February 2011 - The Arrowhead 135, Part II of III?

This marks the fifth time that I have sat down to write a race story about the Arrowhead 135. Every year has presented some significant challenges for me. 2011 was no exception!

In case you have never read one of my previous stories, here is an outline of the race:

• Race start was at 7:00am on Jan 31, 2011
• Distance was 135 miles along the Arrowhead State Snowmobile Trail in Northern Minnesota
• There are 3 checkpoints roughly 35 miles apart
• This race is non-stop, self supported, and has a 60 hour time limit
• There are Bike, Ski, and Run divisions. I always bike.

In my four previous attempts at this race I have managed to finish each year and improve my time every year. When I started preparing for this year I realized that it is getting harder and harder to figure out ways to go faster. With 6” of fresh snow coming down two days before the start of the race I wondered to myself if this will be the year that I actually finish slower?

The pre-race meeting and dinner took place at the Backus Arena in International Falls, MN.  Race organizer, Dave Pramann went over the details of the course and drew some draw prizes. I won nothing like usual. You would think that after doing this race four times that I wouldn’t get nervous anymore. Wrong! I don’t know why but sitting around at the pre-race meeting always brings nervous anticipation. I can barely focus on what is going on around me. I actually think that it might be fear more than nervousness. There are a lot of things that can go wrong in this type of race and I have firsthand experience with many of them. I think that fear might be what attracts me to these events. I’m not sure why.

The Start

At 7:00am sharp we lined up at the start line and suddenly we were off on another adventure. The temperature was around -10F, a little cool but certainly nothing out of the ordinary for Northern Minnesota.

I took my place in a paceline of bikers and slowly started working my way forward as I warmed up a bit. I always start off slow for some reason. It’s just the way that I am I guess.

The sun slowly came up and started to warm things a bit. I was only an hour into the race and I encountered my first problem. I stopped to remove my outer layer and realized that the tube for my Camelback had been slightly exposed and was now frozen solid. Try as I might, I couldn’t get it to flow. Normally when this happens I can just warm the tube with my hands, bend it to crack the ice, get a trickle of water flowing and then it goes. Today it was just a bit too cold for that. Plan B is to bury the tube under all my layers, zip everything up tight and then ride hard to bring my core temperature up a bit which will hopefully be enough to melt the ice in the tube. I don’t really like doing this because it causes sweat to build up and makes my inner layers wet but in this case, having water was more important.

I rode hard for another hour hoping that it would be long enough to melt the ice in the tube. When I stopped the tube was completely thawed and the water flowed nicely. I took a long draw of water. I normally drink every 30 minutes so I had some catching up to do. One good thing about this problem was that I was making really good time. I was riding harder than normal and the trail was in good shape so I was way ahead of schedule.

I decided to keep riding fairly hard as long as the trail conditions stayed good. Got to make hay while the sun shines!

It was at about this time that I met Mike Criego. He had been right behind me for a while and when I stopped to check on my Camelback tube, he stopped too so we got to talking as we ate and drank. It turns out that he entered the race last year but failed to finish. This year he was hoping that things would be different.

I asked if he wanted to take the lead for a while but he said that he would prefer not to. Apparently my “easy” pace was suiting him well compared to his normal training partner. Little did he know that what he thought was an easy pace was actually much harder than I normally ride.

Now that my Camelback was working properly I backed off the pace just a bit but I was still riding pretty hard for me. The trail was so good that I couldn’t resist. Mike and I stayed together with me setting the pace. It was nice to ride with someone and we seemed so evenly matched that I was starting to think that we may be able to ride together all the way to the finish. That would be a first for me. Usually the bulk of this race is spent completely alone. Just before the first checkpoint the trail became freshly groomed and almost as fast as pavement. We were flying! At 11:29am we rolled into the Gateway store checkpoint. This was the earliest that I have ever made it to this checkpoint.

I usually stop at this checkpoint for a few minutes to top off my water and have a quick bite to eat. The owner of the store had some homemade cookies which really hit the spot. Five cookies and one Mountain Dew later and I was back on the trail, alone. Mike decided to stop for a break.

The trail remained firm and fast so I made the decision to take a calculated risk. I decided to continue the hard pace that I was maintaining. Normally this would be too hard a pace for me to maintain in a race this long but the trail was so fast that the race would be over much sooner than normal so I should be able to do it. The risk in doing this is that the trail could turn bad and then I would run out of energy before making it to the finish. This is not something that I would normally do but today it was a risk that I was willing to take. Lately I’ve been accused by several people of riding too conservatively. No one would be able to say that today!

I was making great time, eating well, and feeling strong. Today had the makings for a perfect ride when suddenly everything went to hell.

I was about half way between the Gateway store and the next checkpoint, Melgeorge’s Resort on Elephant Lake. Up until this point there had been almost no snowmobile traffic. That changed as 20 snowmobiles roared past. “My” hard packed trail turned to mush. I went from cruising almost effortlessly at 9 mph one minute to struggling to make 4 mph the next. I fought the trail for a little while, hoping it would get better but finally stopped and let some air out of my tires in the hope that I would be able to float on top of this “new trail” that I was facing. The tire pressure change worked and I was able to bring my speed up to 6 mph but it was still a devastating blow when compared to the 9 mph that I had been maintaining before. If you have ever been travelling on a highway at 60 mph and then been forced to reduce your speed to 40 mph then you know exactly what I am talking about. The world suddenly seemed to be going by in slow motion. It was so frustrating.

I kept plodding along feeling sorry for myself when a thought came to mind: This is a snowmobile trail. Without the snowmobiles, there would be no trail and no race. So why am I upset that that some snowmobiles came by?

My attitude changed from that point on and I started to enjoy the ride again even at the slower pace. I rolled into Melgeorge’s at 5:45pm. I had made it in to the checkpoint during daylight which was a first for me. Even with the slower trail, I was still having my fastest ride ever.

My routine at Melgeorge’s is pretty well established: I do my best to get in and out of there as quickly as possible while still taking a little break. The clothes dryer was empty so I loaded everything in. Next I refilled my Camelback, restocked my food supplies from my drop bag, changed my socks and gloves, and finally eat, drink and eat some more. With a full belly and somewhat dryer clothes I headed out the door for the last 65 miles of the race. I had spent a total of 35 minutes at the checkpoint.

It was dusk when I had arrived at Melgeorge’s. It was pitch black now and getting cold. I was really glad that I had dry clothes on. The trail was hard but the cold weather was slowing things down a bit. It was still better than the mush that I was riding in before Melgeorges. The trail after Melgeorge’s is famous for the steep rolling hills which really defines this whole race course. I rode as much as I could but walking was inevitable with some of them. These hills take a tremendous amount of energy. Go too hard early in the race and pay the piper when the hills come. I started paying the piper. My hard riding earlier in the day was taking its toll. With each hill I found myself going slower and slower up the next one. Part way through the hills, Greg Ames came flying by me like I was standing still. Greg and I are always pretty close to each other in this race so we have gotten to know each other a little bit over the years. He would later tell me that I was riding so slowly when he passed me that he thought that I was standing still!

My calculated risk at the start of the race had backfired. The slow trail into Melgeorge’s combined with the cold now had taken me dangerously close to bonking. The next checkpoint couldn’t come soon enough. I needed a break and I needed it now!

I eventually made it through the hills. I know this trail well enough now to know when they are over and when they end it is only a short ride to checkpoint #3, Crescent Moon Bar. I normally do not stop at this checkpoint but I needed a break badly. With only 20 miles to go before the finish it seems to me now that I should have been able to push on but at the time, my only thought was rest. I walked in and the wave of heat was a bit much for me. I felt nauseous and had to sit down. I ordered some food in the hope that it would bring me around and then joined Greg at the back of the bar where there was a fireplace throwing some wonderful heat. Greg packed up and left pretty quickly. He had already been there for over an hour.

I was all alone so I decided to sit down in front of the fire place and take in some of the heat. Then I found myself lying down. The next thing that I remember is the checker for this checkpoint gently waking me to let me know that this was not a sleeping checkpoint so I should wake up. She had bent the rules and allowed me to close my eyes for a full hour. I think that her name was Rachel. She should be Sainted or Knighted or something like that!

That hour of real sleep made a huge difference. I felt great! I ate some more food and headed out the door immediately. My total time spent at the checkpoint was one hour and twenty nine minutes. That was way longer than I wanted but it was badly needed. One good thing was that no one had passed me while I slept so I had only lost time, not positions in the race.

It was cold before I entered the checkpoint. It was even colder now. My hands felt it. My gloves were still a little wet so they transferred the cold to my hands immediately. Within minutes of leaving the checkpoint my hands went completely numb. It didn’t seem like they were going to warm up so I stopped and put on my heavy mitts which I always carry for occasions just like this. I also put my wind shell on. It is pretty rare that I need both my wind shell and my winter mitts in order to stay warm but this was one of those days. I had checked the forecast before the start of the race and it was only supposed to drop to -20F during the night. -20F is well within the range of what my clothing can normally tolerate so I found it a bit strange that I was having to put on these extra layers. At the time I just chocked it up to not living in Canada anymore and not being as acclimated to the cold as I once was.

The trail was slow but flat and I really wanted to be done. The temptation to just slip the bike into the granny gear and cruise at an easy pace was pretty high but I resisted and kept pushing hard, always in one gear higher than what was comfortable. This last stretch is always tough, so close and yet so far. It seems like it will never end. But it does end. I crossed the finish line at 9:09am in 13^th place and beat my previous best time by a whopping 12 minutes. I’ll take it.

After

Greg finished about a half hour ahead of me. He said that he had to walk quite a bit to keep his feet warm.

Mike Criego finished a couple of hours after me. He paced himself well and finished strong. He thought that he had some frostbite on his toes at the end but when he removed his socks they all looked OK.

There have been a variety of reports on how cold it got on the trail that night. -35F seems to be the consensus. No wonder I needed my extra layers!

I found out later that I was only one of many people who fell asleep in front of the fire place at Crescent Moon.

Less than half of the 120 entries into the race managed to finish. Most dropped out due to cold weather issues.

My Pugsley worked perfectly again, like it always has. This was my fifth, and most likely, last race on the Pugsley. It has never let me down or complained but the newer, lighter, and wider Fatback is too much of a temptation for me to resist.

So Part I and II, Tuscobia and Arrowhead, are complete and I leave for Alaska tomorrow, Fatback in tow. Iditarod Trail, here I come!