The final Wild Winter Women ITI daily recap!
As we witness the last finisher stand beneath the famous burled arch in Nome, it feels very much like the end of the 2024 Iditarod Trail Invitational. Still, it is far from over for some, athletes begin their long journey home, volunteers and staff start the arduous process of buttoning the race up, and we, the Dot Watchers, try to get back to normal life albeit with a little more inspiration under our belts.
We wanted to send you off with a heartfelt thank you for coming on this journey with us, and gratitude to those who have spent the last 30 days writing our daily recaps. On the back end we research, discuss, and exchange information literally all day long, and the reports usually take several hours to write. It is too much for one person to do, so six women whose priceless experience and insight joined up to tell the story of this adventure as it played out. Even though they need no introduction, they humbly acquiesced to answering three questions; about their winter experience, why the ITI is special to them, and what they enjoyed about writing our daily recaps. Enjoy!
Jill Martindale:
I finished ITI in 2020 with Petr Ineman and Casey Fagerquist when everything was shutting down during the pandemic and the storm surge that broke the sea ice prohibited anyone else from finishing in Nome that year. Prior to that, I had raced the 350 mile to McGrath in 2018. I was the first woman to finish Jay P’s 200 mile Fat Pursuit, which they don’t offer any more (it is now a 200k). I have 3 Arrowhead 135 finishes (current women’s record), 3 Tuscobia 160 finishes, 2 Polar Roll Ultra finishes, 1 White Mountains 100 finish, and several multi-day winter bike-packing trips under my belt. I also have 3 Arrowhead 135 DNF’s and 1 Fat Pursuit 200 mile DNF - I learned more from not finishing those events than I have finishing them!
Alaska is sort of the great last frontier. The ruggedness, the raw and brutal wild, the beautiful snowy landscape that not many get to witness it’s all so alluring to me. The locals who live along the historic Iditarod trail are incredibly generous and make me feel so fortunate to be experiencing this little piece of the world. I can’t wait to make it back.
For me, reminiscing about my time on the trail is one thing that I enjoy whole-heartedly about writing the ITI recaps. I also really love that the daily recaps are written with female athletes in mind! So many times news articles or the media highlight the men, with the women feeling like an afterthought or like a lesser portion of the adventure. When I was interviewed after my ITI 1000 finish, some reporters thought it important to ask about my husband, while Petr and Casey were asked other questions and not what their spouses thought of them spending a month out in the cold. I love that Leah Gruhn began writing the WWW recaps with the motivation of bringing women to the forefront, and I’ve loved watching Leah traverse the trail and watching her dot each day. The community and kinship built out there is incredible and these recaps have helped to strengthen those bonds between the athletes on the trail and those who have experienced it in the past (or who will get out there in the future!)
Amber Crawford
My winter experience began with short bike races that got progressively longer including several finishes in 100 mile races like White Mountains 100 and Susitna 100. An injury prevented me from doing the ITI on bike in 2020 so I decided to do it on foot. During that race I hatched the idea to ski in 2021, and finally I biked it in 2022. I believe having experienced the trail in so many different ways gives me a unique perspective.
Writing race recaps gives all of us the opportunity to nerd out on the ITI, and it’s a lot of fun to dig into different aspects of the ITI, and also winter endurance racing in general, winter survival, and many other unexpected side topics. We often don’t know where the next day of writing will take the story, which is a lot of fun! Scratching from a race is hard, and after scratching this year the updates were a great way to give back and stay involved with this community.
Carole Holley
My winter experience started doing the Little Su on a mountain bike in 2008. After pushing my bike for nearly 10 hours, I decided that if I was going to continue enjoying winter ultramarathons, I’d prefer to not do it hauling around an occasionally-rolling luggage rack. I then went on to enjoy the Susitna 100 several times, White Mountains 100, and finish two ITI 350s.
I first moved to Alaska in 2001 where to Galena on the Northern Route of the Iditarod Trail. I remember while I was volunteering for the sled dog event one year, seeing this person biking along the Yukon River and asking folks if I was imagining it. And the response was that there were these “crazy people” who would bike the Trail. When I moved to Anchorage in 2006, I was lucky enough to become friends with some of those crazy people who lured a Florida gal into a love for winter ultramarathons.
I enjoyed connecting with an awesome bunch of female athletes who love this race as much as I do.
Kori Marchowsky
Until a few years ago my winter experience was not race-related, but focused on multi-day trips traveling to remote places in the mountains on foot or skis. Then in 2015, winter biking came into my life. I have since completed the Homer Epic, the Susitna 100 twice and the ITI to McGrath in 2023, all on my bike.
The history of the trail, the idea of traveling through the Alaska Range and interior and northwest Alaska in winter, the communities along the trail, the race community itself…it all comes together in a very unique and special way to create a powerful experience not just for racers but for everyone involved.
I loved getting to dive into the details of this race and its people with some truly inspiring women. I only wrote a couple of recaps and was a rookie writer amongst some very experienced and talented people in this group. I thought this would be a way to give back to this community.
Jill Homer
When I moved to Homer, Alaska, in 2005, I was convinced I wouldn’t survive the long, dark winters unless I took up a winter sport. What I discovered was fat biking and endurance racing on the Iditarod Trail — such an enchanting and audacious idea that it more or less took over my life. I made it my goal to ride the ITI 350 and did so in 2008. I’ve since been back six more times. I’m a two-time finisher of the 350 on a bike, twice on foot, and in 2016 I rode my bike to Nome. I also have two DNFs.
My husband, Beat, also became enamored with the endeavor and just completed his eighth walk to Nome. There’s something magical about the Iditarod Trail — a place so relentlessly challenging and remote that you have to gaze deep into the darkness just to get through it. And yet it’s also a place of beauty, joy and kindness. Some of the most generous people I’ve met live in this harsh and unforgiving place.
I was grateful for the opportunity to write recaps since I already obsessively follow the race and its little dots — specifically Beat’s. It was wonderful to get to know more about the folks out racing this year, as well as the other women participating in the recaps. The discussion threads were gold! It was a landmark year for the ITI and I was glad to be a small part of it.
Kari Gibbons
Two time finisher of the ITI 350, the pandemic year and the Out and Back which was a true 350. A nice pile of finishes in our Midwest Winter Ultras but I learn more from the DNF’s, of which I have many, not to brag. Founder of the Wild Winter Women Facebook Group, join us we’re fun!
ITI has a special place in my heart because of the remote beauty of Alaska. Additionally our interactions and connections with each other during the race are more acute, and that is very special to me. But I go out there to be alone in nature, and be pushed by nature, who may want to kill me but it’s nothing personal.
I learn so much much from each athlete, their story, what it took just to get here let alone a finish. We are all so different, and have different challenges and yet are so much the same. I absolutely love hyping women up and find it an easy task at ITI. Doing the recaps is important to me because I want to show how easy it is to have equal representation in sport, plus I love a good story, and we are never left wanting for a good story.
That is a wrap on ITI 2024! Special thanks to Kyle for reaching out, seeing the value in what we did in 2023, and letting us take the reins in 2024. Who will we be reporting on next year? Will you answer the call? Registration opens April 1st.