Iditarod > Ophir > McGrath Headed Home...

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Re: Iditarod > Ophir > McGrath Headed Home...

Postby elsietee » Fri Mar 12, 2021 12:11 pm

Dallas in ID:
Didn't realise that Richie/Pete/Joar had stopped 20 miles out - hadn't anticipated that option. Doesn't think it makes any difference as far as what he, Dallas, is doing. He thinks he has a good plan for his team (which is the only thing that matters) - forget about what everyone else is doing. But after McGrath, what the others do may affect what he does.

Speculating on the run lengths for R-P-J:
I guess they're lined up to go ...I don't quite understand that one... that gives them 95 miles back to Ophir, gives them 135 back to McG - both are kind of odd numbers. I guess they do McGrath in two legs - do a 50-60 and then a long 80 or something, then they do this whole loop in three runs.


One of his plans was, if they ran the schedule they did, they'd be in front - by just a little bit - and we were - a two hour lead or something. The effects of that is that if you're behind, you feel pressure, you feel like you have to catch up, you have to do something big and bold and crazy - that if you didn't do that, you'd be four hours behind and you'd never catch up. So one of the things I was hoping, was that people would do crazy stuff leaving their 24, trying to catch up. Which will make them weaker - I fully expected them to catch up, I think they will - but I want them to be as weak as possible when they do <laughs>. That's how my strategy works. If they're an hour or two ahead of me, that's fine, I just need to have the strongest dog team, so I have to figure out what makes my team be strongest relative to the competition.


[Ed - I'm not sure anyone took the bait :) ]

Dogs would probably eat another 5 lbs, but he prefers to keep them just a little hungry, so when he goes back to feed them later they'll wolf it down.

The cold weather helped - he was worried they wouldn't eat well in the warm on the 24. All the dogs had been eating, but not in unison, which meant he was running circles trying to keep up with all their personal schedules, so he was hoping to get them all on one schedule it makes life easier.
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Re: Iditarod > Ophir > McGrath Headed Home...

Postby elsietee » Fri Mar 12, 2021 12:13 pm

Q to Dallas:
"How have you changed since your time off?"

I dont' know, I've gotten older, a little more sour <grins>, surlier probably.
...
I feel like I know more than I did before, which I should, eh? otherwise we're not really growing?
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Re: Iditarod > Ophir > McGrath Headed Home...

Postby elsietee » Fri Mar 12, 2021 12:18 pm

Lev at Don's Cabin:

COuple of places on the Gorge that were momentarily terrifying. One spot where the trail split - could see a BLM trail marker to the right and the ID marker on the left, and the dogs took the right and I was in the process of trying to decide what to do about it when I hit a tree square on. Sled's wedged, dogs are stuck. He unhooked them, one runner was bent, but the sled would still drive so he turned it all around and drove right out of there. It's still bent. :)

Best part? Hard to say - parts where the dogs are doing really well, and parts that he really enjoys seeing - but they aren't necessarily at the same time.

Dogs did amazing on the trail to Nik, but now that it's colder and the trail is harder they have picked up speed and that's why he stopped here - he didn't want to go all the way to ID at 9 mph - not in their best interests. Don't want any sore ones. He'll rest 2-2.5 hours - just enough to let them wind down.
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Re: Iditarod > Ophir > McGrath Headed Home...

Postby elsietee » Fri Mar 12, 2021 12:30 pm

Mushers look COLD coming into Ophir - dogs are frosty.

Richie - says he wants to do his 8 in Ophir - hoping there would be heat in the tent/cabin (not sure what it is) for mushers - there had been last time they were there, but Bruce tells him there's no heat in there.

Pete, asked how he deals with the cold "I sit there and shiver. Luckily there were some hills, so you had to run up them and keep warm. Wouldn't be surprised if it was 50 below".

Pete-OP-2.JPG


Joar: Couldn't understand why his toes were so cold - now he knows it was 50 below - that would explain it. Had to start up his cooker and warm up his toes before he did anything because he was worried he'd frostbit them. Has been having some dog issues, but they're eating good. Taking his 8 at Ophir - waiting for the sun to come up. All he could think about was in two weeks he'll be in Florida visiting his new family.

Joar-OP-2.JPG


Ryan - proud of his dogs, they're doing really good. One lead dog belonging to his day - Whip - is a superstar for the team. The first time he'd run him was the day before the race. He's been in lead the whole time - was in single lead going to ID. Still has a lot to learn, but has a lot of potential. Acknowledges that Dallas has a beautiful dog team and is out of reach of his team, but he's learning a lot - and not giving up yet.
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Re: Iditarod > Ophir > McGrath Headed Home...

Postby elsietee » Fri Mar 12, 2021 12:47 pm

It is 52 below in Ophir.

Brent: "Great! I knew it felt good out here!"

Bruce says Dallas has a cushion and about a two hour lead. But says Brent's dogs look great, so he may be able to nibble away at that lead.

Bandwidth wasn't good enough in ID to upload anything - equipment wasn't working well enough to upload anything. Then they had a power outage in Ophir, so couldn't get anything uploaded there either. Sent the videos on a hard drive to McGrath on a snowmachine to upload there.

Aaron B arriving in Ophir - says he wants to park near a bank, so it's easier to cook for them [to be out of the wind?].

Travis Beals arrived just behind Aaron and I watched on the live cam for a while. It seemed to take him forever to get his team placed - first they went over to the right where Aaron was, then moved over to the left where R-P-J were. Then the dogs went at 90 degrees, so they moved them back. Seemed quite inefficient (but then again, I'm not sleep deprived :) ). The vols also had to skip all the dog poop out the way (I'd wondered why they hadn't done it beforehand - but now see that, no, I wouldn't have wanted to do it in 50 below temps either :) ).
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Re: Iditarod > Ophir > McGrath Headed Home...

Postby elsietee » Fri Mar 12, 2021 5:53 pm

Dallas back in McG again:

Took his 24 there on the way out - and had done a series of pretty aggressive runs going into that 24. Then going out to ID and back he did a series of runs that were less aggressive, but not sustainable - with the goal of recuperating at the 8 rest back in McG. Then another 8 hour rest in Skwentna - it goes with out saying that the next few runs will also not be sustainable - but we're racing.

Thinks the trail to Nik will be really, really fast. Still has 13 dogs, no reason to drop anyone so he make take his bigger sled with the trailer with him for one more leg, allowing him to carry some dogs and take advantage of that super-fast trail. ...If it is a super-fast trail - he'll probably take a walk down to the river to check it out. He's been looking forwards to getting rid of his trailer for a long time and if the trail keeps being just good enough to mess with it, he'll keep it for a bit longer. Also depends on what the others do when they show up.

This next section [McG > Nik] is his favorite portion of the race - it's where you actually get to race after training all year.

The first third of the race is getting the dogs into a routine and a habit. Second third is putting the team in position. The last third is actually racing.

"My goal is to win as easily as possible. You have to find a way that your team can win (a real chance, rather than unforeseen weather, etc), give them the opportunity to do it (if they can go 9 mph on the next section they will. If they only go 7 mph, then they aren't a winning team - you don't get one of those every year. The the "easily as possible" is about not taking any unnecessary risks - be efficient at all times, make the whole race as easy as possible for the dogs. So often you see people doing really flashy stuff - a big monster run, and then have to take a huge rest afterwards - ... was that the easiest way for your team to have covered that trail. And usually if it was a noteworthy run, the answer is usually no. "

All the while he was talking about this, he was carefully smearing goop on dog's feet.
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Re: Iditarod > Ophir > McGrath Headed Home...

Postby elsietee » Fri Mar 12, 2021 6:21 pm

Bruce's (in Ophir) take on the front runners:

Those who have already taken their 8 (Ryan) puts them 4 hours closer than those who haven't (Dallas, Brent, Wade).

Says the trail must be fast (and that Dallas has a strong team) based on how fast they went. The cold weather has set the trail up to be fast.

Wade - really made a push to stay in the mix - went through Ophir fast, wasting no time. Bruce thinks his dogs will be a little more tired because Wade had to push to get in position.

Brent - team looks rock solid - eating great, good attitude.

Richie - same team that he won Kusko 300 with - has strong leaders. Biggest advantage has depth in leaders

Pete - doing OK, eating well in Ophir. Had to nurture them - they had gone off their feed earlier in the race - thinks that team is a little fragile. It's Pete's mastery of taking care of dogs that has put him in Ophir.

Joar - hard to read. Nothing really holding him back, he's running just behind Pete and Richie, but staying behind them. Dogs seem fine, but Bruce doesn't know if he has the speed to go against Ryan, Brent, Richie or Dallas.

Eventually they're going to have to put the pedal down. Somewhere around Rohn/Rainy Pass, mushers are going to have to make some decisions on rest.

55 below zero in Ophir overnight. "Only" 25 below tonight. Dogs like it cold - but maybe not that cold. Hydration is hard when it's cold. 55 below is really stressful on the mushers - they have to dig deep. The vets last night had all their big parkas and ruffs on. Now it's "only " 15-20 below, they're all stripping off their heavy clothing because it feels "great". Now we're in a really good temp for dogs.
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Re: Iditarod > Ophir > McGrath Headed Home...

Postby elsietee » Fri Mar 12, 2021 6:27 pm

Brent in McG:
Feels like he's running his team, not looking at what others are doing. Happy with his position - but a lot of race left. From here is where you actually start racing. Looking forwards to going up the Gorge - something new. Has heard there's snow in the Buffalo Tunnels.



Jeff Deeter in Ophir:
Race started really great... until outbound Ophir - dogs had a bit of a stomach bug in the last 36 hours, so he's had to dial back his plan. Lives in Fairbanks, so used to cold, but still learned a sweet trick in McGrath - Joar put plastic bags over his socks, so the moisture from your feet doesn't leach into your boot liner, so it keeps your feet so much warmer. So last night, at 40 below, his feet were toasty warm.

His leads dogs Moose and 40 have been doing great. Moose is three and ran the ID with his team last year, but not leading. He has some confidence issues, so when the going gets tough, he'll sometimes hold back a little, but this race he's been doing really good. He likes a hard-packed trail and they've had a lot of that. It's 40's 4th ID and he's a rock star.
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Re: Iditarod > Ophir > McGrath Headed Home...

Postby Fool » Fri Mar 12, 2021 8:25 pm

Wow, Mille Porsild's team crushed the run to McGrath! 4 hours, 2 minutes -- almost an hour faster than anyone else. She's run a great race so far; I'm really interested to see if she could potentially crack into the top three if some of these other teams falter.
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Re: Iditarod > Ophir > McGrath Headed Home...

Postby elsietee » Fri Mar 12, 2021 10:18 pm

And lookit Michelle Phillips appearing out of nowhere!

Anyhoo - last batch of videos, then I'm done for the night:

Aaron B in McG:
This is what I've been building the team for the whole race - it took a lot of patience. Took my 8 early on, to put that rest in the tank. did his 24 at Ophir to keep the dogs fresh - put him behind, but then he wasn't racing, so he'd concentrate on his own race. This is his 20th ID - he's won all the "first to" awards, except first to the finish line, so that's his goal. Still has 14 strong, healthy dogs. Very happy the way the plan has come together. Has the luxury of sending any dog home. 14 is a lot of work at this stage. It's more dog power than he needs, but he's going to stick with them as long as he can. Has made lots of mistakes over the years, and has learned from all of them.


Richie in Ophir:
The dog "bug" has been moving through all the teams, but he's only dealt with it a little bit - it hit Pete and Joar's team worse. Richie's dogs have more appetite and are perkier. Said they hadn't planned to camp at the cabin 20 miles from ID, and he and Pete had discussed camping half way, but the dogs were going so nice, they opted to keep going, and then got really good rest that cold night in the cabin. Says there's still a lot of race left.

Talks about his leaders - Myer has been doing a lot, along with Debi... every now and again he throws in his old leader. Then he laughs - he has a 3 yr old, Tonto, who was injured during Kusko 300, so didn't race. <laughs> Says he's not a great gee-haw leader, and he's not great at passing teams - found that out at a head on <laughs> - but man, he drives and he goes forward.


Travis in Ophir:
Headed to McG - for his lighter sled for the mountains - no more luxury seat behind him, he'll have to stand up. Dogs are performing well, but not the most enthused about it. but then, neither is he. Says not a chance of winning at this point... (he sounds tired).
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