Max Romey X Susitna 100
If you have been following the “sketchy” story of Max Romey, then you may already know he has an innate curiosity and a healthy sense for adventure. He never leaves home without a sketchbook and small kit of watercolor supplies. Furthermore, if it’s winter, he is almost always on his kicksled!
Now, depending on where you reside in the world, you may or may not know what a kicksled is. It’s origins date back to the mid-late 1800s and the concept brought to life by the people of the Nordic regions of Europe (Sweden, Finland and Norway). It was, and continues to be, an effective way to get around in the winter months.
For Max, once Alaska is blanketed in snow, he puts more miles on his kicksled than his car! It’s how he takes Kip for long “walks,” fetches supplies in town and a “mobile studio” for all those wintery paintings we have all come to love.
Therefore, with his deep roots tied to endurance trail running, and documenting the journeys of some of the world’s most accomplished ultra-athletes — it should not be too much of a surprise that Max felt inspired to tackle one of the most challenging ultra-events in his home state of Alaska — Susitna 100.
UPDATE : Max completed the challenge Sunday, February 18, 2024 @5:30 PM Alaska Time. You can skip down to his post-race musings.
At the time of this writing, Max was on his way to the start of this event and would be without the means to share real-time updates. We would be receiving periodical news via his Garmin InReach, letting family know he’s safe and sound. Otherwise, Max was on his own in the backcountry of Alaskan wilderness… in the winter!
While we all anxiously awaited news, I pulled together a few links to learn more about the history of this race and how to get started with a kicksled (which is officially on my personal bucket list!).
Ski, bike or run in Alaska’s 100-mile call of the wild (source CNN)
What is Kicksledding? (source Kicksled Alaska)
About the type of Kicksled Max will be using in the Susitna 100 (source Esla Kicksleds)
RACE UPDATES (as they were received from Max’s Garmin InReach):
Max’s race started at 9:00 AM Alaska Time on February 17, 2024.
12:00 PM Alaska Time = Max should be sliding into the 80-mile checkpoint at Cow Lake Cabin any moment, if he hasn’t already. From there it’s 10-miles between the final checkpoint and the subsequent finish where he will be met by his family! I’ve been crunching some numbers 🤓 and for those following along, best guess for an ETA might be sometime between 7:30-9:00 6:30-7:30 PM Alaska Time 🧐 (He’s cruising since he left the 90-mile checkpoint!). I’m going to leave this here for when Max finishes and we’ll see how close I was!
Event photos of Max by Andy Romang!
If you share any of these photos on Instagram pretty please be sure to also tag/credit the photographer (at)andy_romang__photography
2:00 PM Alaska Time = If you are following along via the Susitna 100 Live Tracker, it appears that Max’s In/Out times were either not recorded at Cow Lake Checkpoint [CL], or have not been updated. But his Garmin tracker shows that he did in fact pass through the 80-mile checkpoint, and is well on his way to the 90-mile checkpoint at the time of this writing.
Each blue dot is recorded every 10-minutes, and it’s been fascinating to see the stretches where he must be on a downward slope and cruising along (longer blue bar), verses a shorter bar that suggest it was either a technical bit of terrain or an upward push.
Lastly, a check of the weather shows he’s kicksledding through a snow globe, which mixed perception and likely some rain for the last 10-miles of his adventure.
4:00 PM Alaska Time = Max has left the 90-mile checkpoint and is on his way to the finish!!! 🤩 Here’s hoping the line between each blue dot update is long, and it’s a downhill sled back to Happy Trails Kennel. Here’s also hoping I am wrong and he finishes early, because the weather looks like 🦨!
04:25 PM Alaska Time = Max has clearly found an extra gear! He left the 90-mile checkpoint at 3:42 PM AK Time… he’s wasting no time and I’m tossing my math out the window! GO MAX GO!!!!
NOTE from Jennifer: Thank you for following along! Below you will find a post-race musing from Max!
Honestly by the time I'm no longer sore, it will probably have sunk in. Though, at this point I'm just left with this feeling of the scale of everything, and just how cool it is. How big it is… yet how small it is to DO something so big.
This was my first 100-mile event as a participant. When you are there and you're putting it all together it seems like this huge giant big scary thing you can never complete. Then when you start you're just focused on all these little tiny things. These little small things, and then by the time you finish you look back up and realize the small things completed a huge giant thing! But the whole time you never saw the huge thing, just all the small things.
It really does feel kind of like a painting, where you are just lost in the little brush strokes and like all these little tiny decisions and details. Yet the big picture you never really see. You imagine it at the beginning. You see it at the end. Though you never really see it fully in the middle; it's just held in your mind the whole time. That's exactly what this was like, except it’s going to to hurt a lot more in my legs!
The hardest part was at night, it was just so dark I wasn't able to get a lot of food in. Which was really tough. There's no one around, it was really slow and I was really cold. I was falling asleep while walking! I was so tired there's like miles, like 10 to 15 miles, about 3 hours before I would be able to get to someplace warm. It was just really rough.
Those those little steps were really hard to take because it felt like there would be a million more steps before anything would get better. It didn't get better for like hours! But then you just kind of walk your way through the rough patch. During that time I especially remember seeing these big puffy trees covered with snow. It looked like everything had a pillow on it and it seemed so unfair! Just pillows everywhere and I couldn't lay down on one!
Feeling like that was pretty tough until I did get somewhere warm and able to get a warm thing to eat [at the 63-mile check-oint]. I was then actually able to rest for about an hour, and that kind of changed and reset everything. I was through the hardest part.
The best parts is it was just really cool! The landscape was really incredible. To be able to be out in that landscape for so long and see everything slowly change. To see the full sunrise.. sunset.. sunrise... sunset… was amazing! To be out in the outdoors like that.
Then I think the people. Being around the other participants and volunteers. When you saw someone. When you were able to connect to somebody, being able to talk to new people. That was what was so cool! It's so hard to do things alone, but when you're around people and when you're with people even though this is a solo event — knowing we are all going in the same direction is amazing!
These feel like broad general details of my experience. I think all the deeply personal moments are still locked up in my sore muscles and will reveal themselves in the days, weeks ahead.
I did make some sketches! I will flush those out as my schedule allows (keep an eye to @trailboundsketches on Instagram). My fingers never got too cold but it was a pretty warm day all things considered. This was a really big physical endeavor made up of bunch of little things and I'm trying to think back in the memory on some key moments, but all I can think of is all these little tiny details like those darn snowy pillows I couldn’t curl-up on in the middle of the night.
Thank you to everyone near and far, across all platforms and time-zones who helped cheer me on for over 32-hours! My family and team helped share some of them when I had a touch of cell service and they made a huge difference! Just imagine, if this Trailbound Sketches Community can see me through my first 100-mile winter adventure, what could it do for each other?
— Max