The Arrowhead 135 starts in International Falls and winds through 135 miles of roads, snowmobile trails, massive hills and lakes and ends at Fortune Bay Casino in Tower, Minn. The distance for the race is not that unusual for an ultra marathon. Sure, it's long, but there are longer ultras out there. The thing that makes this race particularly challenging are the elements. While the warm conditions at this year's race were an anomaly, it's standard fare to find starting time temperatures hovering around 20 below with athletes braving conditions that reach near 50 below at other points in the course. That's without the wind chill folks.

Another interesting tidbit about this race is that you can either run, bike or ski the 135 miles. Since conditions can get so extreme and checkpoints are often many miles apart, race officials require competitors to carry the following on them at all times: -20 degree Fahrenheit sleeping bag or colder rating, insulated sleeping pad, bivy sack or tent, fire starter, stove, eight ounces of fuel, a pot, two quarts of water in an insulated container, headlamp or flashlight, flashing LED lights on both the front and back of your sled or bike or on your back if you're skiing, whistle to call for your help "because your mouth is too numb to yell" and one day's worth of food at all-time, which amounts to 3,200 calories.

The race officials have good reasons for requiring all of that. With conditions averaging many degrees below zero, things can go wrong quickly in places that are miles from another human, warm shelter or road. For example, the shortest distance between checkpoints is 25 miles and the longest is 35 miles. You don't want to be stuck out in the wilderness without protection.

This year the weather was not so extreme.  Overnight lows dipped into only the teens and some sections of the race saw temperatures 60+ degrees warmer than last year. I was assigned to shoot the race for Minnesota Public Radio and was up pretty early Tuesday morning to catch racers making their way across frozen Elephant Lake to the Melgeorge's checkpoint. It was definitely fun to see how a race like this works and to see the amazing things these athletes were accomplishing. Here are a few of my favorite photos from this year's Arrowhead 135.

An Arrowhead 135 competitor makes his way across Elephant Lake early Tuesday morning near the Melgeorge's check-in point about 70 miles into the race.

Garrett Mulrooney of St. Paul, Minn. makes his way across Elephant Lake early Tuesday morning near the Melgeorge's check-in point about 70 miles into the race.

Chris Peters of Iowa makes his way across Elephant Lake early Tuesday morning near the Melgeorge's check-in point about 70 miles into the race. Peters dropped out of the race at Melgeorge's.

Chris Peters of Iowa makes his way across Elephant Lake early Tuesday morning near the Melgeorge's check-in point about 70 miles into the race. Peters dropped out of the race at Melgeorge's.

Jason Boon of St. Paul, Minn. makes his way across Elephant Lake early Tuesday morning near the Melgeorge's check-in point and the halfway mark of the Arrowhead 135 ultra marathon.

Heidi Peter of Lacey, Wash. makes her way across Elephant Lake early Tuesday morning near the Melgeorge's check-in point about 70 miles into the race.

Heidi Peter of Lacey, Wash. makes her way across Elephant Lake early Tuesday morning near the Melgeorge's check-in point about 70 miles into the race.

Runners, bikers and skiers sleep, eat, drink, talk and recover at a cabin serving as the check-in point at the Melgeorge's resort early Tuesday morning near Elephant Lake about ten miles north of Orr, Minn.

Lee Petyon of Edinburgh, United Kingdom gingerly takes off his socks to the site of a larger blister underneath the toenail on his big toe Tuesday morning at a cabin serving as the check-in point at the Melgeorge's resort early Tuesday morning near Elephant Lake about ten miles north of Orr, Minn. At this point, Peyton was 70 miles into the 135-mile race.

Lee Peyton's blistered and bruised feet after 70 miles of running over snow, ice and rocks during the Arrowhead 135 ultra marathon.

Lee Peyton of Edinburgh, United Kingdom winces as Sabine Couteau, a nurse from Grenoble, France, lances the toenail on the big toe of his left foot so fluid could drain from a blister beneath the toenail. A few minutes later, Couteau did the same for the big toe on Peyton's right foot. Petyon was recovering and resting at a cabin serving as the check-in point at the Melgeorge's resort early Tuesday morning near Elephant Lake about ten miles north of Orr, Minn.

LEFT: Chris Bollinger of Alaska approaches the finish line of the Arrowhead 135 ultra marathon Tuesday afternoon at Fortune Bay Casino in Tower, Minn. RIGHT: A light snowfall left snow behind on a mask situated atop a trail marker near the Ski Pulk checkpoint Tuesday afternoon during the Arrowhead 15 ultra marathon.

Charlie Farrow of Duluth, Minn. approaches the finish line of the Arrowhead 135 ultra marathon Tuesday afternoon at Fortune Bay Casino in Tower, Minn.

Charlie Farrow of Duluth, Minn. rests for a second after finishing the Arrowhead 135 ultra marathon Tuesday afternoon at Fortune Bay Casino in Tower, Minn.

Tom Lais (left) of Milwaukee, Wisc. and Craig Irving (right) of Cedar Rapids, Iowa approach the Ski Pulk checkpoint Tuesday afternoon during the Arrowhead 135 ultra marathon. The Ski Pulk checkpoint is 110 miles into the race and the last checkpoint before the finish.

Craig Irving of Cedar Rapids, Iowa had no issue with taking a few bites out of a burger from his backpack Tuesday afternoon at the Ski Pulk checkpoint. Irving bought the burger 26 hours before and 76 miles ago at the Gateway Store.

I'll start off this first post with a slideshow from the American Birkebeiner ski race that started out in Cable, WI and finished in Hayward, WI.  I've always heard about this race, but never been to it.  My coworker Clint Austin has photographed this race the past two  years since I moved to Duluth, but this year he was on vacation because he just had his kid.  That meant I was the one who had to get up at 4am and make the drive two hours to an airstrip in tiny Cable, WI for the start.

It was a snowy day so the drive was slow and my Garmin GPS unit took me through small county roads that definitely slowed down how long it would have taken had I stayed on a main highway, but I made it there in time and was actually the first media car in the lot when I rolled in at 630am.  After that it was nonstop madness trying to get all the shots I needed at the start, get out in time to get to the midpoint and find a parking spot to capture the leaders halfway through the race and then get back in the car and beat traffic into Hayward, find a parking spot and jockey for position among the 30 or so other photographers and videographers at the start.  It all worked out, but I'll admit I wasn't stress-free until reporter Jon Nowacki and I sat down for some lunch around 1pm.  Even after that, it was madness due to the Birkie website going down and the event managers not being able to provide me with bib numbers for the skiers I needed to identify in my captions, but after a few hours it all came back online and it was time to get down to work and this is what came of it...

It was a great time and ended up being a 17-hour workday when coupled with all the other stuff I had to complete back at the office.  The day was made even better by the fact that two of the finishes were photo finishes.  You can see just how close the finish of the female freestyle race was by the first two photos in the gallery.  You can also see how close the finish of the classic division was by the third photo in the gallery.  I was pretty happy with the images I got from both of those events.  Hopefully I'll get the chance to shoot this event again.

I'll be back here later this week with a slideshow of some of my favorite hockey images form this year.  It's that time of the year again when I find myself all over various rinks around Duluth shooting sectional hockey games.  This year it looks to be Duluth East and Hermantown as the top two area teams.  Wednesday and Thursday are the slots for both of the sectional finals, which will be held at the DECC in Duluth.

Thanks for visiting and reading my first blog post.  Hopefully all this made sense.  Again, leave any comments or questions or whatever in the comments section below.  I'll do my best to reply.  Thanks again!