I’m way overdue with an update on the 2021 AETR. I apologize that it is coming just three weeks out from the race, but a lot has been happening the last couple of weeks that affect the AETR. Not least, of course, is the pandemic and the ever-shifting mandates, vaccines, etc.!

But the race is on! At times it seemed like it just wouldn’t…just couldn’t…happen. I was nervous about UAF and what they would want as a mitigation plan. But they’ve been stellar to work with…makes me proud for our home town university. And there have been many people who have stepped up to help make AETR happen. Thank you to you all!

We have put together a COVID-19 Mitigation Plan, which UAF has provisionally approved.

But there are some changes to this year’s race that we need to make, in addition to what is spelled out in the COVID-19 Mitigation Plan (please read it!):

• The deadline for registration is now a little earlier, one week before the event, on Friday, May 28, at midnight. This is to accommodate the added work we’ll need to do to get everything organized in time.
• There will be no BBQ or post-race awards. It’s just far too difficult to do this safely away from a kitchen with water and ways to keep things clean and sanitary. And people shouldn’t linger after the race anyway. We’ll mail prizes the week after the event.
• We won’t have a race shirt this year. I’m really sorry about this one, but the race just didn’t come together in time to place the order. If this is the first time you’ve done the AETR and would really like a shirt, email me at don@donkiely.com with your gender and size, and I’ll see if I have one from a prior year that will fit. My sincere apologies if not.
• The aid station will be a bit sparser than in previous years. Everything will be pre-packaged, either commercially or in baggies that our volunteers lovingly and safely put together ahead of time. If you touch it, you take it. But thanks to the volunteer who took on this job, there will be some nice surprises. There will be fluids: certainly water, probably PowerAde, maybe other.
• There will be no remote aid station. We just can’t monitor that often enough and keep it clean.
• Please keep support crews to a bare minimum. We don’t want you to lack support, but we also need to minimize the number of people around the start/finish area. (If you bring too large a crew we might put them to work on the race! 🙂 And feel free to use a pacer, as usual, particularly late in your race.

Okay, so here’s the thing. The 2021 AETR is going to be pretty different in fundamental ways, while keeping as much of its personality as we possibly can. But runners are not going to get as much support as in previous years; we just can’t do it safely. So, if you’re registered and change your mind about doing the race, for any reason (you don’t even need to tell me why), email me at don@donkiely.com, and I’ll cancel your registration and refund your fee (no deferrals; I don’t want to hold your money for another year!). I’ll process the refunds within a week to ten days after the race, in early June. But you must cancel by Friday, May 28 at midnight ADT (when registration closes) to get the refund.

And the other thing is that we’re not going to spend all the money we typically would. Shirts, food for the BBQ, some of the fancier fare at the aid station, etc. Much as I’d like to use the surplus to make a larger donation to the UAF West Ridge trails, I think the only reasonable thing to do would be to refund some portion of the registration fee. So that’s what I’ll do. Please give me some time though to get that done after the AETR; it’s going to be some work! Alternatively, let me know if you’d like me to just give your portion to the UAF West Ridge trails anyway. And thank you for supporting trails!

As always, please let me know your thoughts on all this. Best way is to email me at don@donkiely.com.

I’m happy to report that registration is now open for the 2021 Alaska Endurance Trail Run! We are proceeding under the assumption that the race will happen, unless the realities of COVID-19 again stop us. With the rate of vaccinations accelerating, we remain optimistic.

Registration information is on the Registration page.

Please note: If you deferred from the cancelled 2020 race to 2021, please register with the same email address as you used to register last year (that should be your login user name). That way, the discount for whatever you paid for 2020 will appear at checkout. At least, that is how UltraSignup tells me it should work! Email me if you have any problems.

I can’t wait to see everyone the first weekend in June! And get your vaccination as soon as you’re able!

I’m sorry to have to announce this, but the 2020 Alaska Endurance Trail Run is cancelled. Although Alaska’s COVID-19 curve seems to be flattening, we’re still deep in the pandemic, and I just don’t see a way to safely hold the AETR this year. On top of that, UAF currently has mandates in place until May 16 that would prevent it from occurring in anything close to resembling its current form. And it is quite possible (likely?) that those will be extended into June and beyond.

You have a couple of options:

• Defer until 2021, scheduled for June 4-5. This would protect you against any price increases (not that we’re planning any at this point).
• Get a full refund, excluding Ultrasignup fees.

AETR will absorb the relatively small expenses we’ve already had (we held off on the larger expenses, thankfully). But if you’d like to contribute toward those, we’d really appreciate it. As guidance, if everyone chipped in about 10% of your fee, it would cover those expenses. But please don’t feel obligated; I know times are tough right now for all of us.

If you’re registered, please let us know your choice as soon as you can. Please include your name as you registered and the email you used, to make sure I record your decision correctly! For refunds, please let me know how to refund the money. I can mail checks, or send it via PayPal or Venmo, as long as there is no fee. Please give me a little time to process everything!

Anyone I’ve not heard from by May 15th, I’ll put you down to defer to next year.

Huge thanks to everyone who provided feedback about this decision. I really really appreciate it.

Stay healthy and keep moving! See you next year.

Don

I’ve been getting a few questions about whether AETR is going to happen this year.

I’m afraid that I don’t really have any idea yet. It’s far enough out that I’m hopeful that we’ll be through the worst of the pandemic, and that the AETR will happen. That’s certainly our plan.

But it’s all just too much in the air right now. As of 5PM on Saturday, 28 March, Alaska is under a shelter-in-place mandate, and things are still getting way worse. And because the AETR happens on the University of Alaska Fairbanks trails, we have to follow their rules for gatherings.

One of the biggest problems is the aid station. We’ve always tried to practice good hygiene there, but it would be hard to keep it clean and disinfected with all the things that many people touch. We could use disposable everything, but that makes the event pretty wasteful.

But it’s still a gathering of way too many people during a pandemic, even though runners out on the trail are generally practicing good physical distancing (what used to be called social distancing).

It would be nearly impossible to postpone AETR to later in the summer, since Fairbanks has so many running events, and I’ve always tried to not infringe on other ultras in Alaska.

If we cancel, we’ll certainly have some kind(s) of refund or deferral options. We’ll figure that out as we get closer to making a final decision. I’m trying to hold off on some of our bigger purchases, but can’t for too much longer.

In other words, I have no idea about whether AETR is going to happen. We’re on uncharted ground here. We certainly need to make a decision by 1 May, but I’m hoping there will be enough clarity to make a decision long before that.

If you have any thoughts about all this, please email me at don@donkiely.com.

In the meantime, be socially responsible and stay healthy! And keep running!

Don

We’re happy to announce that registration is open for the 2019 Alaska Endurance Trail Run. New for this year is that 12-hour runners can start at either 8PM Friday or 8AM Saturday. 6-hour runners can still start at either 8AM or 2PM Saturday. Other than one tweak, the prices are the same as for 2018.

Get all the details on the Registration page.