END-SURE 2021 Race-Week Email

Submitted by Tim Bauer on Thu, 03/18/2021 - 12:14

This was sent out as an email to registered racers.

 

PRE-EVENT UPDATE

 

Not only have you willingly signed up to participate in an “ultra” event, but you have been living in an “ultra” event each day of your life. You have developed insight, strength, perspective, and adaptability. I am SURE assets will be used on Saturday!

 

General Items:

  • The Sheyenne National Grasslands and the North Country National Scenic Trail are Federal Government lands. Thus face coverings/masks are mandatory. Please be mindful if/when you gather near others along the journey. While on the trail you do not need to wear a mask. I trust your judgment to be mindful of yourself and others in light of the pandemic. 

  • Saturday appears to be an excellent weather day. The early spring weather, lack of snow, and enjoyment of being outside has made the Grasslands a popular destination. There will be others on horseback, bikes, and foot in the area. Stay alert to your surroundings. Horses may react to being surprised by your movement. Let riders know of your presence, especially if coming from behind.

  • Please park in the large lot next to Richland County Rd 23. There is plenty of space. There are no space markings. Park in ways that allow for access and exit. Parking in the Campground is limited. A vault toilet is a short walk from the parking lot. 

  • Please print, sign, and bring your waiver to on-site check-in. A limited number of waivers will be available on-site.

Specific Items:

  • Both distances will start and finish on the North Country Trail where it intersects the roadway into the Campground.

  • Both distances begin with a 4 mile loop which takes you east of the Campground. Upon returning to the Campground you may access vehicles to gather gear, food, beverage, clothing. Water will be available in jugs, as well as Hammer gels (apple-cinnamon + huckleberry) and some grab + go snacks. The next Aid Station (Middle Trailhead) is 13 miles. The miles will pass by as you enjoy the beauty of the prairies and oak savannahs!

  • 100k --- The Middle Trailhead Aid Station will have water, gels, fruit, snacks (sweet + salty), powdered drink mixes, etc. Most items will be prepackaged, grab+go. If you have specific drinks and foods, you can certainly carry those or label a bag to have them at that site. There will be a “tent toilet” available at this location. BE SURE to check-in with the volunteer. 

    • Continue across Ransom County Road 53 on the NCT. You will mainly be in open prairie. You will cross railroad tracks. The Trail should be easy to follow. Some directional arrows and pink “END” flags  will keep you on track. Also, the North County Trail had wooded posts approximately every .15 mile.  
    • The posts with mileage numbers are accurate. The Trail should also have pea gravel on it, if you are attempting to choose between a cattle trail and where you should run.
    • You will cross ND Highway 27, 9 miles from the Middle Trailhead. Water jugs and limited calories will be located at that crossing. At the West Trailhead you can access drop bags, tent toilet, water, calories, etc. AND in order to get your full mileage there is a .6 mile out and back straight west of that parking lot. 
    • It is a gravel road. Wooden stakes and pick “END” flags will indicate the turn around point.  BE SURE to check in with the volunteer!
    • Then it is back to the Campground, seeing the Trail from a new perspective. Highway 27 (unstaffed) and the Middle Trailhead Aid area will remain until all have passed.

  • 50k --- Please read the 1st paragraph for the 100k. This applies to your experience. Please know that you are responsible for you. This is your journey. We provide some basics regarding calories and hydration. We will cheer you on and support your efforts. Ultimately, it is your ultra experience.

 

Final Notes:

  • Trash bags will be available at the Campground, Middle Trailhead, and West Trailhead. With the prepackaged items there will be more trash than prior years. Please be mindful of wrappers and packets. The area is naturally scenic and almost litters free. We want to minimize our impact regarding trash. With your partnership that can easily become a reality.

  • At the FINISH we will not have the post-run feast of years prior. Being mindful of the ongoing pandemic this has been eliminated, hopefully to return in 2022. You are welcome to hang out and recover, bring your recovery food, etc. to enjoy.

  • Also, END-SURE & ENDracing swag will be available. These items are a way for us to express our gratitude for your efforts and participation! 

  • AND - copies of Eat Clean Run Dirty magazine will be available. It is a quarterly publication focusing on trail running and the outdoor community. One of their founding members is participating in the 100k. Check out their website. They also have podcasts. 

 

I look forward to seeing you on Saturday!

 

Tim Bauer

The END-WET 2021 Guest Swimmer is....

Submitted by Don on Wed, 03/03/2021 - 09:03

Hello everyone,

It is great to be back racing! I am more excited than I have been in a long time as I write this post. Before we announce who this year's Guest Swimmer is going to be, allow me to re-familiarize you with who I am. My name is Don Henderson and I am taking over direction of END-WET this year. Tim Bauer will be helping me take this on. Tim needs no introduction. smiley

I have worked with Beek the last several years to learn the ins and outs of what it takes to direct this race. I completed the race twice, in 2015 and 2016, and have been involved in some capacity every year since then. I look forward to this challenge!

Ok...now, let's introduce our Guest Swimmer. Typically, we send out a call for nominations. Some of you may have noticed that this year we didn't do that. We thought that we could break from "the norm" this year and do something that we've never done before.

First joining us in 2015 as our Guest Swimmer, and then returning in 2016 to do END-WET twice (once the day before on her own for fun and then the race itself the next day) as training swims. Introducing our first repeat Guest Swimmer - Sarah Thomas.

Sarah Thomas is an ultra-marathon swimmer who holds the current world record for the longest continuous, unassisted, non-wetsuit, swim done in current-neutral conditions. That record-breaking swim covered 104.6 miles over 67 hours and was completed in Lake Champlain in August of 2017. Shortly after completing this swim, Sarah was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer. She was just 35 years old. While undergoing aggressive cancer treatment, including chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation therapy, Sarah never gave up on her dream of doing a swim that most people thought was impossible. One year after completing her cancer treatments, Sarah did just that- becoming the first person to complete a four-way crossing of the English Channel in 54 hours and 10 minutes. 

Sarah lives near Denver, Colorado, with her husband Ryan, their two beagles and their rescue mutt. She is a full-time recruiter.  She also does keynote presentations for special events, where she shares life lessons that help her complete marathon swims and that helped her beat cancer. 

Other notable swims: 

  • Catalina Channel- 20 miles, 2010 
  • Manhattan Island Marathon Swim- 28.5 miles, 2011 
  • English Channel (single crossing)- 21 miles, 2012 
  • Double Lake Tahoe- 42 miles, 2013* 
  • Double Lake Memphremagog- 50 miles, 2013* 
  • Loch Ness- 22 miles, 2015** 
  • Lake Powell- 80 miles, 2016* 
  • Lake Champlain- 104.6 miles, 2017* 
  • English Channel Four Way- 84 miles, 2019* 
  • Kawai/Molokai Channel- 26 miles, 2021 

Click HERE For a full list of swim history. 

*First person to complete this swim
**Second American to complete this swim 

Sarah had agreed to join us last year until Covid ruined our plans so she is very excited to be a part of our event this year! She will give a talk to swimmers, volunteers and spectators on the Friday evening before the race and we hope you’ll help us welcome her back to North Dakota. 

Welcome back, Sarah!

END-SURE 2021 Registration is Open

Submitted by beek on Wed, 02/17/2021 - 11:39

Hi all,

Just a quick email announcement that END-SURE 2021 registration is open at https://endracing.com/end-sure.

This year there will be only 100K and 50K options. Total of 50 racers allowed. There are 2 spots left in 100K and 31 spots left in 50K as of this morning.

We gave people who were signed up in 2020 first chance at transferring to 2021. If you didn't get an email about this but would like to transfer a 2020 registration to 2021, please reply.

It's great to be racing again!

Thanks,

Beek

Extreme North Dakota Racing newsletter

Frozen Feat 2021 - ENDracing discount!

Submitted by beek on Sat, 01/30/2021 - 13:41
A message below from some friends...
----------------------------------------------------------------
 
Greetings from Grand Forks!

We hope this finds you and your family safe and healthy!

The Frozen Feat Race Committee would like to invite END racers to participate in our 14th Annual Event!  We are also offering you a $5 off discount code: END2021.

The Frozen Feat 5k/10K will start in Lincoln Drive Park and run along the greenway in Grand Forks, ND on Saturday, February 13th, 2021. Additionally, this race benefits the Special Olympics of Grand Forks. Since the race began in 2008, we have raised over $30,000 for this organization!

We look forward to seeing your smiling & frosty faces in February!
 

Happy running,

Frozen Feat Committee

Extreme North Dakota Racing newsletter

Social Media Navigation

Submitted by beek on Sat, 01/09/2021 - 14:13

Hi folks, it's 2021 and people are understandably more concerned than ever about privacy on and undue influence from social media. I (Beek) just wanted to run through a description of what we use to communicate with racers and how you might want to interact with us. I have certain opinions, but each race director may choose to use social media differently.

This website (https://endracing.com) is the canonical source of important information about our races unless superseded by an email from us. With multiple race directors it can be hard to keep everything up to date, but all the important stuff should be here. Comments are enabled on blog posts if you have questions. Drop a line on this post and tell me what you think.

Our Facebook page (https://facebook.com/endracing) is the main social media people use to interact with race directors and about races. We do not require anyone to have a Facebook account to get information about our races, but network effects understandably drive a lot of racer focus in this direction. Facebook events provide an area for people to discuss races, but are unfortunately not easy to access for those without accounts.

We also push a fair bit of information to our Twitter account (https://twitter.com/endracing) and will respond to questions or RTs. The more you interact with us there, the more stuff we'll tweet. Twitter also provides an easy way to provide event updates, and event discussion can happen through the use of hashtags like #wildermantri or #endwet.

Our Instagram account (https://instagram.com/endracing_gf/) is used intermittently. Some people love it, some people hate it.

We use YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/user/endracing) to host videos and that's about it. If you have a video from one of our races and want to share it, we can add it to our curated playlists. The same goes for Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/endracing/albums), which has tons of great Wes Peck photos.

If you're concerned about privacy, ads, or other nefarious use of your data, ENDracing also has an account (https://mspsocial.net/@endracing) on Mastodon. Give us a follow and a mention and we'll follow back. Brands aren't always welcomed for "brand activity" on Mastodon, but we're mainly interested in interacting with racers rather than advertising.

[Technobabble break: Mastodon (https://joinmastodon.org/) is a Twitter-like microblogging platform that is part of the Fediverse (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fediverse). That's a lot of jargon, but the key point is that you can view all of our posts from the web without logging in (similar to Twitter) and also interact with our account from any Fediverse account (Mastodon, Pleroma, Pixelfed, Friendica, Diaspora, etc.). Rather than Google/Facebook/Twitter owning the whole social network, it's controlled by individual server administrators. If this sounds intriguing but still have questions, let me (Beek) know and I can help.]

We tried a traditional message board for a short period; if there is interest we could bring that back. All it required was an email address to make an account and we have no plans to sell your data.

If you don't use social media (even public website comments), you can always email us (hello@endracing.com) and we'll try to help.

Hopefully this 1) clears some things up about what social media is required to get information about our races (none!) and 2) provides some alternatives to Facebook if you don't have an account but want to be social. See you out there!

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