CB300: Chistochina Update

Both teams are now out of the Chistochina checkpoint and on their way to Meiers Lake checkpoint, some 73 miles away.

We have an UNOFFICIAL arrival time for Aliy and the Red Team in to Chistochina at 1.56pm giving them a run time of 2 hours, 40 minutes over the 33.2 mile leg. (She was lead in by Dutch and Scout so either she swapped the leaders around during the run or she actually started the race with Dutch and Scout in lead, I’m not sure which.) After what looks to have been about two hours of rest, the team left at around 4pm.

We don’t know exactly when Allen and the Black Team checked in to Chisto but they are now back on the trail also after (according to the Trackleaders tracker data) about the same rest time of two hours.

We are awaiting official times to be updated on the CB300 website.

In a comparison of Aliy’s and Allen’s speed charts, below, from the tracking statistics for the first leg, you’ll see Allen’s is much more “stop-start”. This is presumably showing all the passing manoeuvres they will have had to negotiate, hence why mushers prefer a low bib number to start the race. We will likely see this reflected in the run time.

Aliy’s (top) and Allen’s speed charts for the first run into Chisto

The various strategies come in to play now as mushers spent differing amounts of time at rest in Chisto. A few mushers blew straight through the checkpoint while others chose to stay a few hours. Now is where the ‘total elapsed time’ that Macgellan was talking about earlier (see here) becomes the race indicator.

The focus for our teams at the checkpoint was to get a good meal into the dogs and get some rest after the fast first leg, ready to climb the hills into Meiers Lake. Aliy and Allen will be ski-poling and running hard up the hills to give the dogs as much help as they can, so it’s important they themselves got some rest, fluid and sustenance.

Have y’all noticed the new feature on the GP tracker? They have an elevation map at the bottom and you can move the “pin” anywhere on the map and it will tell you the elevation! You can see they are heading uphill for about the first 75 miles with a few peaks to come after that!

We’re having some trouble making contact with the handling crew at the moment so we’ll get pics and details when we can.