SPK Dog Log

Time 8:50am Race Mile 425

Woohoo! Off they go after their 25 hour 10 minute rest in Cripple. Aliy as all 13 dogs with her. She now has the first of the two green ‘mandatory stop’ ticks next to her name in the current standings. The second tick is the eight hour stop teams must make somewhere along the Yukon River (checkpoints from Ruby to Kaltag).

Unfortunately the live feed from Cripple was pointing in another direction so we didn’t get to see them leave. As anticipated, they have dropped back down the leaderboard as many of those that took their 24s in previous checkpoints back have passed by, so they have left in 29th position at 8:38am.

Seems the trail over from Cripple to Ruby has been difficult and a bit of a slog for the teams that went through overnight and report are that there is ‘weather’ coming as the teams get closer to the Bering Sea coast so there are still many challenges ahead. We’re only half done!

During their long break Aliy’s goal will have been to give the dogs as many calories as they could eat, as much rest as they could get and spend time massaging and stretching so they are fighting-fit ready to take on the second half of the race. She herself will have had a couple of good long sleeps and should be feeling pretty great herself. She’ll be looking to make up some places so needs everyone in tip-top shape for the 550 miles to the finish line.

As for the SP support crew – it was an odd day yesterday. Although we didn’t have to watch the tracker (although we did, of course!) there were a number of other things going on that demanded our attention concerning the happenings in Nome at the end of the race. Things are changing rapidly in the whole country, and indeed the world right now and the Iditarod is not immune to the effects of the virus and we learned yesterday there will be no Musher Banquet, no Meet the Musher and no other Iditarod festivities in Nome at the end of the race, in the interests of public health (see Iditarod announcement). This changes everything for the support crews so we are all just waiting to see what will happen over the next 24 hours in terms of logistics. We don’t know quite what will happen yet.

Time: 7:40am Race Mile 425

Aliy and her 13-strong team pulled into the checkpoint at Cripple at 7.28am this morning. Their run over from Ophir was just under 15 hours including a three hour rest after about seven hours, just after crossing Folger Creek. We were able to watch their arrival into the checkpoint on the live feed and we enjoyed seeing them briefly as they parked in the long term parking area. We have to assume they are staying here for 24 hours. With the time differential they will need to stay 25 hours, 10mins.

They are technically in 7th position right now but a bunch of teams have come off their 24 hour rest behind them and will pass them as they rest at Cripple so she will drop back down the standings when that happens. An advantage to taking the long rest later is the dog team is fresher so she may be able to pick up some places from those that didn’t rest as recently.

Aliy called Allen this morning and she’s doing great as are the dogs.

The Insider interviewed Aliy at Ophir and she again reiterated that she is reconciled to the fact she is not competing for the win and is still enjoying the running. The dogs are great, they’re not sick or hurt, they are simply slower than they ought to be.

A few screenshots of the team arriving into Ophir sees the line up as: Cousins QT and Junior in lead, Spark and his older brother Dutch in swing, Kodiak and his little brother Decaf, brothers Rodney and Five, siblings Chevie and Jefe, Cloud running on her own, with sisters Amber and Violet in wheel.

An ‘Aliy Cam’ from 2016 shows the team travelling along the trail around 30 miles from Cripple. The team was running in the daytime in this video and I expect there is more snow on the trail this year but it will give you an idea or the surrounds.

For those with access to the tracker and who might be wondering – the short ‘blips’ downward on the analytical view are when she stops the team to give them a snack (frozen beef, poultry skin and/or salmon). Sometimes the tracker captures it, sometimes it doesn’t, depending on the signal cycle. She has a regular schedule for snacking during a run, same as during training. The dogs will have their snack, find something to pee on, say hi to their neighbours and if it is warm they’ll sometimes roll in the snow and shake themselves off. Aliy could also take this opportunity to swap dogs around if need be.

While I was up in the middle of the night checking the tracker, the Live feed was broadcasting from Norway – check out one of the background screens!

Time: 5.30pm Race Mile: 357

Since I last wrote, Aliy and her team have moved on through Takotna and Ophir checkpoints and are currently heading towards Cripple checkpoint where, we presume, they will take her 24 hour mandatory stop. Read a detailed description of the trail here.

Through Takotna this morning was an extremely efficient affair. Just three minutes recorded in the checkpoint. As I mentioned earlier she packed her drop bags with “to go” bags ready if she decided to move through a checkpoint. She also packed a “return” bag of all her non-perishable items and equipment such as dog sleeping jackets, fleece blankets, human clothing, harnesses etc, that can be sent home after the race. Had she stayed, all the gear was available but as she went through she didn’t want to spend time sorting what needs to go home. Sleeping jackets, blankets and clothing are waiting for her at further checkpoints.

The team stopped for just under four hours in Ophir, enough to give the dogs a good sleep in the heat of the day and a warm meal, and Aliy a nap. Both Ophir and Cripple are ghost towns now-a-days so are not as bustling as some of the other checkpoints.

Stopping at Cripple for the 24 hour break was Aliy’s plan A so we’re excited that she is sticking with that plan. According to the standings she is in 7th place but that is meaningless as many of the mushers ‘behind’ her are taking their 24 hour break and will leapfrog past her when she stops the team for their long break.

Have you been following the Teacher on the Trail – Kelly Villar’s column? It is an interesting take on the race and her latest entry has this cool pic of Aliy getting a kiss from Spark.

We expect Aliy to stop the team for a short break somewhere along this trail before arriving in to Cripple so don’t be alarmed if you see her tracker paused.

Time: 8.20am Race Mile: 318

Just a quick update from overnight – Aliy and her team mushed into McGrath at 2.12am and spent around just over five hours in the checkpoint, leaving at 7.20am this morning. This amount of time would have given the dogs and Aliy a good rest ready for the trail ahead. Listening to other mushers’ Insider interviews it sounds like the trail between Nikolai and McGrath was a bit soft in sections and therefore slow so a good rest was in order.

Right now Aliy and her 13 team mates are headed towards Taktona where a number of teams appear to be taking their 24 hour break. Aliy has packed for several 24-hour possibilities sending enough food and gear to different checkpoints so she had options and could cover contingencies. At this stage I’m not sure which option she’s going to take the long rest so we’ll have to wait to see what she decides is best for the team. Mushers must ‘declare’ their long stop when they arrive into the checkpoint and check-in (although if they then decide to leave early they can.)

We’ll be keeping an eye on the tracker for much of the day to see what she decides to do.

Here are a couple of articles, one from ADN and one from KTUU who caught up with Aliy in Nikolai where she explains just what I was talking about in my last post. The dogs are happy and healthy but not as fast as many of the teams in front of her.

Time 7.15pm Race Mile 265

Aliy and her team mates have just left Nikolai and are headed towards McGrath. She rested the team at the checkpoint for 4.5 hours where the dogs enjoyed a sleep in the sun and Aliy also got a good nap. The mushers are getting very low on sleep at this point in the race and even a short nap can feel amazing.

Aliy came into the checkpoint with Chevie and QT in lead, Cloud and Dutch in swing, Decaf and Violet next, Rodney and Five, Jefe was running on his own since his mate Bruno went home early, Junior and Kodiak were one up from wheel and Amber and Spark took the wheel position. We would never have predicted that line-up so she has obviously decided to mix up the running order just to jazz it up a bit for everyone and try out some new lead combinations.

The standings are not updated as yet to tell us if she still has all 13 athletes with her. Unlike the Quest, mushers only need to sign-in at a checkpoint and do not need to sign-out, unless it is at one of the three mandatory stops. Sometimes the officials and volunteers don’t necessarily know what time a musher has left. This is not through lack of attention.

Aliy is currently in 20th place. This is not necessarily where she would have liked to be at this stage of the race. She phoned us from the checkpoint and is very upbeat. She said the dogs are great, they are a really good dog team. They are healthy and happy but… just slower than everyone else right now. She said Dutch and Spark are amazing, they led her through a blizzard in Rainy Pass and are as good as ever but again… just slower than everyone else right now. She’s philosophical about it – it is what it is and anything can happen.  She will stick to her plan as much as she can. If she’s upbeat then we’re upbeat and, of course still cheering the team proudly. There are still 700 miles left of this race!

McGrath is 48 miles away with Takotna a further 18 miles after that. We will continue to see variations in strategy here when the teams will start to take their mandatory 24 hour rests at differing checkpoints and the leaderboard will become irrelevant for a while until everyone is back to a level playing field. Note also that that time differential to make up for the staggered start is added to the 24 hour rest so teams that started earlier have a longer rest than those that started towards the back of the pack.

Bruno Update

Bruno is doing just fine. He is ready to run to Nome and catch up with all the other teams. Linda sent through these pics today – I suggested she get on a skateboard. Pics or it didn’t happen!

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