Jessie Gladish, 36, is about to embark on her fifth Yukon Ultra journey.

This year, the Whitehorse native, who currently splits time between Dawson City and Salt Lake City, Utah (her husband is American), will be riding a fat bike in this race for the first time.

“Kind of the whole idea behind fat biking this year is because I have done the 430 mile Yukon Ultra on foot twice and on cross-country skis once. I was like ‘well, it’d be kind of nice to try all three and see if I can get the 430 done on all three modes.’”

Gladish has also finished the Yukon Ultra 300 once. She’s raced in the 300-mile Iditarod Trail Invitational in Alaska. She’s done multiple 120 milers and a couple of 240-mile desert races in Moab, Utah, plus many 50 km and 100 km races in warm weather as well.

“The winter ones have their own niche. Not very many people are interested in them.”

So why do you do it?

“That’s the big question everybody asks and to be honest, the answer changes all the time. It depends on what time of year it is, what the race distance is, where it is, so the ‘why’ definitely changes, or shifts between reasons.

“Sometimes I’m out there and I don’t know why I’m doing it ... it is a niche sport but there are people out there doing it and there’s more than maybe I expect. Sometimes I’m out there and think everybody must be feeling kind of the way I’m feeling and I can’t believe there’s this many people willing to spend the time and the effort and the money and all this stuff to be out there and seeing how your body responds to pushing yourself physically and mentally.

“A huge reason is to be out there for an extended period of time, long enough that you cycle through all the emotions that are positive and negative, and then come back around and go through them a few times.

“You get to see some pretty cool terrain and daytime-nighttime cycles and you’re just kind of in it and I like being forced to be in the moment, especially with the winter stuff. You have to be on it. Small mistakes add up. It’s a chosen test.”

Both winter and desert ultras have their challenges.

“As far as comfort goes, the warmer races are easier. There’s less gear and less planning and that fear of the cold is not there and I think that is what’s kind of the main thing about the winter. Ultras is a very real thing, and when you’re out there by yourself, it sinks in, and it’s a constant battle to stay warm.”

For Gladish, it’s not about winning the race.

“The first year that I did it was in 2015. Maybe between 25 and 30 people started the 430 (mile) ... only eight or nine finished. I was second last, but I finished, so that was a huge thing just to finish it, no matter what the place was. I was also the only woman to finish that year, and the second one to ever finish the foot division.”

I did the 300 mile next year as a team, and we came in last and took almost double the time allotted, and the year after I did a little bit better for timing. Like I basically cut a day off, and I think I was still somewhere around second-last ... so I’m definitely not out there winning this thing. But even just starting it and getting halfway – it’s a long way no matter how you break it down,” she recalled.

“I would say my results were great in my mind. Finishing it was the main thing and also finishing it feeling like I didn’t totally wreck myself. It’s hard, and you’re tired, and you want to stop, can’t wait for it to be over ... but if I absolutely had to continue, for whatever reason, I felt like I could have. For me that’s successful as well.

“You’re out there by yourself, there’s nobody else to rely on, so to push it to the limit or beyond is really not a good idea.”

“It’s called a race, but there is a very few people in the event that are truly racing.”

Gladish has had some memorable experiences on the trail.

“Some really great moments are travelling under the full moon ... your own shadow walking beside you and getting to experience the darkest time of the winter in the middle of the night ... the northern lights have shown up in the race and can definitely improve a really dark mood, because there are a lot of mental loads that happen out there and little moments like that can definitely help,” she related.

“And getting to meet some really interesting weird people ... this race has kind of turned into a little bit of a family with returning participants, sometimes year after year, so that’s kind of a nice aspect of it.

“It’s really simple things like when you’re waiting five hours for the sun to rise and you finally get a glimpse of it and you know that you have the whole daylight hours to kind of make progress forward and enjoy being able to see everything.”

Of course, there have been some tough times on the trail.

“The brutal cold, really. I remember being pretty scared, especially the first time that I tried it. The first couple days were -45 to -48C overnight. I’m trying to camp in that and get some sleep and then pack up in the morning. I’d winter-camped and grown up doing stuff in the winter in the cold, but it’s different when you’re on your own and looking at 12 days in front of you and wondering if this is what it’s going to be like the whole time.

“Things happen when you get tired, especially when you’re like five days into the race. There are some particular stretches of this race that are very tall-treed, so it feels like you’re in a tree-tunnel for hours and hours.

“And when you get tired, the kilometres go by a little slower and it felt like you should be further, so another low moment would have been feeling like I missed a checkpoint, or was on the wrong trail. There’s lots of things that your brain tells you and have to work really hard to be like ‘no, I’m looking at footprints in front of me, or there hasn’t been a turnoff in kilometres.’ You kind of have to figure out what’s true and what’s not, as far as what your brain is telling you.”

One of the toughest moments for Gladish is when she thinks she’s close to a checkpoint, and then realizing she has a long ways to go yet.

“When I was thinking I was almost there, and I realized that I had at least three or four hours left, there’s definitely some mental practice that goes in there, and learning how to be upset and disappointed but also continuing to move forward and understanding that you are gonna get there and it is gonna end,” Gladish recalled.

“Sometimes you just need to walk and cry and be frustrated and then move on. I just remind myself that I chose to be here, and that usually helps.”

According to Gladish, deciding when to rest during the Yukon Ultra is critical.

“On foot, I definitely did rest every night. I maybe pushed the distance a little further towards the end of the race, like when I was getting closer to Dawson City and it was either trudge out 80 kilometres in one day or sleep somewhere. And when you get to that point in the race, I just want to get there and get it done. So I might pull an all-nighter, let’s say, but generally, for the Yukon Ultra, I do rest for a couple of hours ... pretty much every night.

“My optimal resting time is like between 12 and 4 a.m. Your headlamp battery gets saved a little bit by resting at night. When the race is this long, you have to make sure you get the rest that you need. And everybody’s different.

“In the Yukon, I would recommend rest and making sure that you’re able to make decisions, because if you mess up, it can be pretty severe.”

Riding the bike will definitely be a change of pace for Gladish.

“The bike is going to be a different mode to experience because theoretically it might be faster ... if we get some cooler weather coming up – I hope it’s cold but not extreme – I just want perfect conditions, and then I can see how fast I can go.

“It’ll be an interesting mental challenge. In some ways it’s kind of cool to be heading back to Whitehorse and finishing here. But it’s also hard to redo the trail that you just did.”

As for how long Gladish would like to continue racing in ultras, “I keep saying that I’d like to get the 430 done on a bike and then maybe I’ll take a break on spending a bunch of money and time on this race ... and maybe do some volunteering and go to that side of things. Helping people do their race, which I’ve started doing, like a sort of pre-race workshop to teach people some skills that are more relatable to this race, specifically, and for those that don’t particularly have much winter experience,” she related.

“I think I’m always gonna do long-distance races because I really like them,” added Gladish.

“I think I went through a phase where that was all I wanted to do, and now, priorities shift and life changes ... I don’t want to say I’m not going to do them. They’re definitely fun.”