The 350 distance is seeing a lot of action, today we have 14 finishes so far, and will have one more tonight! Unfortunately we have 23 scratches but three 1,000 mile bikes have made it past McGrath and heading north at a pace that suggests the trail might not be hard packed.
Nicholas Janssen, potentially our 1st 350 mens ski is just outside Nikolai, and after him athletes continue to battle the trail, and use Bear Creek cabin as a refuge when needed. Faye Norby in the lead for the 1,000 foot has left Rohn and is heading towards the beautiful and stark Egypt Mountain. As they say, “you can’t get to Nome if you don’t leave Rohn” so that box is checked.
Almost to Rohn, Jennifer McConnel, bike 350 from Girdwood, Alaska says “This will be mentally and physically the hardest thing I've ever done. I'm really excited, Anything can be accomplished with baby steps” and she is trucking along! Special shout out to North Pole High School students and my mom (Nurse Lorraine)!
The weather has continued to be a challenge for our athletes. Winds have been blasting as athletes make their way up the pass, causing several to return to Puntilla Lake to scratch. The winds are not bad on the lake, but as they climb up into the Ptarmigan Valley, athletes are hit in the face with winds at over 60 knots and wind chills far below -40F. Some of those that do continue on bike are needing to hike a bike vs ride the rolling terrain to the base of the pass. This afternoon we watched Joshua Brown, 1,000 mile ski, begin to take the Hells Gate route (not recommended) close to Rainy Pass. He soon realized his mistake and is now making good time over the pass. We watched Amber Crawford embark and then return to the lodge, she had tire issues and needed to get to a safe space to fix it. She has since left again and is making her way, pushing her bike, to the pass. We currently have 7 athletes in the lodge, a far cry from the 32 yesterday.
Moving down the trail, there were a lot of downed trees in the section between Finger Lake and Puntilla. The ITI trail crews spent the past several days trying to keep up with cleaning them, but the relentless winds continued to knock them over. Fortunately we only have two more athletes in that section, 1,000 foot racers Klaus Schweinberger and Donald Kane. 1,000 mile foot athlete Mark Hines described that section as “The roughest race conditions I've dealt with were yesterday's approach to Fingerlake CP. Leaving it wasn't much better. This was followed by almost perfection.” So at least some of the trail is getting better!
Tonight a special shout out to 350 foot athlete Ryan Fox. A Nome resident, middle school teacher and cross country coach! Ryan has a GoFundme for the NEW nome track and field team https://gofund.me/a9aa0721
His hope is that his run inspires kids to want to test their limits in healthy ways. And a “Shout out to my roomate Aaron and the rest of my Nome family who has supported me these last several months. I would not be towing the line without their countless words of encouragement. It's hard training for a big event like this in a small town where the number of endurance athletes is relatively small. 95% of my runs the last 5 months have been alone. See ya in Mcgrath!”
Written by Kari Gibbons Photo by Ryan Wanless, of Ryan and Beat, both multiple 1,000 mile finishers, heading to Nome again this year.