Dear friends and family,
Today started out difficult. I hadn’t heard anything from him in over 24 hours and the ITI website is very slow in updating the racers progress. I was feeling frustrated and worried, but FINALLY he called at 11:00 this morning around mile 100 and he was running with a new friend named Adam. He thought he had left his satellite phone at a previous checkpoint and was using Adam’s sat. phone so we only talked for a minute. Hearing his voice was good, but I could hear the fatigue in his voice as well. I asked him how he was doing and he said good, but I could tell there were some issues. I asked him what was causing him trouble and he said he had a few blisters, not to worry. (Yeah, right!)
I wished him well and told him we love him and are cheering for him. I also told him about the ITI message board which anyone can leave messages on and at various checkpoints he will be able to read messages from friends and family. Please take a minute and send him some encouragement. It is really easy and you don’t have to set up an account, just post a message!
I was feeling much better about the situation after speaking with him. I was able to go about my day and visit some friends which helped get my mind off of the worrying. Then, at 1:30pm I received another call from him. This time he was using Adam’s cell phone, which miraculously had reception. We were able to talk for a bit longer and I tried to think of important questions to ask him. He told me “Just don’t ask how I’m feeling or if I’m tired!” They were at the Shell Lake checkpoint (mile 110) and he didn’t realize that they were already that far. Some fatigue and delirium had obviously set in a bit because he didn’t believe me that he was indeed at mile 110. He told me he had slept for one hour at mile 60, and three hours at mile 78. He had slept a total of 4 hours plus the time he spent refueling and resting was a total of 8 hours. Total time into the race at that point was almost 48 hours.
Next I asked about the snow conditions. He said the temp. was in the low 20’s and the snow wasn’t too difficult to run in. I also asked about his food situation. He needs to take in 5000 calories a day in these conditions and he felt he was getting the fuel he needed. He also said he purchased a couple of meals ready to eat (MRE’s) at one of the checkpoints so he felt sufficiently supplied.
He and Adam were planning on pushing through to the next checkpoint throughout the evening and hoping to reach the Finger Lake checkpoint (mile 133) by midnight tonight. He then told me that he had found his satellite phone and hadn’t left it at mile 90 after all. He promised to call tomorrow!
No photos received today, but I thought you’d find these links interesting:
- You can read more about the course and see pictures of the checkpoints, which I thought was very interesting and helps me feel more connected to what he is going through. http://www.alaskaultrasport.com/route_description.html
- Here’s a link again for the message boards. Please leave him a message 🙂 http://2013iti.websitetoolbox.com/post/Brandon-Lott-6227224
- One question we get a lot is “Why would he want to run this race?” It’s hard to explain, but this article is pretty interesting: http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/iditarod-trail-invitational-why-would-anybody-race-it
Once again, we thank you all for your support and encouragement. When he ran his 200 miler in May 2012, the texts, messages, and cheers of those at home really strengthened him when he was feeling really low. We are grateful for your thoughts and prayers for safety.
Lots of love,
Marilyn Lott
P.S. There are 19 foot racers and he is currently in 8th place. He’s doing great!