Race Across Alaska Winter Challenge
Sat December 21, 2024 - Thu March 20, 2025
The Race Across Alaska Winter Challenge (RAAWC) is celebrating its 5th year this Winter 2024-2025! This is a multi-sport, multi-distance winter challenge with the goal of logging as many miles as possible (inside or outside...anywhere in the world) over three months, starting on the first day of winter, December 21st, 2024, and ending on the last day of winter, March 20th, 2025.
In the northern hemisphere, of course!
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You can walk, run, fat tire bike, indoor bike, xc/downhill ski, swim, canoe, row or log "other" for exercises not included, like ice skating, kick sledding, stand-up paddle boarding, or anything else where you can accrue mileage. Next, you will pick which race distance you'd like to accomplish across Alaska with your choice of 8 different routes of varying distances depending on your goals!
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Race Mileage if you begin December 21st, 2024
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60 miles = Anchorage to Whittier (0.7 miles/day)
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125 miles = Anchorage to Sheep Mountain (1.4 miles/day)
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235 miles = Anchorage to Denali National Park (2.6 miles/day)
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350 miles = Anchorage to Delta Junction (3.9 miles/day)
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500 miles = Alaska Long Trail, Seward to Fairbanks (5.6 miles/day)
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800 miles = Denali Highway Loop (8.9 miles/day)
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1,150 miles = Historic Iditarod Trail (12.8 miles/day)
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2,000 miles = Ketchikan to Deadhorse (22.3 miles/day)
You will have the ability to log your miles, track your progress, collect virtual badges, and see how you rank up to others on the leader board daily. Invite your friends for a discount and to challenge you to stay motivated all Winter long!
RAAWC is a Fundraiser for Alaskan Non-Profits!
Alaska Trails, Nordic Skiing Association of Anchorage and Challenge Alaska are 501(c)(3) nonprofits in 2024. Stay tuned for our NEW Non-profits! Our non-profit's share the vision of supporting Alaskans through physical activity, $10 will be donated to the non-profit of your choice OR you can divide between all 3 PLUS racers can donate additional funds to support our non-profit donation goal. Since 2020 we have raised over $200,000 through racer participation and additional donations!
Official Race Cannon Start
The official race cannon will be fired at the Zoom Kickoff Party on December 21st at 6pm AKS (10pm EST). Join our Facebook group to hear about pop-up Zoom and/or Zwift FREE workouts, weekly photo contests, and join others in our very fun social media group!
I'm Rick Zwetsch (MoBetta on Zwift), hailing from Holland, MI and this is my 3rd winter doing the challenge and 2nd year as an ambassador!
Over two challenges I've logged miles cycling, walking and rowing.
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In 2022, I finished 15th out of 95 in the 2,000 mile group completing 2,218 miles.
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In 2023 I finished 5th out of 137 in the 1,150 mile group completing 1,954 miles.
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Lat year we also had an awesome little team of 14 athletes from 10 states and
2 countries. As a team we logged a little less than 25,000 miles
over the 90 day challenge!
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​This year I have a BIG TEAM GOAL:
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100+ Athletes. (How cool would 1,000+ be???)
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100,000+ miles logged during RAAWC.
So, who's in?
First, some quick RZ FAQs:
Is there a cost to participate?
Yes. The total fee is $91.10 if you sign up before the fee goes up. There's some fun swag,
you can print a completion certificate and you'll get a finisher's medal.
I see the challenge raises money for Alaska nonprofits. I don't live in Alaska, why would I do that?
That's a good question. This challenge is all about physical activity, for EVERYONE, during the winter, at least here in the northern hemisphere. These nonprofits share a vision of supporting Alaskans through physical activity. You'll see from the site where this page is hosted, my partner Caryn and I work with nonprofits for a living.
If that's not for you, this challenge is not for you. Thanks for taking a look!
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I see all trackable miles in different sports count.
Will my miles upload automatically from Strava, or Zwift or other platforms?
Unfortunately, no. That being said, uploading your inside or outside miles to the platform is incredibly easy and takes about 20 seconds. You can also upload in batches if that's easier.
Please don't let this be a game breaker. It's. So. Easy.
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Okay, this is cool, why join a team and what team should I join?
There will be LOTS of teams in the challenge and well, we think you should join our team! You can track all the teams at the different distance levels throughout the challenge -
as well as all your/our team members!
Last year our team finished:
#1 in at the 2,000 mile distance (19,020.31 miles)
#4 at the 1,150 mile distance (3,452.21 miles) and
#2 at the 800 mile distance (3,234.76 miles)
And, I think we were the 2nd overall team in the challenge!
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What's in it for you, Rick?
Not a thing. I'm an Ambassador because the challenge really kept me motivated during the long winter months in Colorado and now Michigan and I want as many people to participate from as many and states and countries as possible! And, if we can help a few nonprofits help folks get and stay active? SUPER BONUS!
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I'm in. What's next?
1. Sign up as soon as you can here.
2. Make sure to join our team: 2024 TEAM Z
3. Use my discount code: USA2025 to save 5 bucks!
4. Share the challenge with everyone you know who's active in all sports
where you can track miles and might want to know about
a cool challenge to get through the winter!
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Thank you friends and new friends for a few minutes of your time. We're all
crazy busy and I appreciate you taking a few minutes to check out and hopefully
join us in this great challenge!
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Rick Zwetsch
(Recovering ultra-cyclist)​​​​​​​​​​
#RideOn, #FatTireBikeOn, #RunOn, #WalkOn,
#DownhillSkiOn, XCSkiOn, #SwimOn, #RowOn
P.S. if you have questions or need more information, please send me email:
rzwetsch@gmail.com
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