Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Arrowhead Ultra

I must be out of my mind to even be thinking of this. . . . but it's been disturbingly intriguing:

Arrowhead 135 Mile Winter Ultra

"The Arrowhead Winter Ultra is a non-profit human powered ultramarathon covering 135 miles across the Arrowhead Region of Northern Minnesota from International Falls near the Canadian border to Tower, MN. The course follows a scenic, hilly, State multi-purpose trail under extreme winter conditions starting at 7am--Monday, February 6 through Wednesday night, 7pm--Feb. 8th, 2006.

Completing the course is no small feat as winter temperatures in this area of Minnesota have been known to reach a record -60F degrees. No wonder the locals have dubbed their town the "Icebox of the Nation" and "Frostbite Falls".

There will be one race check point serving hot soup and water at a cabin about the midway point by Myrtle Lake near the town of Orr. Otherwise, racers are fully self-supported with a cutoff time of 60 hours. Each racer is required to carry mandatory food, water and gear as outlined on the rules page to cover the 3 days and 2 nights outdoors."


Heh, heh, madness. . . . but winter camping sounds like fun every couple of years.

I think the thing that might save me is that the City of Lakes Loppet is the weekend before, and the Vasaloppet the weekend after. We'll see if we get some real snow this year for ski training.


File Under: Adventure Racing,

Sunday, November 20, 2005

Turkey Run

Did the Turkey Run 5k today. Felt quite good, but didn't want to go out too fast. Splits were 8:19, 8:02, and 7:48 - heh, definitely should have gone for a mile or two warmup before the race. Speaking of which, hands were quite cold (Note to self 30-35F in fall = gloves).

Turkey Run - 2005 - 5K Run/Walk
date: 11/20/2005
location: St Paul, MN

Robert Engberg
overall place: 136 out of 471
division place: 15 out of 26
gender place: 109 out of 230
time: 25:04
pace: 8:04

Summary number of finishers: 471
number of females: 241
number of males: 230
average time: 00:30:22

Monday, November 07, 2005

Dr. McCoy to Sickbay . . . .

. . . this has got to be a lethal dose of Star Trek:

The Ultimate Star Trek Collection

Saturday, November 05, 2005

Minnegoat Results

Very happy with this one. 23rd out of 42 against some very good competition. Still over an hour behind the leaders, but that's more a matter of motivation than speed or navigation.

MNOC Minnegoat 2006 Results


File Under: Adventure Racing,

Adventure Run Results

Our team finished 16th out of 20 or so teams on the long course. We did 4.4 miles and 11 control points in 1:27. The leaders finished in about 48 minutes. Hmmm . . . . We didn't spend too much time looking for control points, so I suppose the key is to run a little faster.

I'll have another opportunity tomorrow, at the MNOC Minnegoat. That's about 13km and 29 controls.

Minnesota Orienteering Club

Friday, November 04, 2005

Adventure Run

Racing tonight over in Wirth Park. Should be a good time.


Pioneer Press Article on Adventure Running


"What is an adventure run?

A mass start event with teams of 2/3/or 4 running through the night with flashlight and headlamps in an effort to locate control points using a provided map as quickly as possible. Some control point flags are located on trails and some are off trail. Its cunning running and a night raid all rolled into one."