Journey To The ITI350

This winter I plan to embark on my first Iditarod Trail Invitational (ITI) race, my rookie year, to McGrath. This is a 350 mile race from Knik to McGrath via the Iditarod trail, human powered by bike, by foot or by ski. The race occurs following the Iron Dog snowmachine race and a week or teo before the Iditarod. This has been a goal since I heard about the race only about 4-5 years ago though, a wild idea at first that seemed impossible to ever achieve. That was about the same time I rode a fatbike for the first time- fresh snow, wrong tire pressure on a rented bike at Eklutna. That was the toughest, longest 3 miles of my life. We were hooked though and this lead to the purchase of my first fat bike. That was also about the time I joined the Soggy Bottom Gals and completed my first ever bike race- the Soggy Bottom. My life changed drastically that summer and I found myself crying and crushed on every ride I did with that group. Dead last and pushing threshold the entire time. Boy did I learn a lot though!! About other women in the sport, about myself, about bikes and navigating difficult terrain.

As you may have guessed from my Trout Lake story, discomfort and failure drive my desire to work harder and that was a Summer of growth. I have had so many more type 2 fun adventures since then and the same sense of accomplishment (after the fact) built up my drive for more, to oush harder and go farther.

A lot has changed since then- knowledge and experience more than quadrupled in just those few years as I targeted various qualifier races around Alaska and pushed myself to go farther and learn more about being self sufficient on a bike in the wild Alaskan winter world.

Blogging is new for me and I may not be good at it but here I am to share some of the stories and adventures I accumulated in my journey to ride the ITI. I shared my Trout Lake story first because it was already written down from when I shared it for STA’s Trail Tales event last winter. I enjoyed writing as a younger person and that endeavor reminded me of that creative outlet that I let slide away for other passions. I can’t say that I will be consistent in my writing and I do love details so you may get more information than you bargained for! Stories from past years, stories from new adventures this winter as I train for the biggest, hardest thing I have ever aimed to complete.

A blog about bikes. Riding bikes and camping.