by elsietee » Sun Mar 12, 2023 9:54 am
Let's review the overnight excitement on the trail between Kaltag and Unk:
(this is complicated by the clocks going forward, so I may mess up some times. Further complicated by the fact that the replay tracker time appears to jump backwards an hour before jumping forwards two hours)
Kaltag = mile 652
Unk = mile 733
Distance = 81 mile
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As predicted, Ryan ran all the way from Kal to Unk in one run. I don't see any blips on the tracker showing he stopped for more than a very quick snack. He had good speed the whole way, but in reality only pulled out a mile or two on Pete.
Pete passed Richie around 685, 33 miles into the run and by the time they stopped, Pete was about 1.5 mile ahead of him.
Pete stopped 16 miles from Unk - in the video interview he seemed pretty positive with where he was at and said he was happy with what the team had done. He said he wasn't "a big, crazy move kind of guy - unless you have the team for it at the end - and you hope to save that for the end. I hope we have something we can do here at the end, but the whole race has been setting the team up for ... being able to go up the coast with a strong team and decent speed can be a huge benefit to that team, so that's what we've been trying to do". He says he's tired, ready for a real night's sleep, but "this is what we sign up for. A lot of miles back there dozing off, and I don't know sometimes how I don't lose the sled". He says he had to pull out his toothbrush and brush his teeth vigorously to wake himself up. This was the first night he really struggled with falling asleep.
He rested at 3:15 am (and Richie stopped almost identically behind him... could he see Pete's light up ahead?). At 7 am, he was off again (rest = 3:45)
Richie rested a little longer - 4.5 hours - presumably hoping to put some speed back into the team.
By the time Pete went through Unk, he was 52 mins behind (he left Kaltag 37 mins behind Ryan).
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Further back, there were lots of strategies in play.
Jessie set out and stopped at Tripod Flats (? mile 678) rested for 5.5 hours (?)(his other stats show 4 hours, so not clear) 26 miles into the run (Dan Kaduce is resting in the same spot right now - note at this point, he has been the only one to go through Kaltag without stopping). Jessie got going before Nic and Christian passed him.
Next out was Eddie who stopped at Old Woman Cabin (mile 695) 4:50 am for 3 hours. While he was resting, rabbiting Matt Hall passed him, along with Wade, and a FLYING Hunter (who had already passed Matt Failor and Kelly on the trail ahead of him). Hunter sneakily pulled in just 1,500 ft further down the trail - keeping an eye on Eddie?). Eddie was joined by Matt Failor and Kelly at Old Woman.
Matt Hall ultimately stopped at 7:00 am, while Wade passed him and stopped a couple of miles down the trail at 7:40 am. They were about 3-4 miles from Richie's resting spot further down the trail.
As soon as Eddie jumped up, Hunter followed suit, starting out right ahead of him (sneaky!). Hunter passed a resting Hall at 9:15, while Eddie passes Hall 12 minutes later (have to see how that time differs at Unk).
Mille showed up at Old Woman at 8:15 am. About five miles before that, she has a weird blip on her tracker where she appears to go backwards for a few hundred feet... wondering what that was about?...
It looks like Christian is pulling into Old Woman as I type this at 9:40.
Kelly rested for 3 hours at Old Woman, pulling out right before Christian got there.
(the tracker is doing this weird creeping thing where it shows the musher going down the trail very, very slowly ahead of when they actually start moving. Saw this with both Jessie and Matt Hall's trackers leaving Kaltag, and Kelly's does the same at Old Woman).
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elsietee AT ponyhill DOT org
Repotted english person in the Sierra foothills, CA
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