Throwing My Hat Into the Western States Lottery

by Brandon  

After completing Zion 100 back in April, I’m qualified to enter in the Western States Lottery this year. Since I DNF’d Pine to Palm last year, I wasn’t able to enter the lottery, and so I’m back to 1 ticket this year. They haven’t published the stats for this year’s lottery yet, but based on last year, 1 tickets gives me about a 2.5% chance of getting into the race.

I realize it’s a long shot and I’m certainly not holding my breath, but a guy’s gotta try, right?

Update: they’ve released this year’s race statistics, and with 1 ticket it looks like I’ve got a 2.3% chance of getting drawn. Here’s hoping!

Update #2: as expected, I didn’t get in 😭

Susitna 100 Race Report

by Brandon  
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After much preparation and stressing over gear choices and my sled, the Susitna 100 finally arrived. As if running 100 miles in the middle of the Alaskan winter wasn’t going to be hard enough on its’ own, it turned out that I was also going to have a CNN film crew following me!

What packing for a winter 100 miler looks like.

Let me take a few steps back and explain that last part. Around the end of January, the race directors were contacted by CNN. They wanted to do a story on the race for their Fit Nation series, and were looking for suggestions for someone “interesting” to profile and follow during the race. They gave them several names, and after a preliminary interview, I found out that they had picked me! They flew up to Alaska from New York the week of the race, and I spent several hours with them over a couple of days recording interviews, getting shots of family time at my house, and doing some “Hollywood running” around my neighborhood and on nearby trails. They planned to follow me as much as possible during the race (only 2 of the 6 checkpoints are accessible by road), and they also gave me a small video camera similar to a GoPro to take some of my own footage during the race.

Continue reading “Susitna 100 Race Report” →

Adding a Cover to My Sled for Susitna 100

by Brandon  
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These past couple of weeks, we’ve had several good dumps of snow in the Anchorage area. This has meant lots of long runs dragging my sled through deep snow. Aside from this being really hard work, I also quickly learned that I needed a cover for my sled before race day. My sled was taking on tons of snow, adding unnecessary weight and soaking my non-waterproof duffel bag. Something needed to be done – so I headed to Jo-Anns for some DIY supplies. I picked up some rip-stop nylon and a heavy-duty zipper.

The rip-stop nylon serves several purposes:

  1. As the name implies, it’s resistant to ripping or tearing, something I certainly don’t want happening during the race.
  2. It’s reasonably water resistant.
  3. It’s a slick material that actively sheds snow.

Continue reading “Adding a Cover to My Sled for Susitna 100” →

How to Keep Your Water From Freezing When Running in the Winter

by Brandon  
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frozen hydration pack

Don’t let this happen to you!

These past few months, I’ve been running lots of miles outdoors in the cold while training for the Susitna 100 next month. These past few weeks it has been especially cold in the Anchorage area, and on race day, there is always the potential for it to get down to -20 to -30°F. Keeping your water from freezing when running for hours in these kinds of temperatures is a very important skill. I’m not going to last very long in a winter 100 miler if my water is frozen solid, and there are only aid stations every 15-20 miles.

Continue reading “How to Keep Your Water From Freezing When Running in the Winter” →