Races
March 4, 2018 by

We were excited and relieved to get both teams on the trail this afternoon at Willow Lake. It was a beautiful, crisp and sunny early spring day as 67 teams set off on their adventures.

The logistics/start marshall had conveniently parked both our trucks next to each other which made it so much easier to set up and for us to figure the logistics of getting both teams to the chute so close together!

Both teams were more than ready to get going, humans included. Poor Decaf was about losing his mind in excitement.

First out was the Black Team lead by Chena and Daisy, Amber and QT in swing followed by Sanka and Tinder, Schmoe and Perky, Ginger and Jefe, McCaw and Barista, Decaf and Willie with Bruno and M in wheel.

Ten minutes later we had the Red Team out! Aliy had Dutch and Spark in lead, Commando and Cayenne in swing, Kodiak and Chipper, Clyde and Champ, Five and Rodney, Diver and Nomes, Scooby and Junior with Felix and Violet in wheel.

It’s a complicated tracker picture at the moment with all the teams so close together. The first checkpoint of Skwentna is at race mile 83 and as of now (9:40pm Alaska Time) the Red Team is at 74 and the Black at 69. Obviously that means Aliy passed Allen. Aliy often says the worst passes in a race are between our teams because the dogs know each other so well and they know the voices of the mushers so well. If Aliy says “on by”, ALL the dogs think she is talking to them, and vice versa.

Below is a screen shot from the Iditarod Insider GPS Tracker. An Insider package really is the best way to watch the race so I would recommend, if you can, to treat yourself. The analytics on the tracker can show you run/rest times, speed charts and comparisons between mushers, and tell a story in much more detail than simply a leaderboard. The videos show us behind the scenes of the race and the teams.

I have lots of pictures and some video from the Restart to work through and share with you tomorrow and over the next few days. Stay tuned…

Recent Posts

10 Responses

  • We are all in race mode right along with you! Sure looks like Skwenta is a dog parking lot right now on the tracker! Love the picture of Aliy and Libby on Iditarod.com…..and Libby’s parting words “Just win it”!

    Also a nice picture of I think Barista doing a stand up and look forward with the caption “Whats going on up there” under the picture…..too cute!

    Yup….its all about getting up a little earlier, maybe a few times through the night to check in…hug your dogs and say….look at SPK go!

  • Off they are! The GPS tracker is the best and besides that, it supports the race. I see Allen
    paired Decaf and Perky with the veterans. Any wonder? Looking good! Go SPK!

  • I saw #26 & #31 side by side on the tracker last night and wondered how difficult it would be to pass each other because they were seeing their kennel buddies. I had not thought about the fact that the dogs were hearing commands from both their mushers. That must be especially confusing for the young team.

  • Thanks so much for the lovely start pix of the teams!!!

    Iditarod doing a great job on Insider, GPS and data pages, too!!! WOOF WOOF WOOF

    GO RED TEAM!!! GO BLACK TEAM!!!

  • I think we were right with Decaf about to lose our minds! A 10hr trip each day Sat/Sun so we missed both starts! I mean ran into the house to catch live ReStart and they were on 35. ARGH
    Love the sport, but gotta tell you, nice to see a focus on so many mushers “other than” Dallas. HAHA

    Safe travels to both teams. Wanna see Aliy win and Decaf make it to the finish!!! Heh, maybe he needs a nickname like some of the others…like NoDecaf, or DoubleShot!

    Go SPK Refresh, refresh, refresh

    • PS Decaf is getting quite a name for himself on the Iditarod Live Chat!! As is Allen moving well with the young team!

  • As soon as I woke up I was on my computer and checking the tracker and looking for updates on SPK! Laughed out loud when readying the “On by” comment in your post! Reading the news in the Insider and found the photo of Aliy and Libby talking prior to the restart…..and LOVED the quote from Libby “Just win it!” Armchair mushing has begun! Have my Red Team hat on my head and am cheering loudly for ALL of the SPK team – dogs and humans!

Comments are closed.