since the beginning of the
race and hoped that this routine would be adequate to keep me going.
Nicholos caught up
to me and we quickly abandoned our leap frog approach. It was way more fun to
ride together and have someone to talk to. I soon realized why Nicholos was
going so slow up the hills. He was on single speed bike! Wow! My hat is off to
anyone who can do this course on a single speed.
The hills kept
getting bigger as we got closer to the second checkpoint. Our eating, drinking
and peeing schedules were now synchronized so we stayed together for the whole
afternoon, riding as much as we could. We had no choice but to walk some of the
bigger hills but for every hill we walked there was an equally steep wild ride
down on the other side. I have to say that I was really having a great time.
Reality sunk in as
I passed one particular hill. I recognized it immediately when I came to it.
Five years ago my rear hub failed in this exact spot. I remembered how quickly
things could go from good to bad in an instant. On that day five years ago, I
was having a great ride, much like today, and in an instant my whole race
turned upside down. I felt a chill as I passed this spot. Even though I was
thoroughly enjoying myself, I also reminded myself to not let my guard down.
The Arrowhead can be very unforgiving.
Darkness arrived
and I switched on my lights. I love this part. I don’t really know why. I
trained a lot in the dark this year knowing that over half the race would most
likely take place under the cover of darkness. It was a clear night and the
stars were super bright which just added to the great atmosphere.
The “5 miles to
Melgeorge’s” sign came into view and then the “2 miles” sign. Even though it
had been a great day, I was ready for a little break. We crossed Elephant Lake
and followed the florescent stakes to a cabin.
Melgeorges was the
second checkpoint. It is a resort on the shore of Elephant Lake. Just as we
arrived, five bikers were leaving which I was glad to see. It would mean that
the cabin would be less busy. The inside of the cabin was a beehive of
activity. Some racers were eating, some were getting ready to leave, and some
looked like they were not sure what they were going to do next. It is easy to
get sucked into the comfort of Melgeorge’s and let several hours slip by. In
the past, I have never spent less than three hours there and once I stayed for
over twelve hours. I was determined to get in and out of there as quickly as
possible.
I met up with Ron
Kadera at the checkpoint. I first met Ron five years ago when we did this race
together and I now consider him a close friend. He was part of the volunteer
snowmobile crew this year. He asked how I was doing and I couldn’t contain my
excitement about the situation. “Ron, I’ve made it to Melgeorge’s and I haven’t
bonked yet! First time ever!”
The clothes dryer
was free so Nicholos and I threw in all of our wet gear in an effort to get as
much of it dry as we could before we headed out again. There was a huge variety
of food there but I was again being cautious about what I allowed into my
stomach. Each racer is allowed one re-supply bag with food in it and this is
where you pick it up. I packed mine with extra food for the trail and some
pb&j bagels for right now. I inhaled them all. Joanne made me some cookies
for this occasion which I also inhaled. In addition to the food I also took in
as much water as I could stuff down my throat and topped off my camelback.
My toes on my
right foot were giving me a bit of trouble. I normally wiggle my toes quite
regularly to keep them warm. All the wiggling had caused my toenail to cut into
my toe on two of my toes. There was only a little bit of blood so I covered the
chaffed spots with Band-Aids from my first aid kit and put on a fresh pair of
socks that I was carrying with me. Hopefully that would be good enough to get
me through to the finish.
With my toes taken
care of, my stomach full, and my clothes mostly dry, Melgeorge’s had nothing
left to offer me. It was time to leave. I put on all of my gear, said goodbye
to Ron, and headed back out into the darkness alone. It was 7:19pm. I had spent
less than an hour at the checkpoint.
From Melgeorge’s into the Abyss...
Nicholos decided
to rest at the checkpoint for a while so I was travelling by myself again. The
trail out of Melgeorge’s climbs for quite a while and then turns into steep
rolling hills. I was still feeling pretty strong so I rode the hills as much as
I could. I had to walk the steeper ones but the change to walking was a nice
diversion and helped to keep my feet warm and comfortable so that I didn’t have
to wiggle my chaffed toes.
After the rolling
hills there is a flat section before the real hills begin. This is where all
the trouble began. It started innocently enough. When the trail became flat and
I was riding along at the same pace for a long time, I started to feel sleepy.
I’ve had this happen before and I normally just have to get through it. It
always passes eventually.
But I was feeling
really sleepy. I got off and walked for a while in the hope that I would come
around. No such luck. I was falling asleep while walking.
A biker caught up
to me and asked how I was doing. I told him that I was falling asleep but
otherwise doing fine. He said that he was having the same problem but was
working through it. He continued up the trail and disappeared.
I got back on the
bike and started riding. I dozed off several times and rode right off the
trail. I looked behind me and saw that my tracks were weaving all over the
place from one side of the trail to the other. I got off and walked again,
still falling asleep as I trudged along. I stopped a couple of times and just
sat down on the top tube of my bike and fell asleep. I would wake up when
either some part of me would get cold or I would fall off the top tube. Both
situations were not good.
As all this was
happening, the amount of energy that I was expending was decreasing
dramatically. Staying warm in these types of races is a combination of wearing
the proper clothing and moving constantly to keep the internal furnace burning.
If you need to stop you also need to put on more clothes or crawl in your
sleeping bag immediately. I was stopping to sleep but doing nothing to keep
myself warm.
I was starting to
get really cold. I carry some extra cold weather gear and I decided to put all
of it on until I could find a decent spot to bivy. I put on my windproof
jacket, extreme conditions mittens, and full neoprene face mask. I was now
wearing everything that I had with me. I should be fine now.
It wasn’t enough.
I was still freezing. My energy output was just too low. I’ve had cold fingers and
toes before but this was different. My core was getting cold. My chest was
cold. My legs were cold. All of my appendages were cold. When I say all of my
appendages I’m not just talking about my hands and feet, I mean ALL. This was not a good situation.
I had been
casually looking for a spot to bivy but hadn’t been really serious about it
because in my heart I didn’t want to do it and I had been hoping that the sleep
monsters would pass. I had already passed several decent spots and not stopped.
Now it was too late. I was so cold that I didn’t have the dexterity to pull out
my sleeping gear. Also, my feet were really cold (along with ALL of my other appendages) so I didn’t
want to stop and let them get even colder. And the sleep monsters did not pass.
I was still falling asleep while walking.
I was out of
ideas. I could not warm up because every time that I tried to go faster I fell
asleep. I was already too cold to stop and bivy. I was getting colder with
every minute that passed. I had let things go too far and now it was too late.
I cursed myself for making this rookie mistake.
The feeling that I
had at this time was that of checkmate in the game of chess. It is that time in
the game when there are still several moves left but no matter what you do, a
checkmate by your opponent is inevitable. There is nothing that you can do
about it. Most people tip their king in defeat at that point but for some
reason I prefer to play it out. Checkmate in 4. Checkmate in 3. Checkmate in 2.
Checkmate in 1.
I had one last
idea, an act of desperation. I stopped and set my bike down. I started doing
jumping jacks until I could feel that my hands were warm enough to move for a
minute or two. I reached into my pocket and pulled out three caffeinated Power
Gels. I gulped down all three and took a huge drink of water. By the time that
this was done I couldn’t feel my fingers anymore. It had only been a minute. I
put my mitts back on and did some more jumping jacks until the feeling in my
hands came back. I started walking again.
It took about one
minute for the caffeine to hit and did it ever hit. I really can’t describe it.
All I can say is that I went from falling asleep while walking to awake, and I
mean wide awake, in a period of about one minute. My last move had worked.
Out of the Abyss
I’ve taken
caffeine before and had mixed results. In fact, I had been eating caffeinated
gels periodically throughout this race which is why I hadn’t thought of this
earlier. I guess that the trick was taking three at once. Whatever the case, I
was back.
I jumped on the
bike and started riding. I felt great. All
of my appendages were soon warm again which was a huge relief. I removed my
face mask. I fully unzipped my windproof jacket because I was starting to
overheat. What a wonderful change.
The trail was
rolling hills again. I hadn’t even noticed until now. I came over a hill and
saw the biker who had passed me quite a bit earlier. I was surprised that he
was so close. I caught up to him. His name was Andy Magness. He told me that he
was having the same problem as me with sleep but my light coming behind him
woke him up. We started travelling together.
Andy was pushing
the pace a bit more than I would have done if I was alone but that was OK. I
felt like pushing it a bit.
This is the most
infamous section of the trail. The big hills. They are big and they come at you
one after another. We rode through the night together taking on the hills one
at a time.
As we crested the
top of one particularly long hill we saw a camp fire burning. It was the people
who had left the checkpoint just as I arrived. They had stopped to bivy. I
could see at least five people: Don Gabrielson, Janice Tower, Jason Novak (I
think), and several others. We chatted for a few minutes but standing around meant
getting cold so we quickly got moving. That camp fire sure looked inviting
though. It was 2:30am.
After a few more
hours, Andy started falling asleep again so I took the lead. Each time that we
walked up a hill I made a point to start a conversation in an effort to keep
Andy awake. It was better if we stayed together and I believe that we were
going faster together than we would have if we were each alone.
Andy overcame the
sleep problem and the hills eventually became less steep. I started falling asleep
again so Andy took the lead. It was nowhere near as bad as last time, just
dosing off a bit. I didn’t even have to get off and walk. Another gel brought
me around.
Wakemup hill is
the last hill of the race. It is a monster. We climbed it with pleasure knowing
that there would be no more. From this point on the race is flat.
Just after Wakemup
hill there is a teepee which marks the site of the third and final checkpoint.
No food or warm building, only water and a camp fire. We refilled with water and
warmed ourselves by the fire for a few minutes. I was anxious to keep moving so
I told Andy that I was leaving. There were only 18 miles to go. He decided to
leave with me. Just as we were leaving, several bikers pulled into the
checkpoint. They were the people that we passed bivying several hours earlier.
They were catching up to us fast.
The Final Push
Andy and I tried
to set as fast a pace as we could. I was in the lead and maintaining about 7
mph. We were still stopping regularly to eat and drink so I figure that our
actual average speed was closer to 6 mph. We were also walking periodically
just for a change of position. Riding a flat trail after 24 hours is very
tough. We were doing the best that we could. We both knew that the riders
behind us wanted to catch us and would be breathing down our necks anytime.
Each time we
stopped, Andy asked me how fast we were going. Still Seven. That was all I
could do. After about 2 hours of this I stopped for a walking break but Andy
wasn’t behind me anymore. I walked for a minute and he caught up. His chain was
giving him some trouble. He said that he was fine to keep going but he could
not ride the same pace anymore. I told him that I would be stopping regularly
so he would most likely catch up. I took off.
The end was close
and I could almost smell it. I found another gear. A combination of knowing
that there were several people very close behind me and knowing that the finish
was close sent a surge of adrenalin through me. My speed climbed to 8 mph, 9
mph, 10 mph, 11 mph. It felt effortless. I looked behind me every now and then
but no one was there.
At 9:21am I
crossed the finish line alone. My total time was 26hrs and 18 minutes which was
good enough for 13th place. I beat my previous best time by over five
hours!
The next person to
arrive was Jason Novak. He was only four minutes behind me. Andy came in right
after him. I would have really liked for Andy and I to finish together but I
guess that it wasn’t meant to be. Nicholos finished several hours behind us.
38 bikers
successfully finished out of the 52 who started. A total of 60 runners, bikers
and skiers finished out of the 102 who started.
Some General Observations
- Pierre and Cheryl Ostor are two of the best race
organizers on the planet.
- The course was fast this year but there have been
faster years.
- The course was cold this year but there have been
colder years.
- I didn’t bonk!
- I had a great race.
- I almost blew it.
That’s it for
another year.
Sincerely,
Bill
Some other technical stuff in case you’re interested:
Bike:
Surly Pugsley with Shimano XT gears, rear XT hub with Morningstar winterization
kit, front surly fixed gear hub, Hayes mechanical disc brakes, Large Marge
wheels and Endomorph 3.7 tires.
Lights: Cateye Opticube, Petzl Tikka Plus, and Cateye front and rear flashing.
Carrying Capacity: Topeak handle bar bag, Topeak rear rack, Norco Saddle
Bags.
Sleeping Bag: MEC synthetic (-20).
Bivy Sac: Integral Designs (from MEC).
Sleeping Pad: MEC closed cell foam.
Stove: Home made by me from a tuna can.
Stove Fuel: Esbit tablets.
Hydration: Hydrapak backpack with 100oz Source bladder and
Platypus tube insulation.
Food: Ensure Plus, Power Gel, pb&j bagels, cookies, Gatorade
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