On February 4-6, 2008, I ran race #2 of the Arctic Grand Slam, the Arrowhead 135 mile ultra-marathon. This race is held in International Falls MN and is part of the 135 world series that also includes Badwater 135 and Brazil 135. The course is very hilly with the exceptioin of the first 18 miles and the last 18 miles. It is a tough course especially when you are pulling a sled! Runners must pull a sled with a minimum of 15 pounds of survival gear including a -20 sleeping bag, 3,000+ calories of food, stove and fuel, insulated water containers, headlamp, whistle, and refelctive materials. By the time you add dry clothes/socks, more food, emergency parka and first aid kit a sled can easily weigh more than 22 pounds.
On Monday, it snowed hard all day and temperatures were in the 30's. The snow conditions made the trail very slow as there was not much glide for the sleds. The wolves howled lowdly that night-it was cool. On Tuesday the snow finally stopped and the temperatures dropped like a bomb. Trail temps on Tuesday night were -20 to -27. I was so exhausted from all the hard work of pulling the sled on Monday that I had to bivy in my -40 bag Tuesday night. I had Carles from Spain and Pat from Duluth join me for my trailside bivy. Our bags and shoes froze solid when we got up and ready to move out 2 hours later. The frozen shoes really beat my feet up. Wednesday was cold to start but warmed up nicely to about 5 degrees and sunny. When I hit the final 15 mile stretch, I knew I had plenty of time to get in under 60 hours. My final time was 56:22. This is one tough event. 2 down, 2 to go!!
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