What Barkley and ITI have in common…

One might not immediately draw the connection between a foot race in a Tennessee state park, which draws its origin story from a prison break, and a multi-modal race that covers nearly 1,000 miles of frozen Alaskan landscape based on a serum run by dogsled. But allow me to explain. First, both draw the attention of (at least in the beginning with Barkley) a quirky subset of the ultra community. Some part of us is drawn to the amount of suffering that must be overcome, the strength of will to keep pushing despite staggering obstacles, sheer awe for those who toe the line, and we are in complete agreement that the few finishers (26 since 1995 for Barkley (only one woman) and 148 (give or take) for the ITI since 2000 (only 14 women…so far) are 100% bada$$. Both require a measure of self-sufficiency and survival skills not often encountered in modern day North America and Europe, let alone during an endurance race. The elements are key factors in both races; favorable conditions can lead to substantially more finishers than a year when wind, hail, snow, rain, sleet, choose your own weather adventure, are pervasive. And, finally, they draw our collective attention, imagining every move of the athletes  without actually being able to observe them. 

Barkley finished this afternoon 60 hours after it began with five finishers, one being its first female finisher in the history of the race, Jasmin Paris. The ITI will conclude in four short days. I split my time this week between work, obsessively watching ITI dots and (since Wednesday) checking whatever obscure updates for the Barkley Marathon I could find through social media. Much like I experience joy when we have a finisher in Nome, I was emotionally invested in the Barkley finishers, most especially the “small European woman” as Jasmin was described in early reports (Barkley has a distinct culture much like we do). I celebrate all, l but it’s an even more profound sense of joy with our Wild Women finishers. Speaking of which, we should have another one soon!

Leah Gruhn, on her way to her second finish, is only 17 miles from Nome. She spent last night in Tommy Johnson cabin at mile 917. Reports from the Trail indicate the overflow was significant between Topkok and Tommy Johnson’s cabin with reports of knee-deep water along Taylor Lagoon. Joanne Wassillie reported that “the weather turned: got warmer, rained, wind, more wet snow. The trail is TERRIBLE…more wet snow and you can’t see the hills toward Nome.” So, a stay in a cabin - no matter how rugged - may be the wisest choice one can make to dry out a bit. Firewood is likely scarce with driftwood the only potential heating source. When we realized that Leah had been walking almost the entire time since she left White Mountain, we may have imagined a dream sequence that included Faye, Jeff, and Leah all crossing under the burled arch together hand in hand, perhaps singing Hobo Jim’s famed Iditarod Trail Song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_ZbOqFRnxw)...that last part might just be me.

Faye Norby and Jeff Leuwerke rested at mile 896 last night. We heard they were unfortunately both soaked through. The weather deities have not been kind. Luckily, the weather may be improving with temperatures in Nome falling to the mid-20s this evening and a high of 22F tomorrow. This should help all those liquid elements to refreeze for the remaining athletes. Jill Homer calculated this morning that if Faye was able to average 3.03 mph from last night onward, she would be able to break the women’s record. Unfortunately, given the trail conditions, that’s highly unrealistic. And much like Faye barely missed beating the women’s record to McGrath in 2022, it seems as though this year might prove to be equally frustrating. Faye and Jeff are now moving at about 2.1 mph and are 13 miles from the Safety Roadhouse, which is unfortunately closed after the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. But they’ll be that much closer to Nome and Faye (while not the first woman on foot to finish ever, in contrast to Jasmin Paris), will be the first woman on foot to finish in a decade since Loreen Hewitt and Shawn McTaggert finished in 2014.

Joshua Brown and Brandon Lott seem to be resting at mile 845.3 and the Walla Walla shelter cabin. They both appeared to have at different times attempted to leave and then returned back to whatever relative safety the shelter cabin offers. The cabin is located eight miles south of Elim and a mile or two onshore. At Walla Walla, the trail turns inland and climbs over the Kwiktalik Mountains with a series of long, moderately hard grades. The final summit is 1,000 feet at Little McKinley, about eight miles past Walla Walla and ten miles from Golovin. This is considered the hardest climb on this part of the race.

Mark Hines reported that he spent 25 hours going 43 miles with persistent rain wiping out the trail. He rightly had safety concerns over bay crossings and eventually turned around and headed back to Elim after attempting to forge ahead in white-out conditions. He then seems to have gone back out on the ice. He’s currently only four miles from Walla Walla cabin going 1.1mph. That’s a slog. At least he will soon (or in four hours at that pace) have company.

Hendra Wijaya decided to spend some time post-holing his own path earlier today…a hillier trail that may have seemed worth the gamble when facing slushy conditions on the sea ice. Unfortunately, Hendra lost whatever trail there may have been and encountered deep snow in the woods. He thus had to backtrack with Mark Hines and headed back to the safety of Elim. He too has headed back out in an effort to get to Walla Walla. He’s about seven miles out, traveling at 1.7mph. If he can keep that pace, he won’t be too far behind Mark and crashing the party at Walla Walla cabin.

Petr Ineman and Sunny Stroeer round out our intrepid athletes. (After watching Sunny’s video from yesterday, some dot watchers felt like curling into a ball for self-preservation (and we’re in the comfort of our own living rooms.) Petr reported experiencing the same wet conditions as everyone else. Sunny confirms the reports, describing the trail conditions as “terrible - super saturated, unstable, [and] postholing even with skis on.”  Both are currently resting in Elim, hopefully commiserating, drying out, and eating before getting a nap and preparing for cooler weather and firmer conditions tomorrow when  Sunny and Petr hope to catch up with the others to form a wintry conga line (love me some Gloria Estefan…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54ItEmCnP80) all the way to Nome.

Barkley may be over but we still have four more exciting days of ITI with what I am hoping includes three more Wild Winter Women finishers along with their male compadres of the trail.

Written by Carole Holley
Photos from Sunny Stroeer