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.