It will never be a post title for an actual race report of my own... but check out the race blog to get the live report from the 100+ souls brave enough to try it.
Also, check out the piece on NPR yesterday - very cool that the race is getting so much attention this year - as well as the support of the town of International Falls.
Lots of locals running, as well as a few bikers and skiers. Pierre himself is skiing this year - I think his first time to ski it? Zach Gingerich of IL, an awesome ultrarunner, is upping the competition as he goes after the record. From what I can tell he was the first runner out of Gateway (35 miles) at 15:03, John Storkamp left there at 17:15 and close after him was Matt Long, Pat Susnik, Jason Boon and Scott Myers - all veterans of this race. John Taylor had not yet arrived at the time of that update. Tim Roe is skiing and was in around the same time, as well as Pierre. Daryl Saari is biking and was doing super well but I don't see his name on the list of bikers through Melgeorges which is the next checkpoint at 69 miles. Alicia Huddelson, who ran the Superior 100 last year, and also ran the entire SHT last spring, came in to Gateway at 17:37 but it didn't have her out time. I am assuming she's running. The blog identifes the skiers but not bikers vs runners so I'm going off times and names I recognize so there could well be other runners in the mix at the front. In any case, from Gateway there is still 100 miles to go. Hard to comprehend. But it is awesome to just think of all those people out there on the Arrowhead Trail at this moment!
Tuesday AM update -
Zach Gingerich arrived at Melgeorges (mile 69 - just past half way!) at 01:22AM - 18h22m in. The record (John Storkamp) is right around 40 hours so he is definitely going after it! Several bikers finished - the first 3 were all within seconds of each other at 23:20PM. Looks like first female biker finished this morning at 6:31AM.
Funny - I cannot get into the blog from work - "Reason: The Websense category "Malicious Web Sites" is filtered"
Love it!
What would I do without the iPhone?
Cheryl is doing an awesome job keeping the blog updated.
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More updates...
A few drops at or before halfway including Alicia H and Jason Boon. John (~7:30AM), Matt Long (~8:00AM) and a few others back out on the trail. Others in at halfway but not out yet.
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Tuesday PM update -
Zach G is definitely going after the record! He was through Tipi at 16:15 today with ~25 miles to go. I think he needs to finish by 11:30pm to break John's record of 40h30m. Last year's winner is in 2nd place, coming into Tipi at 7pm. If he got out of there quickly he'll likely beat his time from last year of just under 47hrs. Still, heading out into a second night I guess anything can happen. No reports of any runners through there yet. Lots of bikers finished.
