Rob Henderson didn’t plan on being a distance runner or even an athlete.
Five years ago, he decided to quit smoking and see if more physical activity could help with his asthma. He’d begun backpacking, and had volunteered to help at an aid station for a 100k run on the Superior Hiking Trail. He liked the people he met and said, “I realized that these were just normal people who work really hard. I knew how to work hard, so I figured getting into running ‘ultramarathons’ [footraces longer than 26-plus miles] could be in my wheelhouse.”
Six months of training later, he ran his first 50k race and was hooked. That year, he ran nine “ultras.” Since he began the sport, he’s run 30 marathons, including the Twin Cities Marathon (twice.)
Henderson was born in New Ulm and lived in Maple Grove before he bought a house in Northeast Minneapolis seven years ago. He’s a project manager for architectural building products in the correctional industry.
He said winter camping has become a recent passion and that the BWCA in the winter is a great place to prepare for the self-sufficiency needed in cold-weather ultramarathons. “It’s a uniquely beautiful and magical place. I try and get up there as much as I can,” he said.
Asked how he ended up running in Finland, Henderson said that the Rovaniemi 300 Arctic Winter Race is one of the events that would qualify him for the Iditarod Trail Invitational (ITI) 350 in Alaska, which uses the same route as the famous dogsled race. The Rovaniemi takes place each February in Lapland, Finland’s northernmost region, inside the Arctic Circle, and includes runners, skiers, and fat-bike riders on courses ranging from 66 to 300 kilometers.
The first half of the 300 race follows the well-marked paths of the 150k race. The second half gets wilder, and this year’s 14 starters carried mandatory Satellite Device Trackers. Running 18 hours per day, Henderson finished first, in three days nine and a half hours. He was the first American to win. The second-place finisher arrived ten hours later, and the third and final finisher came in 14 hours after that.
A local snowmobiler stopped Henderson on day 3 to see if he was okay, worried that the runner’s shoes were inadequate for the climate. Henderson assured him he was fine, being from Minnesota. The man seemed unaware that Minnesota has plenty of snow and cold weather, and tried to persuade Henderson to stay in a laavu, a small trail shelter. There were none on the race route, though, and Henderson continued on.
He noted, “The Finns I met were all very friendly; they seemed much like folks you run into in Northern Minnesota. They love skiing, snowmobiling and ice-fishing. It’s not surprising that many Finnish people immigrated here and that our cultures are so similar.”
Henderson saw few spectators along the course—a handful on the first 150k loop, and only two on the second half. There was little media coverage, either. Fifteen miles from the finish, the race director arrived on a snowmobile to tell Henderson that he had won. “At the actual finish, I think there were three spectators and the race director. These events are not for those needing crowd support. One feature of these winter ultra-marathon races is learning about solitude and self-sufficiency.”
The Rovaniemi was Henderson’s first race outside the U.S. Part of his first-place award was a free entry to a future race, and he expects to be back in Finland in a year or two.
Henderson said the race was hard but that any time he got into a bad spot mentally, he needed only to look around. “It was really beautiful. Stunning scenery of snow-covered trees around every bend. The northern lights illuminated my way at night as I shuffled along the trail. Staying present and grateful for your ability and place in life … helps you appreciate it more. I do have a really supportive family…. I could not have done this without them. My parents, brother, and sister-in-law were all super supportive leading up to the event and afterwards. It’s not every day you get to do these things. Some people never do!”
Below: For Rob Henderson, the northern parts of Minnesota were the perfect place to prepare for the wintery conditions he would face in Finland, where he snapped the selfie to the left. He became the first American to win the Rovaniemi 300 Arctic Winter Race. Henderson ran 18 hours a day through the frozen wilderness of Lapland, Finland’s northernmost areas. Using a satelite tracker, he kept a record of his racing stats, and eventually brought home a beautiful and hard-earned first place trophy. (Photos provided by Rob Henderson)
