Pizza, pop-tarts and pretzels
Ever wonder how racers feed themselves during the ITI? Food drops are a critical part of the event, some racers take more chances and forego drops, but most racers are packing as many calories as possible into food and supply drops.
Let’s start with the race rules, drop bags can include consumable items like food, batteries, hand warmers and medication. Drops may not include items like fuel, survival gear, or replacement equipment like bike tubes. All survival gear must be carried from the start. The ITI provides two drops at Finger Lake and Rohn (weight limit 5 pounds) for all racers, and an additional drop at Cripple (weight limit 10 pounds) for Nome racers.
Beyond Cripple, Nome racers mail additional drops to villages along the route. The ITI provides a few guidelines for mailing, usually boxes are sent for general delivery to a specific village, but sometimes they can be sent directly to a specified lodging location like a school or bed and breakfast. These longer distance racers are more likely to add personal care items to their drops, think toilet paper, lotion, chafing prevention (the struggle is real), etc.
I frequently hear the question, do you get your drop back if you scratch? The answer is no, once that box or bag is shipped off you only get it back if you get to the checkpoint. Supplies in drops from scratched racers are usually available to other racers and can be much coveted! Nome racers must plan for drops to get lost as well, not an ideal situation and it seems to happen with some regularity. Sunny’s drop for McGrath didn’t show up, for example.
I’m sure you’re wondering what kind of food racers like to eat, and how much? I can’t tell you much about caloric needs, but imagine athletes are burning in the range of 5 - 8,000 calories per day. Unfortunately the body can only digest so many calories per hour, and ultimately athletes will be in a deficit. Most athletes lose weight on the trail, not losing weight is a real accomplishment! Losing at least 10 pounds in the race to Nome is typical, and more than 25 pounds is not unheard of.
So what kind of food do racers put in their drops? Anything they will eat! It’s so important to get calories on board that making sure they’re healthy - for example - is less important. Often the food that’s in someone else's drop is the best thing out there. McGrath racers tend to go lighter on dehydrated foods, with so many lodges and checkpoints along the route they don’t need to cook very many meals. After McGrath drops will include more dehydrated meals, and always loads of snacks. Candy, chocolate, cheese, meat sticks or jerky, trail mix, and bars are all common.
Favorite race foods from your WWW ITI update crew include vegan BBQ jerky, applesauce (!), Doritos, gummy bears or similar, homemade cookie bars, Whisps, Pop Tarts (flavor matters), pizza, cinnamon bears, and tasty hot beverages like apple and cinnamon Skratch, chai tea mix, black tea and hot chocolate.
Out on the trail today ITI racers are all getting close to or have passed Ruby. Sunny Stroeer still pulls up the rear but is moving steadily along. She spent last night at the North Fork Innoko River cabin, headed north to Cripple late this morning, and had been at Cripple for about an hour as of this writing.
Mark, Joshua and Petr appear to have bivied just outside of Cripple last night. The Iditarod checkpoint has probably been removed at this point since all racers have passed that point. Last night was likely a cold one, the forecast for Ruby, for example, was a low of -19F. These three appear likely to be traveling together, though it’s hard to tell from dots! They’re currently about 60 miles from Ruby.
Hendra appears to have been traveling solo and is currently about 50 miles from Ruby. He bivied outside of Poorman for about 9 hours last night. Is there something going on with Hendra or with his bike? His pace indicates that he’s likely walking. This could be due to soft trail conditions, a tired Hendra or some mechanical issue with his bike.
Jan has fallen a bit behind the group of runners that he’s been leapfrogging with, but is making good time on the approach to Ruby and is currently just a few miles out. Jeff and Faye arrived in Ruby around 5am, after spending around an hour searching for the Wild Iris Bed and Breakfast. Thank goodness they did finally find it, and have been resting there for several hours.
Beat and Christof appear to be traveling together, with Brandon about five miles ahead. All three are enroute from Ruby to Galena. Gavan is just a few miles from Galena after bivvying on the Yukon for about 6 hours early this morning.
Ryan Wanless bivied for about three hours 10 miles from Galena, and is now in Galena with Asbjoern and Leah. Asbjoern and Leah have been there since 1am. The next checkpoint of Nulato is about 50 miles from Galena. Perhaps they are resting up to make one long push. Both Leah and Asbjoern pushed straight through from Ruby to Galena, which took Leah roughly 12 and Asbjoern roughly 16 hours.
Between Galena and Nulato, Thomas, Tiziano, Ben, Kinsey and Mark are all cruising along, having left Galena this morning between 7-8am. All are traveling around 4-8mph, indicating possibly excellent trail conditions. It must be a relief to be riding regularly after so many days of slogging through soft conditions.
Phil stayed in Kaltag last night and was moving by 6:30 this morning. He’s on the portage between Kaltag and Unalakleet, and stopped for about ½ hour at the Tripod Flats cabin. He’s about 50 miles from Peace on Earth Pizza in Unalakleet, and less than half that from Old Woman Cabin. Will he stop and rest at the cabin, or push through for pizza? Check out TrackLeaders in a few hours to find out!
Tyson and Miron remain at the front of the pack. They got pizza last night in Unalakleet before pushing on to the Foothills cabin. They’re now making the crossing from Shaktoolik to Little Mountain cabin where they’ll have a choice. Push on approximately 40 miles across the sea ice of Norton Sound, or rest up and make the crossing tomorrow. Windy.com indicates a north wind of 10-20mph. I imagine them being anxious to get this crossing completed, and have heard if the conditions are good one should go right away, as they can go bad very quickly with unfavorable wind conditions.
There’s a wind chill advisory in effect till 1pm Monday, for the coast and some inland areas, predicting wind chills as low as -55. Currently it’s -12 with 6 mph winds, with lows of -20 and highs around -2. The forecast for Ruby is similar without the wind advisory. Stay warm out there athletes! We’re thinking of you and wishing you warm thoughts.
Author: Amber Crawford
Photo credit: Christof Teuscher