Ice road race, Yellowknife NT 3/25/12

So, I'm posting about this because i get the feeling that there aren't many other people here who would have had the opportunity to run in something like this.

I've been in Yellowknife for the past week for work, found out about the race and decided to register. This was pretty much just a novelty for me - i have been focusing on my 5k times for the last month, so i'm not putting in many long runs -- this may have been my longest since xmas.

Anywho, the route:

The course basically was a straight shot (return trip) from the city of Yellowknife NWT (if you watch the history channel, the first season of ice road truckers was filmed here. 'Ice Pilots' is also filmed here) to a native community called Detah on the other side of the bay. I made a ****ty google rendition:

Snow race - Google Maps (http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=21606402843421685 7025.0004bc1cfb3389b4168d 8&msa=0&ll=62.433972,-114.305076&spn=0.087066,0.347443)

For our time here we have a chartered helicopter, so i convinced our pilot to fly me over the route the day before:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s720x720/306562_10150688605634717_ 505344716_9101593_1397226 972_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/s720x720/540211_10150688606339717_ 505344716_9101595_7594614 9_n.jpg

Not really much to see, but it gives an idea of the... coldness of it.

How I prepared:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/s720x720/526005_10150688598749717_ 505344716_9101562_1936711 897_n.jpg

+

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/s720x720/525665_10150688598819717_ 505344716_9101563_1761124 786_n.jpg

=

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/s720x720/557353_10150688598984717_ 505344716_9101566_9409206 27_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/s720x720/554965_10150688598919717_ 505344716_9101565_1724848 797_n.jpg

These spikes costed ~ $20 and actually worked surprisingly well. I didn't know if they were going to hold up but i didn't have a single problem with them. Other than this i wore some spandex tights that I already had - worked well.

see:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/s720x720/552125_10150688613654717_ 505344716_9101612_1787540 563_n.jpg



The race:

Firstly, was only 14km(14.6 on my gps), i've done longer - but this had to be one of the hardest races i've ever done. This was mostly because 1) I went out the night before 2) The surface was impossibly inconsistent. There were loose snow sections, solid ice sections and all combinations of the two. 3) The routing (as you can see) is essentially one arrow straight 4 mile section. It made it really difficult to set small goals and tackle those when you can see so far ahead, and everything in between looks exactly the same. I was gunning for ~1h and it actually took me 1:08:14, however i don't particularly care about the time as i was doing a really easy pace.

I brought my phone along with me:

The start
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/s720x720/546688_10150688618329717_ 505344716_9101623_6243685 62_n.jpg

Out of the gate, we were literally running on snow
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/s720x720/554203_10150688619029717_ 505344716_9101625_1872049 742_n.jpg

On the actual ice road..
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/s720x720/547363_10150688620274717_ 505344716_9101628_1538291 778_n.jpg

Road surface..
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/s720x720/545756_10150688621059717_ 505344716_9101630_1055994 900_n.jpg

Bad picture, but there was a dog sled race going on at the same time beside the road
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s720x720/485354_10150688621759717_ 505344716_9101637_1364324 693_n.jpg

My phone died at some point on the way back so I didn't get any pictures of the finish, but it wasn't anything special.

Anywho, was a lot more fun than wasting away in my hotel room. Don't next me bros.

what were temps like?

ah, should have mentioned that.

conditions were actually pretty good all things considered. was about -5c (23f) but more importantly the wind was dead calm. i was kind of worried about the wind factor because the route was so exposed - but it was good

I always thought that the northern part of canadia was just empty, but theres tons of small towns up there...

go figure, why are you up there??

looks ummm interesting though? (would never do that)

Nice. When I lived in the Pribilof Islands (AK), conditions looked similar to that. This was back in the 90's so for traction we put sheet metal screws in the soles of our shoes. The sling things that you put on look pretty lightweight and more secure.

gj on that.

I always thought that the northern part of canadia was just empty, but theres tons of small towns up there...

go figure, why are you up there??

looks ummm interesting though? (would never do that)

there are some things up here - very few actual roads though. i end up having to come up here a fair bit - i can't say specifically why (this is tw) but i'm loosely connected to the mining and exploration industry.

The sling things that you put on look pretty lightweight and more secure.


They worked pretty well. I originally tried putting them on my mt10s but they didn't seem as secure. also, the spikes were a heck of a lot more noticeable through the minimal sole and i thought using them would leave me much more prone to hotspots/blisters

Very cool.

tight bro

lol @ "in yellowknife for the past week"

that's cool

seems like running on ice would be pretty harsh

so how was the race itself? how was running in spikes? did it impede you at all?

thanks for posting

that's cool

seems like running on ice would be pretty harsh

the bare ice was a *****. if you look in the pictures on the road, you'll see that towards the left hand side there was a somewhat snow covered part. this was easier to run on but as a result it was almost like running on the beach

so how was the race itself? how was running in spikes? did it impede you at all?


see above. the spikes worked pretty well in the sense that they were very grippy directly on the ice. however after a while of direct contact they would start to bother my feet and i'd need to move over to the snow covered part. they would have been worse in my mt10s.

the loose snow was the worst surface imaginable. what i imagine escaping quicksand to feel like

did everyone run in spikes or did anyone try just shoes?

did everyone run in spikes or did anyone try just shoes?

most people had some form of traction aid on.

i saw a couple people bail pretty badly so i'll go ahead and assume they didn't.