Question: After I frostbit my toes at
Arrowhead in 2007 how long did it take me to recover completely?
It seems that some interesting stuff happened at
Arrowhead this year. It was a tough year and that brings out the
best and worst in people. Actually, it's one of the reasons I go. I
want to see myself at my best and at my worst. I want to learn what
I am capable of and where my limits are. Sometimes those limits are
physical, but more often they are mental. Failure to make good decisions
is a case of pushing yourself beyond your mental limits.
First off I should point out that I
don't know all of the parties involved in the issues at Arrowhead
this year. I know a few of them. Nor was I there. I believe that some people made
mistakes and that they were just that, mistakes. It doesn't mean
that they are bad people. I don't think that they are “lacking in
character” or anything like that. At least they haven't given me
any reason to think so. If they are like anyone else at Arrowhead
then I am pretty sure that I like them. I have made some big mistakes at Arrowhead myself. Those mistakes were my fault and I think that I have owned up to
them. I hope that others can do the same. Maybe not today, but
after some thought.
When we enter races like the Arrowhead,
TransIowa, or Superior 100 we expect a little adventure. We expect
to come out of them with some crazy stories to tell. That's one of
the reasons we do it. In a sense we want to get ourselves in a
pickle and then get ourselves out again. We love to hear stories
about breaking a bone and still finishing a race. The thing is that
there are acceptable consequences and unacceptable ones.
Some acceptable consequences are:
- exhaustion
- soreness
- mild hallucinations
- using snow as toilet paper
- blisters
- a few days of limping around
- eating lots of junk food
- wear & tear on equipment
- bruises and scrapes
- accidents
We think that these things are okay and
we accept that they will happen. None of them (except accidents) are
particularly dangerous and we happily indulge in them.
Some unacceptable consequences are:
- frostbite
- dehydration
- bonking
- sunburn
- drinking your own (or someone else's) urine
- heat exhaustion
- giardia
These things are unacceptable,
dangerous, and there is no good reason that anyone entering into any
of these races should have to deal with them. As one friend of a
friend put it: “De-hy-dration. You did that to yourself.”
In a shorter race, even a 100 mile
gravel ride or 50k run, many of these worries simply don't come up.
You can push yourself to the limit and vomit from the exertion.
That's okay. It's acceptable in those races. You can cut corners
(so to speak), skip aid stations, dump your water before the final
sprint, all that good stuff. You take a calculated risk.
Endurance races, races that take more
than say 8 hours or take place in extreme conditions are different.
You don't know what will happen. You must know yourself well, know
the conditions well, and know the course well. Corners simply can
not safely be cut. You are taking a calculated risk just by entering
the race.
Arrowhead is billed as one of the
coldest races in the world. Some say it is one of the toughest. I
can't speak to that. I haven't been to all the races in the world.
What I do know is that -30f is no joke. Things happen fast at those
temperatures. They go from bad to worse without much warning. The
first thing to be is prepared. Have plenty of food. Plenty of
water. Know that you can use all of your required gear, including
your sleeping bag and stove.
Some people have said, “if you stop
at those temperatures you will die.” That is simply not true. If
you went through gear check you have all the tools necessary to
survive at those temperatures. When I got too tired to see straight
at Arrowhead in 2011 I pulled out my sleeping bag and pad and took a
nap at -40f. I was comfortable and it felt great. The same thing
goes for your stove. I have never had to melt water from snow during
Arrowhead, but I have done it in practice down to about -10f. It
takes a long time, it's true, and you should be in your sleeping bag
if it is especially cold out, but it can be done. Being prepared
means having the equipment, knowing how to use it, and just as
importantly being willing to use it. I said earlier on that making
mistakes is a case of beyond your mental limits. Being unwilling to
use your gear is being beyond your mental limits too.
If you read the reasons that I didn't
go to Arrowhead this year you know that one reason, perhaps the key
reason, was that I didn't want to be in a hurry. It sounds silly: I
didn't want to go to a race because I didn't want to be in a hurry.
Isn't racing about being in a hurry? No. Endurance racing is the
tortoise and the hare. It is festina lente. It is making the right decisions. If you are in too much of a hurry
to do things right then you have failed.
One of the things you must be willing
to do is re-evaluate your situation. If you are too focused on
winning, on beating someone else, or even on finishing then you will
not be willing to re-evaluate. If I had gone this year I would have
had a 48 hour time limit that I set for myself. That might
have been very realistic for me to accomplish on skis in a good year, but cold snow
makes for slow skis. I had to rethink what was likely. The only skier to finish this year finished in
54 hours and change. I have no doubt that he is a good skier.
I also have no doubt that he had to re-evaluate his expectations. In the end 60
hours probably felt like a realistic goal and anything faster was
gravy.
Well, I've gone on for too long here.
In brief what I want to say is: someone made a mistake and that
mistake led to unacceptable consequences. Once he put himself in
that position he had to get himself out and perhaps he did the right
thing then, in the short run, but the situation was totally avoidable and should not be celebrated.
Oh, and the answer to the question I
posed: I still haven't completely recovered, even after 7 years.
