Intent on proving the capabilities of his controversial new fat-tired creation, bicycle designer Mort Greenwood enlists in the Iditarod Improbable, a multi-day 350-mile human-powered winter marathon across the remote Alaska Range. After a heavy snowstorm slows the race to a virtual crawl, Greenwood and an international cast of adventure racers discover that event organizers embezzled the purse and failed to deliver their crucial resupply packages. Faced with fatigue, cold, hunger, and sleep deprivation, the racers discover that not all encountered in the Alaskan wilderness is quite what it seems---and soon find themselves wondering where reality ends and hallucination begins.
With more twists and turns than the famous pathway itself, Iditarod Improbable wefts a story of history, love, friendship, death, adventure, deceit, hubris, and the human spirit into the sinuous warp of the trail, and along the way chronicles the birth of a whole new sport.
Author Mark Gronewald was a pioneer of the modern fat-tired bicycle and draws heavily from his experience participating in similar races between 1997 and 2006. This is his first novel. He resides near Palmer, Alaska.