Alaska Endurance Trail Run, 2026

Lights on the ski trail near FAOA2, 00:43 Saturday morning Introduction In 2024 I ran the 24-hour Alaska Endurance Trail Run and since then I’ve wanted to run it again to improve my distance. This year was the tenth running of the race and I signed up in mid-winter hoping to do better. Unfortunately, this was a terrible winter for training and I forget how little free time I have during track and field season, so I was under-trained, with very few weekly miles and no long distance runs to prepare my body for so much time on my feet. But I did have a sensible strategy to get to 12 total loops, 72 miles, which would have been one more six mile loop than I got in 2024. Instead of running for as many loops as I could, I planned to start off very slowly, reducing the pace at each loop and leaving myself plenty of time to complete the last full loop of the day. In 2024 I also spent too much time at the aid station, including losing almost an hour when I accidentally fell asleep in my tent.…