Fittingly, an Alaskan won the 6th annual Arrowhead 135 Winter Ultramarathon.
In the first year anyone from Alaska participated, Jeff Oatley hustled past fellow Alaskan Peter Bassinger down the home stretch to win by 10 seconds. Oatley’s time was 16 hours, 17 minutes.
“It went well. Everyone was happy. Nobody got lost. Nobody got hurt too badly,” said race coordinator Pierre Ostor. “And what was really nice was the support from the people from International Falls.”
Of the 59 participants last year, only 24 finished in under 60 hours.
This year 61 out of the 102 finished.
The current record holder, David Pramann, finished third, about a minute behind the Alaskans.
Ken Krueger, the lone participant from International Falls, finished 20th in 30:25. This was his fourth race.
“It’s awesome,” Krueger said. “Just the people you meet. They had a really strong group from Alaska and this Dave Pramann is just a machine.”
