On The Way To Pleasant Valley

Currently both Aliy and the Red Team and Chris and the R&B200 teams are on the trail to Pleasant Valley Store, some 55 miles away. Wes and the R&B100s are still resting and will see out their mandatory four hours plus time differential (an extra four minutes).

Tonight all trails really do lead to Pleasant Valley Store!

The Red Team took four hours rest at the Lodge so were back out on the trail at 8.36pm. Aliy had all 12 team mates with her. She said her run from Chatanika was really good apart from the tangle on the road where she lost a few minutes trying to sort it out. Dutch and Izzy are doing really well in lead and she intends to keep them there as long as they are happy. Spark was working on his goal for the race – to lay down at the checkpoints without assistance – and so far he wasn’t really reaching it BUT there are two checkpoints to go! Oh Sparky, you have to rest, young man!

They had the 3rd fastest run time for the leg.

Chris and his R&B200 team arrived into the checkpoint at 6.01pm with a run time of 5 hours and 9 minutes. He said his run was smooth and the dogs are doing well. He rested at the Lodge for three hours so was back on the trail at 9.01pm with all 12 team mates. Chris’ pre-race plan had him staying only three hours at the checkpoint (as opposed to Aliy’s four) as he has a lot of youngsters who, as expected, didn’t rest that well at the first checkpoint. He will catch up that hour at one of the later checkpoints when they are more ready for the rest. Chena and Lester were still leading the team when they left the checkpoint.

Wes and his R&B100 team had a great run. They all had fun and had a very good run time of 5 hours 8 minutes over the 50 miles. Evidently Rodney got a bit over excited when they were checking in and having the mandatory gear check – he spun round and round and wound his tug like in such a knot that he managed to break free! Luckily Ryne Olson who was officiating at the checkpoint was there to catch him before he started socialising with the other teams.

We expect this next leg to take around 5-6 hours so Aliy and Chris will be in during the wee small hours. We can expect Wes and his team to finish around 3.30-4.30am and everyone will go straight to bed so I will get some details from him tomorrow.

We also have more pics from the start to share when we get a chance to catch up. Two Rivers Lodge and Pleasant Valley Store checkpoints are all during darkness hours so we have limited photo ops.

EDIT: DROPPED DOG UPDATE – The team has just let me know that Wes has just officially dropped Nacho from the team so he won’t be leaving with them for the final leg. He has a bit of a sore shoulder and just needs some rest and massage (which he will enjoy!!). It’s not a major injury but Wes didn’t want him to injure it further on this 55 mile run.