When Iditarod Trail’s Iditarod trail sled dog race made nationwide, international and state-wide news in the last week, a different group of trail runners was out on the trail with the muses.
Miron Golfman from Anchorage completed the race in the Iditarod Trail Invitational in downtown Nome on Wednesday in the 12th minute at 12.51 p.m. The race, which is powered by humans, follows the route of the famous dog race.
It is the Iditarod Trail Invitational which is a bike ski, foot and bike race, begins at Knik Lake near Anchorage to McGrath, the town’s interior. McGrath and continues until and across the Bering Sea before arriving at end of the trail in Nome.
The race follows the Iditarod Trail, which is the oldest of the trails and the race, as per the race’s organizers, demands self-sufficiency as well as the ability to endure for up to thirty days, nights and frigid temperatures and harsh weather.
Golfer was able to leave Knik Lake on Feb. 26 and returned to Nome with a travel time of 6 days 21 hours, 5 mins. He had a resting period of 10 days 1 hour, 34 minutes. He averaged 5.9 mph when he was on the road and was able to cover an average 57.1 miles per day.
The conditions were treacherous right from the beginning, he claimed.
“We started our journey right into the our first night and it was below 30 degrees on the Yentna River. A majority of people got frostbite and were able to leave the scene immediately … On the second day we had this massive snowstorm, and we all battled this,” Golfman said. “We did manage to climb across and up into the Alaska Range before the snowstorm struck us however we were as everyone else battling the 80-mph winds and it was just whiteout and snowing.”
The weather was warmer on Monday, which provided a different obstacle to the trail as per Golfman.
“I recorded 48 degrees in my thermometer near the top in a single day, and then all of the slush turned into slush,” Golfman said. “I ended up spending nearly two days on my bike. My everything got wet as the next day it rained and I was riding for seven hours in rain. All of my gear was soaked.”
On his 9ZERO7 Lynxbike Golfman raced to collect money to support Ride to Endure. RIDE TO ENDURANCE initiative..
“This was the second year to race to support the Ride to Endure campaign, which is a charitable cause which I founded a few years ago,” Golfman said. “It raises funds and raising awareness about ALS Lou Gehrig’s Disease, also known as ALS.”
Golfman’s uncle has been six years old and fighting the illness. Golfman’s uncle has lived with him and served as the primary caregiver for him. It was the caretaking experience of him that encouraged Golfman to follow his dream of racing bikes.
An impressive 98 participants participated in this year’s event. Three bikers remained together the night before Iditarod racer Mike Williams, Jr. made his way under the arch burled in Nome.
