Video Transcription Service Up and Running.

[elsietee]

Jessie Royer said she got tons of sleep on YQ - way more than she gets at home. She commented as much to Kat Keith who was "?!@!?$?"

[fladogfan]

Jessie Royer said she got tons of sleep on YQ - way more than she gets at home. She commented as much to Kat Keith who was "?!@!?$?"

[elsietee]

Manley:


Monica Zappa:

This is Dweezle...Dweezle Zappa [<click>]... He's a little over three years old now - it's his first ID. When he was six months old, when I was on my first ID, he was deathly ill. Extremely strange mysterious illness. Started with him not eating, 105 temp for a week, super-sick, I had him at the animal hospital, had him on all the medicine,... he seemed to get over it.

Then I went off on ID and he was getting better and better, and eating. And then we got a call the night of the banquet to say he was sick again, and this time he was paralyzed. Started in his back end - first he coudln't stand up, then he couldn't sit up..... By the time we got back from Nome, he was back in the animal hospital and couldn't even lift up his head. I'd just finished my first race and I was so excited about it - but it broke my heart so badly that he was sick again after the first time of nursing him back to health.

About a week later, he was able to kind of sit up. Another week he could take a few steps. It was a *really* long recovery. His physical therapy was walking up the driveway which is ~1/8th of a mile and it would take him an hour.

Through that process he has become my very special pet dog. He has his own Instagram page - King Dweezle - and he sleeps either on the couch or in his bedroom, so he's super-spoilt. I think he's loving being on this race, but he wants to go into all the checkpoints with me, so he's kind of not sure why... even when we go camping, I spoil him and let him in the cabins and stuff. So this is a little bit difficult for him... "huh-baby?"... but he's doing awesome. I think he's a little cold. I'm going to get him a blanket because he's been an inside dog, so it's a bit unfair, but he's been running in his jacket and everything. "Are you cold? or just nervous, bud?" But overall he's been running just awesome, so it would be a dream come true for him to make it to Nome. He also runs lead really well, I've been saving him for a little further down the trail for when Blue Steel gets a little tired.

Dweezle1.jpg

Dweezle2.jpg

[elsietee]

Manley:

Matt Failor [I really like this guy. I love the way he's taking the time to build his own dogs and train them nice and slow]:

This is Miss Fifa - she ran a little bit of lead today - and now for this final run she ran in swing.

Q: how's this puppy team doing for you? Are you excited about them?

yes - we kind of know what we have, so we expected them to be happy and personable, and intelligent and fast, so we haven't taken our food off the drag or the brake all the way here, so keeping them at a good 10 mph and resting them 7 hours at each stop. Just keeping them happy.

...

I'm happy and able to have done six of these [ID] now. Looking back at my first one - I'm basically running the same schedule that Martin [Buser] taught me six years ago. The game has slowed down. You do six of these things and I'm sat here for 7 hours - I feel like that's a full day's rest, you know? My first year running this race, 7 hours would have been "what do I do? When do I do it? what do I feed? when do I feed? " and it's just a lot easier now. You can focus on the task.

Before this race - these dogs are 12 one-year olds and 2 two-year olds - their furthest run ever was 47 miles. <laughs> So almost all this stuff is brand new. At the start of the race, all the fans, lining the trail, that was a new experience, so some of them were a little leery with all that. It's just important to train the way you want to race. So we're keeping it at 45 mile runs, and the long run of this race for them will be the last one into the finish and that's how we're going to end it.

I know we've tapped into winning pedigrees, I've been trained by winning mushers. It's just a matter of putting it together and training day in, day out. ID is the easy part, training day in, day out is the hard part.

[elsietee]

Manley:

Ryan Anderson

[This guy was many people's ROTY pick - me included - he has won the Beargrease twice, the UP 200 six times and had many other top finishes. I think I remember seeing a comment by Mushing Tech about how he tends to run his dogs too fast at the start and then they poop out (at least I think it was him, I may have him confused with someone else), so it has been interesting seeing how he runs them for 1000 miles. Currently he's [edited to correct] 4th rookie - with Sebastien Vergnaud, Robert Red and Laura Neese ahead of him]

My original schedule was to go to that roadhouse and then blow through Manley and go another 20 miles, and then go to Tanana. But I ended up going to the roadhouse and thinking it was maybe a bit too far for the dogs at the moment... it was only 52 miles, but it took quite a while. So I'm going to rest four hours here and see what I've got. Try to build them back. Not that we're that far into it, but the dogs are a little sluggish.

It's a young team. It's a really good mid-distance team. They haven't run for a couple of weeks, but they're all rookies to the ID, and I'm a rookie, so I don't know how it's going to work out.

Hindsight's 20/20. I've already learned that it's better to come up early and be here a few weeks before the race, rather than trying to come up last minute. So I'm already seeing that, that's why I did a 3.5 hour trip to here and will camp for 4 hours.

If there is a "next time", I'll be up here early.

Says he's wanted to run the ID for a while, but life and family didn't allow him to do it until now (he said in another interview that his wife had just finished... med school? I think it was? or an internship? so she could finally support him instead of the other way around. )

[elsietee]

Wade, camped on the river between Manley and Tanana:

Still got a lot of good speed for how the trail is. Right where we want to be, as far as the competition goes. Things are going good.

...

Q: will you stop 8/24 in Tanana?

No, just four hours.

...dogs are resting really well... I forgot to bring straw with me, but luckily it's a short camp int he sun, so they're still enjoying it.

Aliy, camped on the river between Manley and Tanana:

Can't keep your ointment and liniment thawed when it's cold like this.

Paul G, camped on the river between Manley and Tanana:

Run slowing down a little, trail was a little soft and punchy. Dogs are just starting to get into their run/rest routine, so it's going pretty good. I have no idea where I am in the standings, just know that we're moving along pretty decent, so that's all that matters at this point.

Dogs are eating good - generally - they're moving well. Had to drop one at the last checkpoint with a sore shoulder. I've got another one with a sore shoulder but trying to work through it. It's kind of typical with the trail that we have.

The trail - there's a base under it, the top is kind of punchy and soft. And then there's no base to the two sides of the trail, so if they miss the trail by just a little bit, then they sink deep. Kind of like if you were walking on the sidewalk and you slipped off the edge into the mud...

[elsietee]

Tanana:


Aliy last night in Tanana (more upbeat than when she was sleepy on the river camp in the previous interview):

...My team has a little bit of the GI bug from the Quest - it appears - they were spotty on and off, which is a little bit of a bummer, but I think I can take care of that - get them hydrated and fed.

They had a really big meal out on the river camp site.

When they got that bug on the Quest, they lost their mojo, ...


Q: What about the run down to Ruby? [113 miles] Two runs? or three?

...<ponders> Two. Yes.

Q: Why?

<she looks along the line> ... because they've got big boys pants on, they should be OK. I've got big pants on <holds out the sides of her white wind pants>, I can handle it. A little break in the middle... a pop tart <grins and makes a funny face>.

They discuss the cold and she says if it's cold, one camp is better than two.




Joar in Tanana:

Asked about the run over to Ruby - two runs?

<grins impishly> Maybe I'll try it in one run, huh?

[elsietee]

Tanana:


Ramey Smyth:

The dogs are doing the best they can, but they're definitely - ... must be in a learning or development process.

In January we had the highest high we've ever seen, then we had the lowest low we've ever seen, and we haven't quite come out of it yet.

But they're doing really good so far, much better than I expected. I'm hoping they can come together physically, but they don't seem to be quite as tough as my old team, in that they get lots of little sorenesses and things and get tired, and get little sicknesses and whatnot, so I'm having to kind of adapt to them. And they must be in the development stage of toughening up - I guess.

They've never been on a race until this year, but they've raced hard and trained hard. It takes a couple of years until they get their full pace on.

Q: Are they eating good?

they were until we came here, that's why I think it's catching up with them, the whole rigours of the event. So that's why I'm trying lots of little treats...

[elsietee]

Tanana:

Allen:

I used to tell Aliy "I've got the old, the young and the cripples". If the cripples hang in there - that just means they've had injuries in the last month or so - ..and so far, so good. I still have 16. They'll go another 100 miles with me and then maybe we can race a little bit. That'll be fun.

Q: Cold bother you? just coming off the Quest?

Well, I should be used to it, it didnt' seem that bad. The wind got up a little bit, so it seemed worse than the first night, but they said it was warmer last night. Not too bad. I didn't frostbite anything, so that's always good.

Q: run to Ruby?

Will split it into two runs. Coming over here I was going 9.5 mph, so that was good, and hopefully I can go that fast again. They seem spirited and hopefully I can keep them healthy.

Charley Bejna:

Taking it easy at the beginning. Running in the cold - have to watch out for the boys, to make sure they don't get cold down there. And if you lose a booty, replace it quickly before the cold gets to it.

Dropped one dog at the previous checkpoint. Pretty much trying to use up all his dog food at every checkpoint.

I have a couple with minor wrists [soreness], but they're smaller dogs, so working a little faster, a little harder, but I'm going to keep them in the team because that's kind of normal for them.

Q: Where to take 24?


Galena. Think it'll be warmer than Huslia. I like that checkpoint.

[elsietee]

Tanana:

Seth Barnes [Mitch's puppy team][read this with a southern accent]:

Q: how does it compare to last time?

It's actually about the same... I started in FBs, last time I started in FBs... then I went to Tanana... now I'm in Tanana... and it's COLD. <laughs>

Q: Do you keep an eye on the Seavey's when you pull into these places?

I don't have time for that - I got 16 dogs to take care of!

Q: Trust me, they're doing well.

I don't doubt it. <looks at team> About 8 of the dogs I ran last time [2015] are on his team this year. And then the guy that ran the puppy team last year, there's about 4-5 of them on [Mitch's team] this year. So between me and him, our little fun trips with these two year olds seem to be paying off. THey really advance as 3-4 year olds...

We just go out here and have fun - and then Mitch gets to have his fun too.

They talk about the cold.

It is what it is. I can't say I love it, but sometimes when it gets really extreme weather, people start changing their mind and running their dogs a bit different - like staying in checkpoints. And this isn't really a route you can stay in checkpoints all the time. The colder it gets, people start to do longer runs - and that benefits me, but I'm not really in the game to race right now. I'm just having fun.