I’ve already mentioned “24” in earlier posts, and I know returning fans are well aware of the reference. For new fans, I’ll elaborate briefly (or as briefly as this Mad Blogger can). Iditarod rules include mandated rests, one of which is a full 24 hours. Plus “starting differential”. Here’s one of the rare instances in which life is fair. For a minute, or two.
Teams leave the restart in 2 minute intervals. Which gives Anna in bib #2 a 74 minute advantage over Wally Robinson in bib #39. Bib numbers are pure luck of the draw, so to avoid unnecessarily penalizing someone in the back of the field, each musher will add 2 minutes to their mandatory 24 hour rest for each musher starting behind him or her. Wally is the only one required to stay 24 hours. Anna will stay an extra 74 minutes. All other mushers stay somewhere in between.
That might sound like a disadvantage, but Anna realized that is a plus to drawing the number she did. And I can only imagine… after traveling with her dogs 352 miles in just over 3 days? An extra hour or so probably feels pretty good.
We last left Anna pulling out of Nikolai (race mile 263) just after 7pm Alaska time Tuesday night. She spent five and a half hours resting in checkpoint and hit the trail with her 13 dog team. She and the dogs spent 7 hours 46 minutes mushing the 48 miles from NIK to McGrath, arriving just before 3am Wednesday morning.
The official Iditarod standings initially had her leaving McGrath at 6:10am with 13 dogs, but I didn’t see her GPS tracker moving. After a while, standings updated slightly to show the same departure time but with 10 dogs. Her tracker went active for as bit but then had her at mile 312, or one mile west of MCG, and resting again. I, frankly, was perplexed. Eventually her GPS tracker started moving down the trail again. Until I learn more, my guess is she rested for a bit in MCG, decided to return 3 dogs home, grabbed supplies, mushed to a quite spot just outside of “town”, and gave her now 10 dog team another rest and regroup.
Whatever was going on, she pulled into the next checkpoint of Takotna before noon Wednesday afternoon. She spent a quick 3 minutes in checkpoint and continued on the trail. Question asked and answered on where she will be taking her 24!
Anna spent the next three and a half hours mushing the 23 miles (roughly) from TKT to Ophir, arriving just before 3:30pm Wednesday afternoon. She was reported into checkpoint in 6th place.
Before you get too excited about her jump up in the standings, let me remind you ~ mushers can declare and take their 24 anywhere along the trail. The former top teams aren’t just cooling (or warming?) their heels in Takotna. They’ve been there too long for a standard layover. They’re taking their 24s. You just won’t see a green check mark in that column on the standings until it’s confirmed satisfied and they hit the trail again. Others continue to blow through checkpoints (a la Dallas Seavey), but they will have to take their 24 eventually, and other teams will catch up.
This always makes for some fun jockeying in the ranks, and where a musher takes his or her 24 is a key part of race strategy. Only time will tell how these decisions pan out.
Kristy says that Ophir is a nice checkpoint to 24 in, even if it lacks a few of the frills of Takotna. Mushers park their sleds and get their dogs fed and set up in straw beds, and then head to a small cabin for a hot meals themselves. Ophir is on a river, and volunteers haul water up so mushers can heat it and make stew for their dogs. There is at least one wall tent with bunks where a weary musher can get a nap, and it is even heated by a small oil stove. Ophir is generally far quieter than Takotna ~ it is, after all, a ghost town. And not as many mushers will take their 24 here. Those that do will be focused on caring for their dogs and getting some rest themselves.
It will be a solid day or so before the dust from the 24s settles and we again get a clearer picture of who is racing, and who is traveling, the trail. Both noble endeavors, and I think the line between them is blurry. Someone who was just traveling can all of a sudden land in a very competitive spot, while another with an eye on competitive racing realizes simply getting to Nome is the goal.
That, my friends, is the Iditarod.
With Anna having arrived in Ophir at 15:26 (3:26pm for anyone cringing at 24-hour, or military, time) on Wednesday, March 6th, watch for her to pull her snow hook and hit the trail with the pups again by 16:40 (4:40pm) Alaska time Thursday, March 7th.
We have all 38 teams on the trail, Iditarod fans. 5-time champ Dallas Seavey is leading the way, reported out of OPH with 15 dogs, early on Wednesday, Nic Petit and his 16-dog team hot on the trail after them Wednesday afternoon. Six other mushers, including Anna, resting in OPH as of this post, another big group in TKT, and the rest of the field at minimum into MCG. Our lead-lag spread is 114 miles.
Lots of race left, folks. Lots of race.
Seeing Double Iditarod 2024 Playlist…
Song 6: Nite Becomes Day by Citizen Cope.
Below: Pictures of Seeing Double Dogs at the kennel Saturday afternoon after the C-Start, and a very short video Anna sent of her dogs snuggled up in Ophir.
Teams leave the restart in 2 minute intervals. Which gives Anna in bib #2 a 74 minute advantage over Wally Robinson in bib #39. Bib numbers are pure luck of the draw, so to avoid unnecessarily penalizing someone in the back of the field, each musher will add 2 minutes to their mandatory 24 hour rest for each musher starting behind him or her. Wally is the only one required to stay 24 hours. Anna will stay an extra 74 minutes. All other mushers stay somewhere in between.
That might sound like a disadvantage, but Anna realized that is a plus to drawing the number she did. And I can only imagine… after traveling with her dogs 352 miles in just over 3 days? An extra hour or so probably feels pretty good.
We last left Anna pulling out of Nikolai (race mile 263) just after 7pm Alaska time Tuesday night. She spent five and a half hours resting in checkpoint and hit the trail with her 13 dog team. She and the dogs spent 7 hours 46 minutes mushing the 48 miles from NIK to McGrath, arriving just before 3am Wednesday morning.
The official Iditarod standings initially had her leaving McGrath at 6:10am with 13 dogs, but I didn’t see her GPS tracker moving. After a while, standings updated slightly to show the same departure time but with 10 dogs. Her tracker went active for as bit but then had her at mile 312, or one mile west of MCG, and resting again. I, frankly, was perplexed. Eventually her GPS tracker started moving down the trail again. Until I learn more, my guess is she rested for a bit in MCG, decided to return 3 dogs home, grabbed supplies, mushed to a quite spot just outside of “town”, and gave her now 10 dog team another rest and regroup.
Whatever was going on, she pulled into the next checkpoint of Takotna before noon Wednesday afternoon. She spent a quick 3 minutes in checkpoint and continued on the trail. Question asked and answered on where she will be taking her 24!
Anna spent the next three and a half hours mushing the 23 miles (roughly) from TKT to Ophir, arriving just before 3:30pm Wednesday afternoon. She was reported into checkpoint in 6th place.
Before you get too excited about her jump up in the standings, let me remind you ~ mushers can declare and take their 24 anywhere along the trail. The former top teams aren’t just cooling (or warming?) their heels in Takotna. They’ve been there too long for a standard layover. They’re taking their 24s. You just won’t see a green check mark in that column on the standings until it’s confirmed satisfied and they hit the trail again. Others continue to blow through checkpoints (a la Dallas Seavey), but they will have to take their 24 eventually, and other teams will catch up.
This always makes for some fun jockeying in the ranks, and where a musher takes his or her 24 is a key part of race strategy. Only time will tell how these decisions pan out.
Kristy says that Ophir is a nice checkpoint to 24 in, even if it lacks a few of the frills of Takotna. Mushers park their sleds and get their dogs fed and set up in straw beds, and then head to a small cabin for a hot meals themselves. Ophir is on a river, and volunteers haul water up so mushers can heat it and make stew for their dogs. There is at least one wall tent with bunks where a weary musher can get a nap, and it is even heated by a small oil stove. Ophir is generally far quieter than Takotna ~ it is, after all, a ghost town. And not as many mushers will take their 24 here. Those that do will be focused on caring for their dogs and getting some rest themselves.
It will be a solid day or so before the dust from the 24s settles and we again get a clearer picture of who is racing, and who is traveling, the trail. Both noble endeavors, and I think the line between them is blurry. Someone who was just traveling can all of a sudden land in a very competitive spot, while another with an eye on competitive racing realizes simply getting to Nome is the goal.
That, my friends, is the Iditarod.
With Anna having arrived in Ophir at 15:26 (3:26pm for anyone cringing at 24-hour, or military, time) on Wednesday, March 6th, watch for her to pull her snow hook and hit the trail with the pups again by 16:40 (4:40pm) Alaska time Thursday, March 7th.
We have all 38 teams on the trail, Iditarod fans. 5-time champ Dallas Seavey is leading the way, reported out of OPH with 15 dogs, early on Wednesday, Nic Petit and his 16-dog team hot on the trail after them Wednesday afternoon. Six other mushers, including Anna, resting in OPH as of this post, another big group in TKT, and the rest of the field at minimum into MCG. Our lead-lag spread is 114 miles.
Lots of race left, folks. Lots of race.
Seeing Double Iditarod 2024 Playlist…
Song 6: Nite Becomes Day by Citizen Cope.
Below: Pictures of Seeing Double Dogs at the kennel Saturday afternoon after the C-Start, and a very short video Anna sent of her dogs snuggled up in Ophir.