She threw a 5 hour blizzard and near white out conditions at us on the first day. I had never seen anything like this ever. It was other worldly. The closest I had seen to something like this was in a movie and they end up eating each other. It snowed 24 hrs of the time I was out on the course. The consensus among the race veterans was that this was the worst conditions the race has ever seen in the 20 years it has been in existence. I relied heavily on my four snow runs of experience and mostly on my suffering talent to make it 68 miles in 34 hours.
Unfortunately, with heavy snow on the trail, heavy snow falling , hypothermia creeping in on me ( My hands were swollen and blue), and the toll of pulling a 40 pound sled for over almost a day and a half, my pace had slowed to over 31 minutes a mile making it impossible for me to make the next check point before the cutoff. When they took me off the course they had to put me in a snow suit because once I stopped, my system was so depleted that at that point full blown hypothermia did set in. I, along with my new friend Ron ( Ron has finished the race 9 times. This is the first time he didn’t finish.) made it the farthest of anyone who didn’t finish. The final count of the 70 people who started the Susitna 100 only 32 finished with the majority being in the skiing division. In the running division 23 started and only 10 finished. In closing that was one Hell of a RACE!!! I loved it in the way only people who do this stuff will understand!!! I will efinitely be back next year as I have some unfinished business with the FROZEN TUNDRA!!!!
