Happy Thursday Race Fans. I always find it a little hard to wrap my brain around the fact that the race started Sunday and here we are at Thursday, but technically mushers and their dogs have "only" been out on the trail 3 days 16 hours as of this writing. Even with the fast pace of this year's race, it will be a full 8 to 9 days before we have a winner in Nome. There's a lot of race left.
We last left Anna and Kristy out on the trail between Rohn and Nikolai. As I anticipated, they mushed the rest of the long 75 stretch to Nikolai during the day Tuesday, arriving a little after 3pm, and rested in checkpoint for just under 5 hours. They hit the trail again around 8pm and spent the next 6 hours 45 minutes mushing the 48 miles to McGrath, where they arrived around 2:45am Wednesday. They spent 6 hours in checkpoint and then were back at it before 9am Wednesday.
Anna was reported out of MCG in 15th place, Kristy in 16th. Anna opted to return her first two dogs here giving each twin 12 dogs in front of her sled as she hit the trail. I did hear briefly from the twins via text just before they hit the trail and there was good news - Anna swapped out to a replacement sled and is back on solid runners! There's a great deal of confusion for this Mad Blogger on the whole story behind the replacement sled, but now I have reason to believe the twins did, in fact, ship one extra sled out this year, which is what Anna is now driving. The SOS for an extra sled may just have been a precaution as they knew early on they would for sure need one...? All in all, moot questions at this point now that Anna is back in business.
The twins spent the rest of Wednesday morning and early afternoon mushing the 40+ miles from MCG through Takotna (a bypassed checkpoint this year) and into Ophir, arriving a little before 3pm. This is where Kristy and Anna planned and are most certainly taking their mandatory 24 hour rest.
In addition to actually getting some more substantial rest themselves, mushers use their 24 to give all their dogs some extra TLC, consult more thoroughly with vets, work on sleds, organize gear, and assess race strategy. Race officials use the stop to adjust for the 2-minute interval start. Only Hugh Neff, the 49th and final musher to leave the starting line this year, is required to rest for a full 24 hours. Every other musher gets 2 minutes added to their required rest time for each musher that started behind him or her. Thus Kristy will have to stay in Ophir 24 hours 50 minutes, Anna a half hour longer with 25 hours 20 minutes. It is most likely Kristy will linger in Ophir so they can hit the trail at the same time. By my math, that will be at 4:09pm Thursday afternoon.
Meanwhile, Brent Sass is currently in first place, having arrived in Cripple (race mile 425 and the next checkpoint after Ophir) Wednesday afternoon. Dallas Seavey, Hugh Neff, Ryan Redington, and Mitch Seavey had all joined him there before midnight. They are most certainly currently taking their own 24s, while mushers like Richie Diehl and Aaron Burmeister are reported out of Ophir, but with their 24s satisfied. They, and other mushers who 24'd in Ophir, will be hitting the trail while the leaders are resting, so the stats are gonna change again real soon.
We did also see our first scratch in this year's race. Friend of Seeing Double Anja Radano opted to end her race in Nikolai, leaving 48 mushers on the trail to Nome. We wish Anja very safe and swift travels home.
We last left Anna and Kristy out on the trail between Rohn and Nikolai. As I anticipated, they mushed the rest of the long 75 stretch to Nikolai during the day Tuesday, arriving a little after 3pm, and rested in checkpoint for just under 5 hours. They hit the trail again around 8pm and spent the next 6 hours 45 minutes mushing the 48 miles to McGrath, where they arrived around 2:45am Wednesday. They spent 6 hours in checkpoint and then were back at it before 9am Wednesday.
Anna was reported out of MCG in 15th place, Kristy in 16th. Anna opted to return her first two dogs here giving each twin 12 dogs in front of her sled as she hit the trail. I did hear briefly from the twins via text just before they hit the trail and there was good news - Anna swapped out to a replacement sled and is back on solid runners! There's a great deal of confusion for this Mad Blogger on the whole story behind the replacement sled, but now I have reason to believe the twins did, in fact, ship one extra sled out this year, which is what Anna is now driving. The SOS for an extra sled may just have been a precaution as they knew early on they would for sure need one...? All in all, moot questions at this point now that Anna is back in business.
The twins spent the rest of Wednesday morning and early afternoon mushing the 40+ miles from MCG through Takotna (a bypassed checkpoint this year) and into Ophir, arriving a little before 3pm. This is where Kristy and Anna planned and are most certainly taking their mandatory 24 hour rest.
In addition to actually getting some more substantial rest themselves, mushers use their 24 to give all their dogs some extra TLC, consult more thoroughly with vets, work on sleds, organize gear, and assess race strategy. Race officials use the stop to adjust for the 2-minute interval start. Only Hugh Neff, the 49th and final musher to leave the starting line this year, is required to rest for a full 24 hours. Every other musher gets 2 minutes added to their required rest time for each musher that started behind him or her. Thus Kristy will have to stay in Ophir 24 hours 50 minutes, Anna a half hour longer with 25 hours 20 minutes. It is most likely Kristy will linger in Ophir so they can hit the trail at the same time. By my math, that will be at 4:09pm Thursday afternoon.
Meanwhile, Brent Sass is currently in first place, having arrived in Cripple (race mile 425 and the next checkpoint after Ophir) Wednesday afternoon. Dallas Seavey, Hugh Neff, Ryan Redington, and Mitch Seavey had all joined him there before midnight. They are most certainly currently taking their own 24s, while mushers like Richie Diehl and Aaron Burmeister are reported out of Ophir, but with their 24s satisfied. They, and other mushers who 24'd in Ophir, will be hitting the trail while the leaders are resting, so the stats are gonna change again real soon.
We did also see our first scratch in this year's race. Friend of Seeing Double Anja Radano opted to end her race in Nikolai, leaving 48 mushers on the trail to Nome. We wish Anja very safe and swift travels home.