Koyuk - Elim - White Mountain

[mira]

It's likely to be a Seavey, but I think this is Mitchs to loose. But things might happen, it has happened before. Like when Jeff scratched and Aliy stopped in Safety.

I think Mitch is going very fast to be this late in the race. Dallas has stopped, Nicolas isn't going that fast. Joar is still resting and Wade is almost in.

(did I actually manage to write Koyukuk? Must have been some completion help)

[elsietee]

Watch this... Dallas ran thru Koyuk and stopped on his favorite hill outside of town. From here he can rest until he sees Nick then he can pull the hook and go.

But he let Nic go on past. Nic's team are moving comparatively slow - maybe Dallas watched and judged on that - he knows how fast Nic ran to Koyuk, so should be able to judge from that how his team are faring.

In theory, Nic has to stop again before WM, so Dallas will pass him then.

The only other thing I thought of was that Nic is going deliberately slow, betting on his team being able to go all the way to WM on 3 hrs rest. It's a tall order, but if he runs them slow, they might be able to keep going and going and going.

Question is, even if he does that, does Dallas have the speed to catch him? (Dallas. Am probably also figure out how long Nic rested in Koyuk. )

[Happy2BeHere]

Jeez, Mitch in Elim already - still burning rocket fuel! Nearly 8.5 mph. Obviously slower than his last run but I assume he at least stopped to snack!

[mamamia]

Elsietee I was out running an errand and pulled up tracker on phone and was equally surprised to see Dallas let Nick's team go by. I had the same thought as you that maybe he didn't feel threatened enough by them to jump up and run. I think Dallas quickly calculated how much rest Nick had taken and realized that if he rested his dog team properly they would be able to pass Nick later.

The other thing is what Dallas said in the cabin. It was something like "I've spent their whole life teaching them that they are supermen and I'm not going to ruin that." Dallas is going to run his team to the best of its ability. It takes a lot of discipline to not jump up and run after someone at this stage of the race.

[elsietee]

Whatever he did, it's working - Dallas' team is currently seven miles from Elim going 9.6 mph.

[Happy2BeHere]

Here we go.. Mitch is out on his way to White Mountain and Nic is in to Elim

[elsietee]

Wade, Jessie, Ray, and Aliy:

(note, I think Aliy just stopped to snack - she was going 0.8 mph on the previous click - so may still be working up to speed again. )

[Happy2BeHere]

Helllooo Dallas- into Elim 7:39 local - Goodbye Dallas - right back out again 7:45 (6 mins in check point) an hour and 32 mins behind big daddy -

[Frozen Chosen]

Some of Mitch's (Big Daddy) one-liners right before leaving Elim, some made me laugh:

"First place, first place, the only goal there is. Otherwise we have not succeeded...you can always change your story later but..."

"No point talking about happy healthy and all that stuff...that should be a given...the goal is to win..."

"I'll be disappointed if I don't win"

"You can pull off and just say 'oh well, I just wanted happy healthy dogs'...You can stay home and say that!"

"Second (place) is the first loser or something like that"...

I liked his last comment in this video interview (Ktuu)

http://www.ktuu.com/content/news/Dallas ... 21893.html

[Heidi]

Thanks for the link Froze! Some comments gave me pause but... well hmmm...