Video Snippets

[elsietee]

Don't know how much of these I'll be able to do, since I'm busy-busy for the next couple of weeks, but I'll do my best to insert any that seem really interesting.

This morning's was a vid from Crystal Lake (shortly after the start) of Lance Mackey (and a short bit with Joar at the end):

Lance: has missed a few of the races since 2001 and says it stings a little bit. Been busy raising his two young kids and getting treatment. There are teams in the race with some of his dogs, so he's still being a part of it. It's the first time he's been to Crystal Lake. His kids are running around and he tells them to stand and watch the dogs go by. Says he has every intention of raising his kids around the sport. He says that for 10 days during the ID you feel like "someone".

Ramey Smyth goes by and greets him, followed by Kristy Berington who yells "Hey Lance, I have something for you from my mom!". Lance blushes and says he knows the twins' mom, who's married to a musher, and they tell Lance "Three mushers in our family, and you're still my mom's favorite".

Joar: A lot of new dogs - five have started before, three have finished, some 2.5 yr olds, borrowed three dogs [from Hanna Lyrek], so he's going to take it easy for a bit.

[Moose]

Ahh, Lance. You sure are missed, guy. Wishing you and your family well and happy. <3

[fladogfan]

Was thinking about Lance today, missing him and some others as well.

[Another UK Fan]

Thanks for posting LCT

[flowerpower]

I'm not LCT, but here's a few:
Reddington 1st to RP, says he saw some moose and one ran on the trail in front of him for about 3/4 of a mile. Dogs were excited, Ryan was "a little nervous". Says it was uneventful otherwise. Passed a lot of teams camping. All playing leapfrog. Doing something different-usually averaging 11mph but has them doing 9.5 this year, stepping on drag as needed.
Deke Naaktgeboren with broken brake before Finger Lake -dogs stopping every 15 minutes or so to dip snow. His brake bar snapped in Skwentna. They found him a drill so he could repair it.
Burmeister Camping Before Rainy Pass Checkpoint-wants to get safely through the Dalzell and out of Rohn. Changing up strategy stopping so I can run through Rohn and go slow through the dangerous technical part. Just wants them to walk through it-doesn't want any speed, just get safely through.
Matt Failor's Run to Finger Lake-left in heat of day, stopped every hour to let dogs cool off. Plans to take a nap and eat some food.
Dan Kaduce in Rainy Pass-trail was good, didn't see the poor conditions they were warning us about. It was kinda warm. Haven't seen any moose.Too early to know how team is doing. Will rest here 5 hours.
Travis Beals Camps & Talks Running for His Dogs-My opportunity to help the dogs. If we're going uphill, my job is to be off the sled and running. Need to find your inner kid and run everywhere. I should be in good shape but man it seems harder. Really been trying to take pressure off them going up the hills.
Jeff Deeter Talks Race Strategy -couple of different schools of thought about where the race really starts. If you really want to be competitive you have to be thinking about it from the start. Speed can be a real killer. Just trying to get over Alaska range healthy at this point.
Riley Dyche on Prepping for the Trail-Every year we have a big snow there are horror stories about how bad the trail will be, how it will be trenched out. But it seems like it sets up super nice. Nice trail all the way here.
Liz Asks Matthew the Tough Questions-Have you been eating and sleeping? YES! Are you staying regular? YES! How are the dogs? Dogs are doing great, have been rotating some of the leaders. One that Liz trained-you raised her up right. Didn't plan on staying in RP, but it's hot, just staying a couple of hours to let it cool off. Thanks Liz, parents, helpers for all they are doing. New sponsor from Ohio, very appreciative. I don't have to worry about all the broken stuff at home while I'm out here. Feels like a vacation, can just focus on the dogs.

[elsietee]

Heister tweaked his back so got flown back to Anchorage to get fixed up. He’s hoping to get back on the trail.

[elsietee]

Watching a funny vid of them asking mushers what they're eating:

Deke - pizza, baby food, nuts and Reeses peanut buttercups for dessert. He says the baby food is the healthy stuff and that he buys them in bulk at the supermarket with his six year old son in tow - and says the supermarket people probably think he's a horrible parent.

Ryne O - has a healthy bag of something she can't pronounce and can't remember what's in it - a healthy mix of quinoa and other stuff to try and get good vitamins in her, since she prefers to just eat candy and junk. She says there's a place in FBs that made up all these food bags for her.

Jeff - eating the first of Nic's burritos that a catering company made for Nic - says he approves, and that this is the first of the Nic-food he's had, since Nic warned him ahead of time that there wasn't any foot in the drop bags for Skwentna so to carry something.

Sean W - banana bread with a thick slab of butter, some egg and bean burritos, pizza from Hearth in ANC ("which is hard to beat"). Local company - Heather's Choice - something (unclear what - it was packaged), honey stinger waffles, walnuts, 5-hour energy, miso soup ("tastes SO good every time"), single serving coffee, almond butter ("have to hold it under your jacket for a few hours to be able to eat it - 300-400 cals"), Tailwind (caffeinated and not), donut (which he ate first).

He's prodding his food in the cooker (plastic packages sitting in boiling water) and saying "you should film the butter melting for Insider, and then do a slow-mo"... and then they switch to a slow-mo of him eating his banana bread, with inspirational music in the background - it was pretty funny.

[sc-race-fan]

Posting the raking of a team at Rainey Pass.

trim.6E4D1A61-FD33-49EE-90F5-0E16605B5DA2.MOV

[elsietee]

A slew of vids from Cripple when I woke up. And my keyboard is full of toast crumbs and needed a good shake.

Many of the mushers are looking puffy eyed and tired at this point - notably Brent and Jessie. Aaron B, OTOH, has a bright red face.

Brent gets awarded the half-way prize, which he has won before. GCI representative laughs and says he nearly said "Welcome to Iditarod, since that's where they were last time". Brent has the choice between a new phone and a year contract, or gold... the last few years he picked the gold, and this year is no different (phone not too useful for him, living off the grid where there's likely not much cell coverage).

Mitch in Cripple: Has a black eye and talks about falling in the "typical notorious places" and said he didn't enjoy the beating of the rough trail. But he also says he feels better than he usually does - and it's true, he looks alert and, dare I say it, young and smiley.

Ryan in Cripple: Dogs doing really good, eating really well, but says he's too far behind to look to win the race. Likes his team a lot. Says they're slow on the softer trails, but cruise well when the trail is better.

Dallas in Cripple: looks tired. Hasn't been able to look at time sheets until Cripple. Says he thought his team were so far out of this, but now sees that they are still within striking distance. If they start eating, he'll have a heck of a dog team [which suggests his dogs aren't eating properly].

Hugh in Cripple: mentions that the first three teams into Cripple have all won the Yukon Quest. He says the Iditarod trail is much more brutal [which surprised me] and a lot of it is to do with the weather - rocks, dust from the drag mat in your eyes. That's when he realised the ID trail is the ID trail for a reason.

Brent in Cripple: Keep it conservative, don't do any big pushes, keep marching down the trail, maintaining his speed, and mainly keep focusing on his team for the next few hundred miles before he starts thinking about the competition. Dogs eating good - better than they've been eating all race - finally turned a corner in Cripple and eating really well. No injuries, everyone's happy, he walked them all individually while in Cripple. Feels good about them.

Footage of Brent leaving Cripple: "Nice and easy" he calls to his dogs and they look cheerful, trotting along.

Late last night's chat with Bruce, Heister, and Thomas Waerner (who has bed-head - early morning there) in Norway. Heister looks to be dressed warmly, so he might be back out on the trail again. They're talking about the distance between Ruby and Galena (50 miles), Galena and Nulato (38 miles), Nulato to Kaltag (46 miles) (= 134) and how that could be split into two runs. If Bruce figures it right, Brent would arrive in Galena around noon, which would let him rest and take his 8 hours in the heat of the day. [remember this is where Brent messed up that year, and ended up doing a very long run to Nulato in the heat of the day when the trail was bad, and pushed the dogs over the edge, so it's critical to not get in that situation again].

Heister, always pushing for drama, says that Brent must be feeling the pressure having been out front since Willow. Thomas says that you have to be careful to balance how much energy to give to the dogs - you don't want to make them too down, but interestingly, he points out that if you're listening to music and get all pumped up, you can give too *much* energy to the dogs because they speed up too much and waste energy. Thomas says Brent needs to make sure he doesn't transmit any stress to the dogs. [knowing Brent, I don't think this is likely - Brent's motto "Attitude is everything"].

Heister asks if the weather starts to blow on the coast, can you keep your good [blowing snow] leader in front for the whole coast section, or is that too long? Bruce says ideally, you've used other leaders beforehand, but that also sometimes you have a lead dog of a lifetime and many mushers end up keeping the same dog in lead the entire race because the dogs are that good. And that's where mushers talents play in - strategically, knowing how to use your leaders. Thomas says some dogs hate to be put in the team and will perform much better in lead. You just have to look at each dog and how they are. To win, you need really good, hard-headed dogs that will follow/find the trail. He says when there's no trail, it's hard for them to stay on focus. Bruce says he's had dogs that would feel like they were being punished if they don't get put in lead. While others need a rest in the team.

Bruce says Brent's dogs are eating better than most of the other teams (watching them in the checkpoint). He says "some of the other teams" [wondering if he's been watching Dallas' team?]. Thomas agrees that having a team that eats is the best - and when the dogs eat well, they perform better, and when they perform better, everyone feels more positive, so they go down the trail better.

Heister asks if, when on the trail, Thomas looked forward to getting to the Yukon. Thomas says he liked seeing the villages and the cabins, the history of the trail - Old Woman Cabin and how he'd read about Susan Butcher resting there... He says it's special to hit the Yukon, and also special to hit UNK to start that coast section. Says he likes the coast section a lot. But Rainy Pass in the mtns is beautiful... But after going for hours and hours in the same landscape, it's nice to do something different, so arriving on the Yukon - wide and flat - is good. But then after a few days on the Yukon it's good to get off it.

[elsietee]

Looks like they moved the live feed cam to Cripple:

https://iditarod.com/live/

(free to all users)