Alaska Endurance Trail Run, 2024
running
This weekend I participated in the 24-hour Alaska Endurance Trail Run. The race started at 8:00 PM Friday evening, ended at 8:00 PM Saturday, and took place on the Skarland Ski loop on the North Campus of The University of Alaska Fairbanks. Each loop is just over a 10K, but for the purposes of the race standings, each loop gets you 6 miles. The start/finish for each loop also has the aid station and plenty of room to set up a tent, tables, or whatever you’d like for yourself between loops. I set up a tent, sleeping bag, and a camp chair just around the trees from the aid station.
I made a map and elevation diagram for the loops here: AETR Loop Maps.
You only get credit for a loop you’ve completed before the 24 hours expire, so if you don’t think you can finish a loop, there’s a shorter half mile loop you can run over and over until you’re done or time expires. There were also two 12-hour events and two 6-hour events running simultaneously with the 24-hour race I ran. Bib colors were different for each race so you could tell how long someone had been running when crossing paths with them.
You run the loop in either direction, but most people preferred going counter clockwise. Of the 41 runners starting the 24 hour race only four of us went clockwise to start. I had intended to alternate directions each loop but ran clockwise twice in a row after unintentionally falling asleep in my tent at 4 AM while charging up my watch and phone. When I woke up, I was shivering because I didn’t even get into my sleeping bag in the tent, made worse by failing to properly close my water bladder and getting my lower back and pants all wet after leaving the aid station.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get a lot of training in before the race. My longest run this year was 13 miles on New Year’s Day when I foolishly decided to run from home to the pullout near Ann’s Greenhouses to run up Ester Dome, then back home afterwords. My longest mileage week was 25 miles. Since a lot of ultra running is actually walking, I figured I would be fine, but I certainly suffered by not having enough time on my feet in training. I also think my calves got tired before my upper legs and that magnified the pounding on my feet and how sore my knees got, especially my left knee.
There were some amazing competitors out there, seemingly running the whole time. Nineteen hours into the race I crossed paths with one of the people I’d seen over and over again running easily. He was still running and I said to him, “You’re crushing it, still running after 20 hours!”. He laughed and said by way of explanation, “I literally just started running again a minute ago”. He wound up running 12 loops to my 11. The winner, who probably did actually run the entire time, did 17 full loops and 15 short loops to set a new race record with 109.5 miles.
I saw two different foxes during the night, heard or saw countless robins, Swainson’s thrushes, red squirrels, ruby crowned kinglets, ducks on Ballaine Lake, and more than once attributed a stump or downed tree as a menacing animal. When I pointed out one of the foxes to another runner he said he’d seen an owl flying across the trail. There was an aggressive cow moose with at least one calf at the bottom of the T-Field around 3 AM that we were warned about, but it was gone by the time I got there. Each time I passed the T-Field I heard the same savanna sparrow calling, reminding me of hearing red-winged blackbirds growing up in western New York.
Once the sun set I started getting sleepy. A passing runner said “welcome to June” and it occurred to me that “yesterday” I’d worked a half day in the office, ran 18 miles, and still had another 20 hours before the race was over. It never got dark enough that I had any trouble seeing the trail, but the lights on the ski trails did come on briefly. The wispy clouds in the sky turned orange, and pink, then back to orange as the sun rose at 3:30 AM. There was direct sun on the trail a little while later, and by late morning the temperature was comfortable again.
It was warm and sunny whenever the sun was up, but it was striking how cold it got in the early morning hours, especially as we descended down to Smith Lake. The weather station at the lake is no longer operating, but the low temperature at our house was 33 degrees at 5:00 AM, and we all felt similar temperatures at the low elevation spots on the course. You can see the difference in temperatures at the top of the course (UAF West Ridge on the plot below), and a proxy for the low spot from the weather station at our house (Goldstream Creek). I don’t think it was really 80 degrees in the early afternoon on West Ridge, but it was certainly above 70 while the sun was out.
The aid station was fantastic. For the first two loops I depended on my long distance running strategy of drinking Tailwind every mile, and eating a waffle or chew every hour. Both of those things are basically just sugar, so even though they are easy calories to digest, at some point eating nothing but sugar is not appealing. Among their salty food options, the aid station reliably had baked potatoes, chips, Doritos, pickles, and grilled cheese sandwiches. I ate a lot of potato dipped in salt and corners of grilled cheese sandwiches. After several loops I started alternating Tailwind with straight water in my pack, and counted on getting calories at the aid station.
Two loops after my accidental nap, the sun had risen, and behind West Ridge I crossed paths with a couple guys just coming from the aid station, “They have pancakes!” Turned out not only did they have pancakes, but they had bacon as well. Nothing quite hit the spot like light and fluffy pancakes, and chewy, salty bacon after running all night.
Here is my packing list. It mostly worked well, but I didn’t need all the extra food because of how stocked the aid station was. The RockStar I drank at the start of loops 6 and 7 was great. Having a second pair of socks and shoes was also an excellent plan, but it might have been a mistake to have road shoes for my backup pair. The trail seemed quite a bit slipperier and I think the blister I got on my right heel may have been due to trail running with road shoes. The weather was perfect; if it had been any colder or wetter, more changes of clothes and another layer would have been necessary.
My “C Goal” was to run farther than I’ve ever run before, which was the 32 miles I ran for the unofficial 2021 Angel Creek 50K. So six loops. My “B Goal” was to match the 10 loops (60 miles) that Ned managed when he was my age in 2018. That’s also the median distance for all previous 24 hour racers, making it a good number to match. My “A Goal” was the 75th percentile, which is 73 miles, or just over 12 loops.
At mile 52 I looked at my watch, smiled, said to myself, “double marathon” and clapped my hands. My B goal was in sight, but the next loop (10) was a struggle. By that point I could no longer run at all, I had a painful blister on my right heel, it hurt to raise my left foot, and my left IT band made going downhill difficult. My back and neck were sore and my fingers were swollen like sausages. I knew I could get it done, but it wasn’t pretty. You can’t help but think about all the hills, the turns in the trail, the roots, and all the steps that are between where you are and the finish line ahead. By the end, my watch said I’d taken over 100,000 steps, and those last 20% were hard won.
After loop ten I sat for almost half an hour and thought about whether I could do one more. There were still four more hours before 8 PM, and I didn’t think anything was seriously injured or would get much worse. Why not? My feet were on fire, my knees were shot, my calves kept twitching with the threat of a full on cramp. The mosquitoes took full advantage of my slow pace, and for the first time I regretted not carrying any repellent. I walked backwards down the hills to spare my knees and pushed. Make it around the next turn, past that tree, just one more step. Then another. Twelve and six hour runners easily running past me with broad smiles and functioning muscles and minds. Ned put out a sign at his house on the course before that last loop and after passing it with a smile I thought about all the trips he and his dog Cora and I had taken over that same route, and continued on to finish loop eleven.
Here’s a table of my race based on the data from my GPS watch. Next time around I will turn off the automatic lap counter and set my own loops at the end of each loop using the watch. It was hard to keep track of the loops as I was running them, and the data analysis was more difficult. Knowing how I felt while doing the last loop, I’ve surprised at how much slower my tenth loop was by comparison. I think I had decided that it was going to my last so I pushed hard to get it done as fast as I could. The barn was in sight.
| Loop | Start | Finish | Loop Time (hours) |
Pace (min/mile) |
Rest Time (minutes) |
Total Miles |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | May 31 08:00 PM | May 31 09:19 PM | 01:18:20 | 12:37 | 03:40 | 6.2 |
| 2 | May 31 09:22 PM | May 31 10:46 PM | 01:23:14 | 13:21 | 00:01 | 12.4 |
| 3 | May 31 10:46 PM | Jun 01 12:22 AM | 01:36:04 | 15:13 | 11:25 | 18.7 |
| 4 | Jun 01 12:33 AM | Jun 01 02:09 AM | 01:35:41 | 15:17 | 10:38 | 25.0 |
| 5 | Jun 01 02:20 AM | Jun 01 04:01 AM | 01:41:04 | 16:11 | 55:04 | 31.2 |
| 6 | Jun 01 04:56 AM | Jun 01 06:37 AM | 01:41:09 | 16:14 | 09:48 | 37.5 |
| 7 | Jun 01 06:47 AM | Jun 01 08:31 AM | 01:44:03 | 16:43 | 17:19 | 43.7 |
| 8 | Jun 01 08:48 AM | Jun 01 10:33 AM | 01:45:27 | 16:52 | 20:01 | 49.9 |
| 9 | Jun 01 10:53 AM | Jun 01 12:52 PM | 01:58:16 | 18:52 | 01:47 | 56.2 |
| 10 | Jun 01 12:54 PM | Jun 01 03:49 PM | 02:55:54 | 28:03 | 27:49 | 62.5 |
| 11 | Jun 01 04:17 PM | Jun 01 06:37 PM | 02:20:16 | 22:11 | - | 68.8 |
I finished my 11th loop at 6:37 PM, with another hour and a half to go. At my pace there wouldn’t have been enough time to do another full loop, and I had nothing left for the shorter half mile loops. I sat down, put my feet up on a nearby alder and listened to the other runners adding to their distances, spectators and volunteers cheering them on, very happy with what I’d done.
Totals: 68.8 miles and 5,646 feet of elevation gain and loss over 22 hours and 37 minutes with 2 hours and 49 minutes of rest.
Many thanks to Don Kiely, the race director, and Justin, Amanda, and the other volunteers. It was a very well organized race, and having encouraging volunteers at the aid stations makes a huge difference when your mind and body are exhausted. Thanks also to Andrea for giving me excellent suggestions, getting my food squared away, and being out there at multiple times during the race. And Ned, for the sign, our weekly runs, stopping by at the end, and always encouraging me to get out there and do the next great thing.
I met the second place winner for the first time out on the course and every time I crossed paths with him he’d yell out my name with a smile and ask how I was doing. I told him I appreciated his positivity and friendliness compared with some runners and he said “life is too short not to have a good time.” After the race I went up to him to congratulate him on his run and he asked, “Coming back next year?” “No way,” I said, wobbling on my destroyed legs. Then, “Well, maybe.”