Kaltag - Unk - Shak - Koyuk - Elim - WM

[elsietee]

cont./

Dallas: if you drop dogs, you may have a smaller team, but you often go faster. If you have ten dogs, but that 10th dog is slow, you'll do better to drop him and his buddy, and go at the speed of your 8th fastest dog.

Heister: mushers get demoralized because they think everyone around them is better.

Dallas: there has never been a musher in the lead who's left Koyuk being 100% confident in the decision they just made.

Pete has to roll the dice at some point... and this might be where to do that.

* * *

Pete arrives - just 35 mins behind!

Bruce: that team did NOT look tired!!! they were wagging their tails, looking around.

Basically - you have to go faster, or rest shorter. That's what Pete has to do to win.

Heister: Is it easier to win when you've won before?

Dallas: Lots of pressure either way - pressure on Ryan because he has the chance to win. Pete has won it before, so has the pressure of that.

Dallas says Ryan's dog team is great, but he still thinks Pete's dog team is just a little bit better.

Bruce: But Pete still has to use that stronger team. We're going to run out of trail.

Dallas: when they do long runs, Pete gets a little bit faster.

But Ryan may regain that speed after the compulsory 8 at WM.

* * *

[They rush off to watch the two teams and see how they eat.

Unclear at this point if Pete is staying or going through, but it sounds like he may be staying. ]

[elsietee]

Interview with Dan Kaduce in Unk with Liz:

Just woke up from a nap and feels more tired than before he went to sleep.

Very happy that it's not blowing and cold in Unk.

Team not super-powerful or fast, but cruising along right now.

Taking it one checkpoint at a time.

Talk about spotting Bigfoot - he says there were some suspicious tracks outside Iditarod.

[Moose]

My heart is racing with your recaps, Elsie! Thank you SO MUCH! When do you take your 8-hour rest?
Bruce REALLY likes Pete's team and keeps stressing how great they look. Without Brent in the race, Pete would likely be my pick to win, but honestly, I'm all in for Ryan at this point.

[mira]

I agree, it would be nice with another Redington win

And thank you so much elsietee

[mira]

Ryan into Elim, Pete is 3-4 miles behind,.has been like that for quite some time. It does look like Pete is running slightly faster on the run times, but not by much.

Richie Diehl hasnfallen back but are looking good, just not as fast as the twocin front. Rest of the top ten isnharder, they leapfrog each other. Right now, Matt and Kelly has left Koyuk

[Breeze]

It will be crowded in WM tonight, at least for a short while. Wish we still had a camera there.

[elsietee]

Exciting evening last night, watching to see how the race unfurled. I stayed up late to watch Richie come in to Koyuk, in case he did something wild like blow through, but alas, he opted to stop and rest.

Matt Hall has done a super-nice job positioning himself into 4th place. He camped out in the Blueberry Hills (13 miles ahead of Kelly on the trail) yesterday morning and then ran all the way to a spot just on the ice past the shelter cabin and snacked there (sneakily - perhaps within sight of the cabin to watch to see if anyone showed up there?). He arrived in Koyuk ahead enough to be able to take a nice 3:45 rest there.

Kelly, OTOH, rested on the shore before the spit. That positioned him to be able to go through Koyuk - but Matt timed his departure perfectly, leaving right as Kelly arrived, so Kelly never saw him. They are now just a mile apart - one with a rested team, the other not.

As of departing Koyuk, Kelly is 45 miles into his run, so unless he's doing a really crazy move, he should rest again before WM. Matt, OTOH, in theory could go all the way to WM - resting short somewhere along the way.

Further back, even though Hunter was 20 mins faster than Eddie arriving in Shak so overtook him on the trail, Eddie took a good 5:15 break there and still left earlier than Hunter who always rests long (Hunter stayed in Shak 6:15).

Eddie was able to maintain that lead (again, despite Hunter going faster - making the run to Koyuk nearly 30 mins faster) and they are both resting in Koyuk as I type this - Eddie having arrived 1:15 sooner than Hunter - so it'll be interesting to see their next two (?) runs to WM.

Matt Failor is also moving fast. He went from Old Woman to Unk (rested 3:10) to Shak (rested 3:30) and went on to Koyuk, arriving 10 mins ahead of Eddie (and matching Hunter's run time). This has put him into 6th place - for now.

As I type this, Jessie just arrived in Koyuk and is going through. Jessie said in Unk that he was planning to "mix it up" - and indeed he rested in a really odd place out on the ice of Norton Sound around mile 792 (it was such a weird place I didn't even note the mileage, thinking he was snacking). He is only 35 miles into his run, so should go a ways further so he can make the 94 mile run to WM shorter.

[this will really mess with my head, trying to figure out where he is in relation to Eddie/Hunter/Matt - will have to keep an eye on his tracker].

Mille just pulled in behind Jessie H at Koyuk. She last rested in the Blueberry Hills, but after dropping a dog (is down to 8 now), is also going through (which surprised me - I can't see her going too far past Koyuk... She's 77 miles into this run.)

Wade is currently coming over Norton Sound, and should stay in 11th place after resting for 4+ hours in Shak.

Camera man reporting it's 1°F/ -17°C in Koyuk and was snowing lightly.

[elsietee]

Monday 1 pm Update:

* Ryan is nearly to Golovin on the bay.

* Pete (with 8 dogs) got within about 4-5 miles of Ryan, but shut the Team down in a "planned rest" (per his kennel) at Elim. He has been there 4 hours so far. Guessing he has gone into conservative mode - to make sure he still has a team to race with if the opportunity arises - but really, unless something happens, Ryan is firmly in the top position.

* Richie (also with 8 dogs) pulled into Elim 3 hours behind Pete - so it'll be interesting to see what he does when Pete leaves.

* Matt Hall is making consistent time to Elim. The trail is on land this year, because of lack of ice on this side of Norton Sound.

* Mille went 91 miles on this run!!! (last rested for 5.5 hours in the Blueberry Hills)

* Kelly has pulled over about a third of the way to Elim, as expected, and will rest and then run all the way to WM... can he stay ahead of Holmes/Failor/Eddie/Hunter? Depends how long he rests. They are less than an hour from his position.

* Jessie pulled over for a 1.5 hour rest a few miles outside Koyuk and got going before Eddie reached him.

* Eddie pulled out of Koyuk just 13 mins ahead of Matt Failor, with 20 mins less rest on his team. Matt was faster than Eddie coming over the ice, and sure enough, has overtaken Eddie after just ten miles. Those two are just a couple of miles behind Jessie.

* Hunter just left Koyuk after resting 4+ hours. Apparently he has a dog in heat and had some difficulty leaving - the dogs were much more interested in sniffing straw and bushes and getting tangled up. It was like herding cats there for a few minutes, as he untangled one and while his back turned, another would tangle itself. He switched a few dogs around and once they finally got going, they bounded out of there. He left about 1.5 hours after Matt (and they made the same time coming in over the ice). I'd guess that (based on past performance) he'll be able to catch Eddie, but maybe not Matt. But his team look really good, so he'll have fun.

* Wade is still resting in Koyuk.

* Dan Kaduce is running 9.7 mph going over the ice and most of the way to Koyuk.

* * *

Further back, Christian seems to be having some issues - he left Shak after 7 hours rest, but only went about five miles before stopping for 15 mins, going a little further, then turning around and going back to the checkpoint - a 1.5 hour excursion.

[tanglefoot]

Its Ryan’s to loose now, Pete stopped in Elim and gave the lead to Ryan.

[flowerpower]

Fingers crossed! Would LOVE to Ryan win!!!!