IditaProject Forum

Great job Allen! Those dogs looked *great* at the finish.

I'm afraid that Paige's race is done - she's on her way back to Carmacks, although travelling at a decent 7-8 mph, so nothing wrong other than "done-ness".

Matt's tracker seems to be pinging more often than usual - I wonder if they turned up the frequency in anticipation of a nail-biter finish?... Uh, I guess everyone's tracker is pinging more often.

Paige is on the move but it looks like she is heading back to Carmacks

Too bad for Paige but it seems to be a good decision. It's the shortest way.

Yes, better to be able to get to a checkpoint.

Matt is 10 miles from the finish line! Laura is 15 miles behind Matt. Vebjørn 20 miles behind Laura (they are in the opposite ends on the lake). Ed is 20 miles behind Vebjørn (I'm not sure what the track does when they are off the route.. but it does look sane). Tim arrived in Braeburn an hour ago.

Good to get the confirmation on Paige, looks like they have hit the road already (it's the dog "slightly" out of track)

Matt is in Whitehorse! Congratulations to him as well! I think he hasn't crossed the finish line but will do it anytime now.

I am impressed by the next two musher, Laura, 15 mules to go and Vebjørn 35 miles to go! Mush on! I am happy that Vebjørn most likely prove me wrong for not picking him as ROTY.

I also think they will do all the first musher at FB live

That's got to be a heartbreak for Paige. She was doing g so well. Sounds like the dogs decided they were done.

Yay teams - they really did good this year, dealing with the cold - even the ones that dropped out (so difficult when you're trained to "not be a wussy" to know "ok, that's enough". Kudos to them for recognizing it).

As far as Paige - it's SO hard to balance racing, versus keeping your dogs within their capabilities when you're looking at a 1000 mile race. They feel so great, they want to go... until they suddenly don't - and you have no way of knowing when that balance point is tipping, since I suspect it goes in tiny increments. And mental motivation has as much to do with it as physical ability. Maybe it all comes down to having an excellent lead dog that will get up and go no matter what - and the rest of the team will follow. You kind of have to have a dog that's a little bit crazy, a little bit one-track, all they want to do is GO DOWN THE TRAIL. Whereas if you get one dog that "doesn't wanna" and suddenly the whole team join him.

It's the same in any endurance sport - how to go as fast as you can without going too fast.

(which is why I seldom race when I do my horse distance rides - I have no idea how to race, but I can ride 100 miles ).

I'm really interested to see how Laura's team look at the finish - she pulled a couple of ballsy moves, which could just as easily go the way Paige's team did.

* * *

Edited to add (sneakily watching her arrival video on my phone at work):

The dogs look good - tails up and tugs tight. She had 7 on the line, one in the bag.

"We definitely would not be in third without Maple in lead" [led for 750 miles].

"Really happy with the second half of the race. Can transition from 'survival mode' to 'race mode' "

Knee-deep overflow leaving Braeburn this morning (wonder if that's what Vebjorn got caught in last night?)