Wednesday, December 21, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
31
Oregon couple prepares for harsh 135-mile winter race
By Victoria Jacobsen
The Bulletin
BEND (AP) — Chris and
Helen Scotch are not going
on an Arctic expedition this
winter, but if you took a peek
at their packing list you might
think so.
The Bend couple, both 39,
will travel to Minnesota this
January, each equipped with
a sled loaded with an insu-
lated sleeping bag, a camp-
ing stove, mittens and hats
to go with their puffy coats
and snowshoes, several days’
worth of food and water and
plenty of other safety gear.
Chris Scotch insists that
selecting all the essentials is
one of his favorite parts of
the Arrowhead 135, a 135-
mile race through northern
Minnesota, held each year
during the height of winter.
“People talk more about
the gear than the times;
nobody’s really thinking,
‘How am I going to finish
in 48 hours instead of 52
hours?” said Helen Scotch,
who has completed the race
three times. “It’s more,
how am I going to shed a
few pounds off my sled this
year? Should I go for water-
proof shoes versus breathable
shoes? If you look at any of
the (online) forums where
people are chatting, it’s all
about gear and how to main-
tain yourself through that
race. That’s where I think the
interest lies.”
Chris Scotch was born
in Oregon but spent much
of his childhood in northern
Minnesota, where he learned
to enjoy camping and explor-
ing the outdoors in the bitter
cold. Although he considered
competing at Arrowhead as
a bicyclist during its inaugu-
ral year in 2005, he finally
entered as a runner in 2011,
soon after he took up ultra-
running. While fewer than 50
percent of the 150 or so com-
petitors finish the race in a
typical year, Scotch finished
the race in 2011 and each
year he has entered since.
This year’s race, which
starts near the Canadian bor-
der in International Falls on
Jan. 31, will be his sixth.
Helen, who started running
seriously around the time she
moved from Ireland to the
Twin Cities in 2005, tried
Arrowhead for the first time
in 2014 after watching Chris
compete in 2011 and 2013.
“I’m never in danger of
winning a conventional trail
ultra. I’m just not that fast,”
Chris said. “I could luck into
winning a winter ultra.”
Arrowhead 135 is one of a
handful of “winter ultras,” or
long-distance races in which
participants can choose to
compete on foot, bike or ski,
where snow is expected and
cold is a given.
Competitors are required
to tow extensive gear and
supplies to help them survive
for several days in the ele-
ments (Chris and Helen said
their sleds typically weigh
35 pounds at the beginning
of the race, although lighter
travelers can get the total
weight under 30 pounds).
The Scotches are also race
directors for a similar race,
the 80- or 160-mile Tuscobia
Winter Ultra through north-
ern Wisconsin held in early
January. Racers who excel at
Arrowhead or Tuscobia may
earn a spot at the Iditarod
Trail Invitational, which fol-
lows the route of the iconic
dog sled race and includes
race distances up to 1,000
miles.
The Scotches explained
that the strategy needed to
complete — or even survive
— a winter ultra is vastly dif-
ferent from that of a typical
ultramarathon.
“You have to fix every-
thing now — don’t wait,”
Helen said at the couple’s
home in Bend last week.
“I think a lot of people
who got into trouble, it’s
because they put off stopping.
They think, just get to the
next shelter, next checkpoint,
and then I’ll fix it. But really,
in these races, if you’re get-
ting a little wet from sweat,
or too cold, too warm, or you
need food, need drink, do that
now. Don’t put it off. You
really should remember what
your body needs at all times,
because things spiral out of
control pretty quickly if you
don’t eat for a few hours.”
Competitors have 60
hours to cover the 135-mile
Arrowhead trail, where the
temperature during the race
often drops well below zero
degrees (“Don’t let any-
one tell you there’s no dif-
ference between 40 below
and 45 below, because you
can definitely feel it,” Chris
quipped). But extreme cold
is not the worst-case scenario
for racers.
“T h e w o r s t w e a t h e r
would not be 45 below, it
would be 25 degrees and wet
snow, because one year at
Arrowhead it was like that,”
Chris said, referring to the
2013 race, when just seven
of the 42 runners who started
the race reached the finish.
“It was like 6 to 8 inches of
really wet, heavy snow, so it’s
just harder to walk in, pull the
sled through, bike through.
Everything is just slower and
harder and wetter, and when
you get wet you can get hypo-
thermia more easily.”
Hypothermia and other
cold-related medical prob-
lems are real concerns for
competitors in the Arrowhead
and other winter ultra races.
The Arrowhead event website
clearly states that participants
who are not careful are at risk
of cold-weather injury (or
getting hit by a snowmobile),
and the Scotches said they
have seen competitors go to
the hospital with severe frost-
bite on their hands and feet.
“Before I did it for the first
time, no, I wasn’t thinking
this could be a life-changing
decision potentially, in terms
of health, because I was so
excited for the next thing,”
Chris said. “I was so excited
about the whole ultra experi-
ence, and to be able to do a
winter ultra, I wasn’t worried.
But I will say I was very, very
lucky, because it certainly
could have been a very bad
idea if things didn’t happen
to go just right for me. So I
should have been worried.”
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