ITI 2025 What Went Wrong?

What went wrong on my ITI 2025 ride? Well nothing really.

Which is exactly what went wrong

Let that sink in. I am not complaining, I had a great time. I met my expectations of myself, and I wasn’t tied to a specific outcome anyway. But, I went to be challenged, I went for hardship, and I went for the joy of doing something out of my comfort zone. Maybe my comfort zone is too big. Or maybe I just didn’t push myself quite hard enough.

I came to do something hard, something that I wasn’t sure I could finish. It wasn’t easy, but I didn’t really find myself doubting my ability to finish.

In a race like this, most people have their own objectives, and their own measure for success. Some folks want to be at the pointy end of the race, while others just want to finish. I was somewhere in the middle. I wanted to know that I could finish and still have enough left for the long race (yes, I know it’s absurd to call 350 miles the “short” race, but that’s how it is). I amn’t delusional about being in the front, but I may have aimed low when I set my sights on “not DFL”.

I have had a few racing setbacks of late, and have scratched a few races. Finishing this one feels great, but in some ways not as satisfying as facing the sickness, weather, and navigational errors that I have seen in the recent past. Like a story where the protagonist faces more challenge is more interesting, I too want to face obstacles. If I wanted to do something easy, I could stay home and watch TV. Obviously, this wasn’t as easy as my sofa, but the challenge was, if not quite lacking, slightly underwhelming.

The Weather Was Great

Again, I’m not complaining, I fulfilled a dream, I learned about myself, I did something that few people ever will. But I’d have loved a snowstorm. I feel like I would have enjoyed a day or three of postholing through waist-deep snow. Some -40º temperatures always add some spice to my nights. The coldest I saw was one night where it hit -28ºC. There was little snow, and it stayed cool enough to keep the snow rideable.

A favourite memory of mine from the ’02 race is the trip over Rainy Pass. We had been held up by a snowstorm for a day, and crossing the pass took over 12 hours to move 18km. This year, the entire pass was rideable.

My Equipment Worked Well

Well, I did break a wheel, but not catastrophically, and there’s gratification knowing that I chose and prepared my equipment well. A friend froze her stove pump, another had some issues with a rack, problem solving is so satisfying that I almost wish for it. Then again, I did get a lot of problem solving done before showtime, so I can say that I sort of did it.

I went in with a well-built carbon fibre bike that I had prepped for the race by changing the bearing grease to a cold-temperature grease. I had set up manual shifting knowing that the temperatures could be low enough to make electronic shifting questionable. I made sure I could operate my bags with mittens on. I had tested all my equipment in the coldest temperatures I could reasonably see.

Lots of my bags and accessories were my own, including my frame bag, rack-top bag, downtube bag,  and pogies. I had no doubts that these would work, and they totally did.

Maybe the right thing was to head into the race with substandard equipment, I could gain the satisfaction of limping along and fixing my crap bike. I am proud of my McGuyvering skills, and I enjoy the opportunity to use them.

I Ate a Lot

There is a lag time between starting a long ride and my body realizing that I am on a long ride. This time around, I put a little extra food in for the first two days, I wasn’t hungry, but I knew that I should be. Experience has taught me that I need variety, and that I need lots of that variety to be savoury. Sure, it was dumb to bring 2 bags of gummies, but the Moon Cheese was awesome, and the Wild Mountain Eats meals were very tasty, and I ate a bunch of them. I managed to ration my cans of maple syrup until near the end, and the Never Second Nutrition bars and gels had somehow the right amount of flavour that they tasted good after 2-5 days of solid effort.

I Worked to my Strengths

I can easily get stuck in checkpoints. I can chat for hours. I can sleep for hours. The checkpoint volunteers were invariably supportive. They made me want to stay and snooze, but that’s not where my strength lies. I sleep best outside, and my camp routine is pretty efficient. Most checkpoints, I popped in, ate, and was on my way (with hot water in my bottles). At Finger Lake, I slept outside, where I know I’m comfortable, I’m old enough now to know what works for me. The exception was Nikolai, where I got sucked in by the amazing volunteers, including the legendary Jay Cable, and I stayed the night with the promise of a flush toilet and the delicious instant oatmeal.

When the tussocks came, I again worked to my strengths, though I could kind of ride them, I sensed I was burning more energy than it was worth. I wanted to finish strong enough to feel like I could go on to Nome. That meant using my classic strength, which is pushing my bike. Janice and Matt passed me, and both, but especially Janice, looked smooth and graceful as they rode what I pushed across, I guess that’s their superpower.

I ride best in daylight, and I (and most diurnal animals) fare worst between 2am and 6am. That’s when I slept. Had the trail been worse, I might have switched things up to catch the hardest frozen parts of the day. As it was, things were pretty smooth rolling during the times I like to be up. I was tempted to ride straight through the first night, but I didn’t, instead, I found a spot on the riverbank at 4am and got 4 or so hours of quality shuteye.

The Race Was Well Organized

This race originated as a race for racers, by racers and though it has changed over the years, it is still true to the spirit. The race organizers care about the athletes, so the level of safety and support is high (but do not mistake this for a tame race, it is all the way wild). I’ve had the experience of poor race organization, and so I am only glad that this one was excellent.

There’s Always a Lesson

If I can’t learn anything from my experience, then I must not be looking hard enough. I did learn, and though I may have learned more from making more mistakes, I don’t regret missing out on those “learning opportunities.” I learned some good things about myself, and that’s always nice to know. 

I did get lost a couple of times, and while I rode fewer bonus miles than in other races, I will be taking steps to make staying on course easier. Future trips will use a gps that I can read in bright sunlight, that use a better interface, but still work in the cold. In a perfect world, I would find a way to keep my reading glasses from ever fogging, but I managed that at least reasonably well. One of the stick-on magnifying lenses on my sunglasses fell off too, so there’s room to improve.

When I see how much my power and speed have improved in the last year, I am inclined to believe that there is room to improve that as well. My new friend Beth (we got lost together, or rather, I got us lost on our first night) could easily ride away from me, as could many others, and that’s just a testament to the work they’ve done to be that fast. I may never be the fastest, but I will continue to work at being less slow.

In spite of all my food success, I did finish with the same bags of gummy bears that I started with. You’d think I would have learned that lesson long ago. “Don’t bring gummies, you don’t like them!”