Here we are… 2 months out from the start of the 2026 Arrowhead Ultra, I thought it would be a good time to start sharing my journey as a rookie for this event… #arrowhead135rookie
According to the NIH, the definition of “ultra-endurance” includes physical endurance events that exceed 6 hours in duration. I’ve never considered myself part of this group and I’m not sure why I feel that way. I have completed a large number of 100-mile cycling events and managed to finish the Day Across Minnesota (DAMn), a 240+ mile gravel cycling event, more than once. All of those certainly took me longer than 6 hours to complete. Imposter syndrome? Maybe. We’ll come back to that.
In 2015 I was working as a Physical Therapist on the Burn Unit at HCMC in downtown Minneapolis, where I spent 6 years of my career. It was a Trauma 1 unit that saw the worst burns in the midwest. Folks were choppered in from Iowa, South Dakota, etc… In addition to treating burns, winter dealt us a fairly large caseload of frostbite victims. The majority of hospitalized frostbite victims were either unhoused, under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the incident, or struggled with mental illness. More often than not, these risk factors worked together to create a perfect storm. I can’t say that I ever treated any endurance athletes who suffered frostbite, but the cold doesn’t discriminate. Frostbite is frostbite, of varying degrees.
Regardless of the mechanism of injury, my job at a PT was to assess and treat mobility, among other things. This might start with bed exercises and culminate in going up a flight of stairs. One of the first and most painful tasks for any patient who is recovering from frostbite is when they place the affected limb lower than their heart. This places the extremities in a dependent position and allows gravity to do its job, rushing blood to the once deprived destinations. We start with “seconds” and progress to “minutes.” Patients have described this as the worst pain they have ever experienced. Screaming was heard.
It was during this time when I was reading a newspaper article about the Arrowhead 135. I was just a few years into gravel cycling, having completed Almazo (100 miles) and The Filthy 50. These happened during the warm months, mind you, so losing digits was of no concern. As I read the article, it highlighted the risks inherent to an event that claims to be held in the coldest lower-48 locale during the coldest part of the year. I recall uttering something along the lines of, “What a bunch of idiots.”
Well, 10 years later and I find myself on the starting list for 2026… lol