It’s 7pm Thursday
RED TEAM UPDATE
After moving through Ophir, the Red Team camped on the trail at mile 389 which was likely “Don’s Cabin” with a bunch of other teams. They stayed four hours in the “heat” of the day then continued towards the halfway point – Iditarod checkpoint.
There are a number of teams in front of them which can be good or bad for the trail – they are either breaking the trail and packing it down, or churning it up and making it worse. The interviews with incoming mushers will give us an idea of that.
They are currently 10 miles outside of Iditarod and moving at around 7 miles an hour.
BLACK TEAM UPDATE
Allen and 13 team mates left Takotna after their 24 hour break and are on the trail to Ophir, just 18 miles away. We are uncertain at this stage who he left with the vet team in Takotna but will let you know as soon as we find out. Thanks for your patience.
The Insider crew did a great interview with Allen about what it takes to run the youngsters in a 1000 miles race. Essentially: PATIENCE. It shows some great shots of the team and of him walking them around to stretch their legs.
We have looked over the video many times and have been able to narrow his missing dog down, going by who we can positively identify but unfortunately we still don’t know for certain as the pictures don’t show the entire team, and I just don’t want to speculate yet. Hang tight, we’ll figure it out soon.
If you haven’t already, check out the daily photos on the Iditarod website for pics by Jeff Schultz. You’ll see a great pic of Chena sleeping in McGrath and of Allen holding Spark and Dutch as Aliy prepares to leave Takotna.
Haha…good thing Allen’s video isn’t on an old-timey reel. We went over it a few dozen times too and it would be worn out!
Aliy is plugging away strong. Let them eat her conserved dust later on. Running her game. Love it.
Allen soon to be on his way. Safe trails everyone!
My bad. Allen IS on his way! Go team
I love the II interview with Allen!
“What it Takes to Drive A Puppy Team to Nome”
That is special.
🙂
I really liked that interview with Allen too. He can be a man of few words, but in this case, he was more than willing to share what it means to groom youngsters for the big time.
..
I noticed this a few times during the race. Aliy is going a long a good clip, stops to rest and then the team slows down by 1+ mph. What’s up with that? Is she deliberately keeping them slower or do they lose some spark after the rest – except that makes no sense at all and so, I will sit here trying to figure out what I can’t possibly from where I sit, which is at home behind my computer .. sigh
PS – looks like Nick Petit is the one to beat at this point. He is already on his way to Shageluk and has completed his 24. Amazing.
Its nice to see so much coverage of Allen and the Black Team….I think commentators/press gravitate to him because they all want to know how the Yukon Quest Champ is doing with the SPK JV Team…plus he is such a cool guy to interview with that southern drawl of his! Got to love Allen! The Black Team sure knows how to pose for a photo!
Watching the videos this am there appears to be a theme…lots of snow machine traffic churning up the soft trail. That has to be a bummer for a Team that one moment has a good trail and then 8 machines pass and they drop down to 5 or 6 mph.
Still half a race to go….my favorite video this am was of Aliy, Jessie and Wade chatting about the trail and the race in general. Fierce competitors but at the same time they can sit down and have a nice chat and some laughs!
Go SPK! I also liked the video of Aliy, Jessie, and Wade talking about the trail. The pictures on the Iditarod website are amazing! The one of Chena resting is so cute!