At the end of January, I’ll be running the Arrowhead 135 in upstate Minnesota. I’ve been interested in running this race for probably 6-7 years now, but while my kids were younger, the logistics were more difficult (especially since the race starts on a Monday, which basically means I have to take the whole week off, once you factor in travel time). This year, I was finally able to make it happen, so I applied back in September and was excited to be accepted!
The Arrowhead 135 is considered one of the 50 toughest races in the world. It starts in International Falls, MN, which is basically on the border with Canada. It is one of the coldest parts of the U.S., with temps during the race regularly dipping to -40F and colder. As the name of the race implies, it is 135 miles, and there are only 3 checkpoints, so it is largely self-supported. Similar to the Susitna 100 which I have run multiple times, I will be dragging a sled with all my supplies and required gear for the race. The list of required gear for Arrowhead is pretty similar to Susitna, with one notable addition being a stove and pot (presumably to melt snow if you run out of water between checkpoints).
This has been an interesting winter in Alaska so far. We had a decent dump of snow early on, but then in early December it warmed up into the 40s and rained a bunch, so now we’re left with barely a dusting of snow in many places, along with lots of ice. This has made it tricky to get in much training with my sled, but considering the number of times I’ve run Susitna, I’m not too concerned about that. I’ve just been trying to focus on getting in lots of miles, as well as complimenting that with strength training, something that I’ve been doing regularly this training block for the first time. This will be my longest race yet, so I want to be sure I’m ready. I DNF’d the Denali 135 this past summer (I stopped around 100k with bad Achilles pain), and I certainly don’t want a repeat of that.
I’m super excited to finally get to run this race. Besides the experience of the race itself, it’s hard not to get excited about a finisher award as awesome as this!
