IditaProject Forum

Aliy has had too many near misses and will have to change it up, take a chance, to bring it all home. She's going for it! Whoop, whoop!

Just posted in Facebook from Danny Seavey:

What About Aliy Zirkle?

Aliy Zirkle jumped into the #iditarod lead this morning, pushing toward Iditarod to take her 24 hour break. Watch her tracker for the next 12 hours, and you'll see why she's considered one of the toughest people alive.

She's the first - and so far only - team to go over a notoriously remote, slow and challenging trail. Very few people travel there in the winter, so there is no 'base' to the trail, often just a couple snow machine tracks in feet of powder. She left Ophir after only a two hour stop, so she didn't have time to sleep or dry out her gear. Aliy likely last slept for one hour from 10-11pm yesterday. Her sled is loaded down with enough food and straw for at least one remote camp plus reserves, 70+ extra pounds.

In three hours since leaving, she's only covered 18 miles. At six miles an hour, she's running or walking up every incline, helping push the heavy sled. It's above freezing, so the snow is melting into her clothing, and she sweating from the inside, already wet and getting wetter.

The snow is deep and soft, like trying to run in sand. No matter how hard she tries, she can only go so fast. Her GPS will tell her she still has 62 miles to go, estimated arrival time 10 hours and 20 minutes. Shut up, Siri! She'll toss the stupid thing in the sled where she doesn't have to see the depressing numbers and can remember why she's out here.

It's not about getting there, or racing, or winning, or anything else. It's just being here. Just her and the dogs, and miles of nothing. Ironically, as miserable as she appears on the outside, she loves this stuff. She's living. She's got her dogs, a big chunk of country to herself, and hopefully some coffee, what more can an Alaskan girl ask for.

Danny

Go Aliy. May the force of so many races and so many wonderful dogs be with you!

Looks like Nic and Jesse H have pulled hook and are headed out after Aliy. The twins are currently in 6th and 7th position!

My calculations of when they have finished their 24 hour rest. So, if we we say 3 hours between Takotna and 2.5 hours between McGrath and Takotna.
So, if this is correct, Joar will pass Ophir around 23, that is 3 hours in front of Nicolas. Jessie Royer also will be in front of Nicolas, while Peter Kaiser will be close behind. Travis Beals might be in Ophir around the time when Nicolas leaves, but Travis will have gone all the way from McGrath and will perhaps take some rest in Ophir.

I haven't tried to calculate anything regarding Aliy here, we will have to look at that when we know what she's doing (Iditarod or all the way to yukon) and when she arrives at Iditarod.

#28 Joar Leifseth Ulsom can leave at 06th. Mar at 19:56 from Takotna.
#14 Jessie Royer can leave at 06th. Mar at 22:31 from Takotna.
#9 Peter Kaiser can leave at 06th. Mar at 23:25 from Takotna.
#3 Matt Hall can leave at 07th. Mar at 00:49 from Takotna.

#20 Nicolas Petit can leave at 07th. Mar at 02:12 from Ophir.
#51 Travis Beals can leave at 06th. Mar at 20:53 from McGrath.

#29 Richie Diel can leave at 07th. Mar at 00:04 from Takotna.
#32 Mitch Seavey can leave at 07th. Mar at 00:35 from Takotna.
#17 Matthew Failor can leave at 07th. Mar at 01:22 from Takotna.

#5 Jessie Holmes can leave at 07th. Mar at 08:54 from Ophir.
#38 Aaron Burmeister can leave at 07th. Mar at 09:16 from Ophir.

flowerpower wrote:Looks like Nic and Jesse H have pulled hook and are headed out after Aliy. The twins are currently in 6th and 7th position!

Jessie H. has only stayed for three hours or so, Nic has stayed for almost 12 so he will stay. But it's a bit irritating that his tracker is always green, so it looks like he is moving.

Agree on Nic's tracker - I had to keep going back to look at it - is he twitching to leave, what? Same with Jessie H - he's not going anywhere.

Joar's is the same way - why is his sled on the east side of town? I wondered if he was making some repairs, but it's more likely the tracker got obscured by something and has gone to sleep.

Danny's such a great writer and knows what the heck he's talking about. He paints a beautiful picture.

Joar will pass Ophir around 23, that is 3 hours in front of Nicolas. Jessie Royer also will be in front of Nicolas, ...

This is good news - I had no idea Joar was that "far" ahead.

Anyone know how the condition are on the coast? Is it icy or snowy there?

I heard snowy and thick. Not good for Pete.

No, I was a bit surprised when I accumulated their rest and running speed in the graph (the y-axis is accumulated minutes), that Joar had been significantly faster than the rest. But it also shows that it is quite close.

Uh-oh, doesn't sound like Peter's year

Charlie Benja 24ing in Takotna-broke both runners on sled; glad he shipped a 2nd sled to McGrath. Paid someone to bring it to him in Takotna. Almost didn't send out a 2nd sled, because he never uses it. Really glad he went ahead and sent it out!

DeeDee interview in Takotna-all the dogs are resting well. I notices they aren't curled up in balls-they're stretched out relaxing. You can tell they ran hard to get here. I don't think it matter what position they're in. Its going to be who handles the conditions going forward. I used to be hung up on 24ing in Ophir, then one year dogs looked ready to go, but I wound up hauling 2 into Iditarod. So I learned Takotna is better-if you have a problem it will show up on the way to Ophir and you can drop a dog there. We were pioneering mistakes, too! She misses being in the checkpoints with her dogs-she really likes to cuddle with them, massage them, take care of them. Also loves the culture and the people-they are like family to her and have been through all the good times and bad with her. they are wonderful people who are to be admired and respected. On Aliy-Swenson used to tell us we jockey for position to Ophir, and then everyone goes the same speed from O to I. Aliy is making use of that piece of wisdom. It will depend on the trail. Some of us tried it the year Sorlie won-we slogged over during the day, then at night the trail set up behind us and King and others made the run about 6 hours faster than we had. A class wanted to know if she still runs for fun-ABSOLUTELY! When do you start training them?-we start them as puppies, running along, then they go into harness and are mentored by older dogs. Dee also has labs, and has since she was 17 and is training one for search and rescue right now.

Anyone subscribed with the tracker -- how is Aliy progressing to Iditarod? Distance and speed?
Thank you for keeping us outsiders informed!