Racing Through the Polar Vortex

Remember the polar vortex and those subzero temperatures that plagued vast swaths of the United States last week? While much of the country was hibernating with hot cocoa, 146 athletes were competing in a 135-mile race in northern Minnesota.

The temperature at the start line, in International Falls, Minn., was minus 15 degrees Fahrenheit with wind chills reaching 55 below.

The athletes, who could run, bike or ski the Arrowhead 135, wouldn’t have it any other way.

“People want a hard race,” Ken Krueger, the Arrowhead 135 race director, said. “If we have an easy year, they feel cheated. They want to come here for the bragging rights. But I don’t honestly know if this was our coldest Arrowhead race. I think temperatures were colder in 2007.”

The finish rate has been as low as 20 percent and as high as 82 percent, he said. This year, 36 percent of the starters, or 52 people, finished the race by the 60-hour cutoff time.

Athletes must apply to compete in the grueling race, which proudly calls itself one of the 50 toughest races in the world. They also must carry all of their own gear from a list of required items, including a stove and a tent.

Selected athletes travel from all parts of the world to compete, including a group of Brazilians who said they trained for the Minnesota conditions in commercial freezers.

The New York Times spoke with John Storkamp, who finished fourth this year after winning last year’s race. Why him? In a word — experience. It was his 14th Arrowhead 135.

Let’s start with the obvious: Why?

A good friend of mine created the race in 2005 and convinced me to do it in 2006. It’s a winter tradition to keep me running through the winter so I’m in shape to go out and do something like this. But you are surrounded by people that understand it, so you spend very little time making the case why you would do it. Maybe that’s kind of the beauty of it. It becomes a new norm and it becomes relatively normal for people to show up year in and year out to do this. I guess the easiest explanation is everyone has their kind of mountain to climb.

Did this year’s polar vortex change your outlook or strategy in the race?

Looking at the forecast doesn’t change much in terms of whether I’m going to do the race. But the more challenging the conditions, the more I focus on taking the best care of myself as possible. I won the race last year, but just threw the competitive element out the window this year and focused on doing things early in the race to set myself up for success to finish safely.

No matter what the conditions, there are always times during an event like this where you think that you would like to be inside and warm and done and no longer doing this, and that’s just one of the challenges.

What does an “unsupported” race mean in these conditions?

The fact that it’s self-supported is a big ethos of the race. There are snowmobilers checking in with people giving them the opportunity to bail out of the race. But the goal is getting yourself to help if you need it. You have to have all the supplies with you, so that if you are no longer mobile, if you are too tired or dehydrated, you can take reprieve from the elements.

How much, and how often, are you eating?

You can’t stop moving in these temperatures, so the most important thing is to really focus on your nutrition. You are eating and drinking pretty much continuously through the event. If 15 minutes go by and you haven’t eaten, it’s probably time to start eating again. You are trying to eat 6,000 to 7,000 calories every 12 hours, the most calorie dense food with lowest water content with high fat content. The best foods are candy, chocolate, things with peanut butter, coconut — really anything that is really high in calories and fat that doesn’t freeze.

What kinds of athletes attempt this race?

In the first couple of years, very few people had the interest or the ability to do it. It takes years of experience to approach something like this. It’s what you would call a graduate level ultrarace. People who apply to run the race would ideally have a lot of experience, including some ultradistance races of 100 miles, under their belt. Experience with winter camping and mountaineering is just as important, if not more important. Over time and as the event has gone on, I think people have picked up tricks and trips for how they could prepare for doing something like this. Now people will make plans three, four, five years out to acquire the necessary gear and requisite training.

What’s the first thing you did after you finished?

I ate a lot of soup and I had a hot shower and got into bed. Finally getting to sleep is great.

This interview was edited and condensed for clarity.

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