Whitehorse runner Greg Newby recently tackled the Denali 135 ultra marathon.

The race, which ran June 20-21, takes place on the Denali highway in Alaska.

“It’s not a highway that’s used for getting from place to place,” said Newby.

The race, actually 131 miles long, starts at Paxson, Alaska, and finishes just outside the town of Cantwell near the junction of the Denali Highway and Parks Highway.

This was the third time the race has been run, and the first for Newby.

It is also the longest race he has ran.

“I’ve done several 100-milers before and I did 104 miles in one of these backyard marathons a few years ago during COVID time. I did the first half outside and then the second half inside on treadmill.”

Newby did that race on July 11, 2020.

There were no pre-qualifying races for the Denali 135.

“You had to submit your running resume to the race director. He wanted to make sure this wasn’t your first ultra,” related Newby.

He described the race route.

“This was entirely on either paved road or gravel or sometimes dirt road. And as you can imagine, some of that was potholes and puddles and stuff like that. But it wasn’t like trail running, wasn’t track running either. It was on a road surface. And the Denali highway, because it’s drivable, it’s not extremely hilly. It’s pretty hilly, there’s a lot of constant up and downs, but it’s a little like the highways around here.”

Newby said there is a lot of “neat scenery” on the route.

“There’s a couple of lodges in the first half and campgrounds towards the end. “Otherwise, it’s just just you and the highway. Tremendous open vistas overlooking really, really big areas seeing the Denali mountain range … allegedly you can see Mount McKinley (Denali), which is the highest mountain in North America at one point, but we were socked in with rain and fog at that point, so we didn’t get to get to see Denali at all.”

Only 11 people started the big race. It was a mass start at 5 a.m. Of the 11, only nine finished. Newby figured they finished over about a 12 hour period.

Doug Jones won the race in 32 hours, 44 minutes.

The first female finisher was Ariela Flory, who came in second overall at 34 hours, 50 minutes.

Newby came in fourth in 36 hours and 22 minutes.

The last racer finished in 45 hours, two minutes.

“So that’s a pretty big range, people spread out quite a bit,” commented Newby.

He said the race went really well. At the finish, he wasn’t as tired as he thought he would be.

“I got really tired right around mile 105 or 110. I actually took a nap for an hour. Just zombified, stumbling on my feet. And so by the time I got to the end, I was going fairly slowly. Although I sprinted to the end. I always like to do that. So I had a little bit of energy left. “And I did have somewhat sore feet but I didn’t have a lot of pain, a lot of terrible, really big blisters or anything like that. So basically, I felt good.”

Newby slept for 14 hours after the race.

“Mentally, I felt like I had achieved what I wanted to achieve. I wasn’t worried that I wasn’t going to make it, so I wasn’t too skeptical that I was going to have problems finishing the race, but didn’t know how long it would take.

“I thought it could have taken me several hours longer and maybe even five or six hours longer was my estimate. So I finished it in about as good a time as I would have hoped.”

Newby said the race was actually pretty smooth.

“The one thing that was a hassle was we did have a lot of rain. It was just drizzling at the beginning but we had hour after hour, like a good solid 12 hours of nothing but rain.” He added it was cold, less than 10 degrees Celsius, but Newby described that as “a plus.”

He said they reached an elevation of 4,000 feet during the race. He also said there were “plenty of mosquitos.”

Newby said there were a few surprises during the race.

“I trained a lot and I was really pleased that the training paid off. I’m not a young guy. I’m 58 years old. So these ultra races and marathons as well, they’re just brutal. They’re really hard on your body. And it’s typical to end up with a lot of pain, so I was really pleased, and I ended up just with a little bit of difficulty with my feet. You know where my shoes were rubbing and stuff like that. But not like any really bad pain. “I was cold for a little while with the rain. I spent a fair amount of walking as opposed to running. I finished in good health and spirits, so that was good.

“I was a little surprised that I got so exhausted. And needed to take a nap. I don’t really have an explanation for that. But a lot of other people were taking naps too.” Newby had a support crew with him.

“I had two people that were accompanying me in the RV. They would go ahead five or 10 miles, and then I would catch up and I’d get a drink. Maybe a snack. And when it was time to take a nap, I just went into the back of the RV and laid down.” Newby said he was tired enough to sleep in the ditch at that point.

“I absolutely would have slept on the side of the road.”

When asked if he was planning on running the race again next year, Newby replied, “I don’t think so. I would consider it, but it was a pretty big expedition and really expensive to have an RV and we ended up spending close to a week in Alaska because we drove over two days.”

They had to go to the pre-race meeting. And then do the race for two days and the post-race award ceremony. So basically six days.

“It’s a pretty big time commitment. I liked it though. “I’m basically thinking maybe yes, or maybe I’ll find another interesting destination to go and spend three or four or five days in total.”

‘We’ll see. I think I’ll definitely consider it. And if he’s (race director Sean Tracy) doing something a little different for the race next year, maybe that would make it more appealing.”

Newby did the Reckless Raven recently and was planning on racing in the Yukon Trail Marathon as well. He’s also planning on running the 40-mile solo in the Klondike Road Relay in September from Carcross to Whitehorse.

“I’m really happy to do any number of races but these bigger destination races, I can only really do maybe one or two per year just due to time and expense.”

Newby said, “I’m grateful to Ilana (Kingsley, Newby’s wife) for supporting my lackey activities.”

He also thanked his crew, Eric Corley and Kyle Drosdick.

“They came all the way up to Alaska from New York area to drive the RV and support me.”

Corley featured Newby on three one-hour Off the Wall radio shows on New York area university station WUSB.

“And also grateful to Vico (Fauveau), who loaned us the RV.”

Athletics Yukon also helped with some sponsorship money toward Newby’s race.

He added “It’s absolutely a privilege to be able to be a distance runner because it means I have some time on my hands. I’m safe and able to get out on the trails for hour after hour and I have the support of family and stuff to be able to go and spend a number of hours out on the trail.”