SPK Dog Log

The run from Meiers Lake to Sourdough was fast! As handlers we start the race with an estimate from our mushers of their run times. Of course so much of this depends on trail conditions, number of teams to pass, snack breaks, tangles etc but Aliy and Allen are pretty good at estimating their times. Allen nearly caught us out, he and his team mates ran fast! Reports are there were sections of open water and overflow but it was generally a fast trail. This trail is hilly with some narrow, windy and technical downhill sections.

The BLACK team rest

They settled in for a four hour rest and Allen stayed with the team the entire time rather than go to musher accommodation for a rest. Check out this very quick video and see if you can spot dog #13 curled up and napping in the straw.

Allen was keen to get back on the trail and get on with this race!

Aliy was parked in a different part of the checkpoint so I didn’t get to see much of her but Christine and Lidia report that her team is still looking good and raced that section of the trail well. Aliy arrived with frozen boots again due to the overflow but after some time spent in the musher cabin drying out while her team mates slept, she left the checkpoint with her game face on. Anything can happen, there is still a long way to go in this race!

We have just caught up with the news the Meghan has arrived in Sourdough. She was looking forward to getting the technical down-hill section behind her so she will be enjoying her rest there. The very different schedules of the BLACK and RED teams versus Meghan’s RnBs now means I most likely won’t see her until the finish line. She is being well looked after by her handlers Wes and Josh but it will be strange for me to watch her progress through tracker and stats only.

Right now I am going to get some sleep. Catch you soon.

Hi folks, we’re back on line! Ray and myself have just arrived at the Lake Louise Lodge and are just catching up now with all the race stats you already know. We use Macgellan’s run-time and total cumulative time analysis too so a huge thanks to him for his hard work.

It will take some time to edit and upload videos and I will do that a little bit at a time. For now let me just fill in some blanks.

Firstly, I know you will all be concerned and wondering – it was TUG that was dropped from Aliy’s team at Meiers Lake. She will be just fine! Right at the end of the challenging run Tug started cramping and became a bit dehydrated. After checking in with Nina, the head vet, Aliy left her with the team as they rested and ate their meal then turned her over to us just before she started her hook-up routine. We received some excellent care and advice from the entire vet team, and by “care” I don’t just mean treatment, I mean they really care about our dogs and are empathetic to us as well. Thanks to vet Kate and vet techs Brenna and Misty for your help. It’s not easy for any musher to leave a dog behind and Aliy was very disappointed to do so. Tug Boat has joined Ray and me in the truck and we’re happy to report that she is rehydrated, massaged, resting and being treated like a Queen.

Both the BLACK and RED teams looked great coming in to Meiers Lake and despite the 73 mile trial that is the mountain, open water and overflow they didn’t really look like they needed to stop. In saying that though when they did get to their parking spot and had a lovely straw bed and fleece coat they settled pretty quickly for some rest. I can even report that Felix looks to be figuring out this “take a break” thing. Both Aliy and Allen took their 6-hour mandatory rest plus their time differential so were able to get a good chunk of sleep themselves. During a race like this “a good chunk” means about 2 hours in a row.

The temperature at Meiers was around 0F but there was a biting wind. We watched musher after musher come in to the checkpoint with frozen boots and frosted fur ruffs. See how Aliy had to unfreeze her boots enough to get them off her feet (right, photo credit Lidia). The trail was very wet with some open water river crossings of about 6-8 inches deep and several patches of overflow but this was expected and Jamey and his trail crew did the very best in trying conditions to give the teams passable trails.

Meiers Lake Roadhouse was heaving and the tireless staff worked extraordinarily hard to cater to us all. THANK YOU! They cooked dozens of burgers, pancakes and eggs, dried loads and loads of wet musher gear and kept the fires stoked to warm chilled mushers and handlers. We really are inferior to dogs in this respect; with their natural fur coats they are able to withstand so much more than we can and they grumble a lot less. They are amazing.

Daylight came and we were all able to see Meghan and her RED AND BLACK team arrive. I’m not making it up when I say they looked GREAT also. They were excited to be at the checkpoint but certainly didn’t look exhausted. Meghan did a great job to get them through what would have been the hardest run of some of their young lives. She stopped to rest when they needed it, kept them warm with wind jackets and kept a close eye on them during the run. A parking spot opened up right between Aliy and Allen’s teams so we were able to park them with their friends which possibly helped them settle quickly. What also helped was how Meghan tucked them in.

L-R: Honda and Viper snuggle; Can you guess who this is?

Both BLACK and RED teams left the checkpoint enthusiastically. We could see the trail for some way and saw Allen pull out his ski-poles about 60 seconds into the run. He didn’t stop all the way to Sourdough except when they were going downhill.

When we left Meiers Lake Meghan was just starting her own rest, she was looking forward to getting some sleep and taking her boots off!

Nature photographer Jim Brown just posted these fantastic CB300 shots of Aliy and Allen on his Facebook page… Thanks, Jim!

I’m going to call those my “parting shots” for the night! I’ll take a look at everything in the morning and see what’s what… Stay tuned!

Tracey Porreca has uploaded this sweet video of Aliy’s Red Team leaving Meier’s Lake… Thanks, Tracey!

As Yoda might say, “Warned you, I did!… Calculating rest times crazy making, it is!”

I’m hoping most of you have taken my advice to ignore the rest time data. If not, I can almost guarantee you’ve gone around in circles and still don’t feel like you’ve got it right.

I say this partly because the usual complexities of who has taken how much rest are now further complicated by trying to account for start differentials. (See below if you dare.)

Trust me, here’s all you really need to look at:

Allen was once again fastest between Meiers Lake and Sourdough, shaving another 9 minutes off the pace of the leader. Cumulatively over the first three stints, Allen is now only 14 minutes off the lead. Aliy is in a virtual tie for 6th place, with only 6 minutes separating four teams. In between are three other teams separated by only 10 minutes.

This is a very, very close race! That’s the straight dope. Period. Full stop…. Stay tuned!

Okay… So… For those of you who are determined to make yourselves crazy, here’s some explanation about why you may be having a hard time reconciling the data:

As you will recall, teams were started at two-minute intervals. As a result, the last (43rd) team started 86 minutes behind the first team. To make the race more fair, the first team must “give back” that time by waiting 86 minutes longer at the checkpoint where they take their mandatory six-hour rest. This “give back” time is called their “start differential.”

Every team in the race must “give back” two minutes for every place they started ahead of the last team. For example, Allen started in 25th position and (43-25)*2 = 18*2 = 36 minutes, and that is his “start differential.” Similarly, Aliy started two minutes behind Allen in 26th position, so she only needs to “give back” a total of 34 minutes. Got it?

Now, these “start differentials” are in addition to the required 18 hours of mandatory rest. Accounting for them is a bit tricky, and requires making a distinction between “actual rest time” and “official rest time.” The fact that this data was initially reported in error on the CB300 spreadsheet didn’t help matters. It’s since been fixed — kudos to the exhausted, glassy eyed spreadsheet wrangler who worked it out! — but it’s still tricky to factor into your calculations.

Another complicating “rest time” issue is that “official rest time” can only be logged in half-hour increments, rounded down. For example, a team that spends 4 hours and 6 minutes in a checkpoint, only gets “credit” for 4 hours of “official rest.” If it spends 3 hours and 57 minutes there, it only gets credit for 3.5 hours.

All of the top teams — and especially the SPK teams — are extremely diligent about managing the clock. They want start on time, every time, at every checkpoint, and never waste a single minute.

In addition to the musher’s own checking with race officials, it is a handler’s job to do the math. No matter how tired, cold and hungry you are, you do the math. You do it again. You check it with other handlers. You check it again with the officials. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Lucky for you, because of the teams’ diligence about being on time, you don’t have to worry about “start differentials” or accumulated “official rest” or any of the other maths. Somewhere between the start and finish lines, all the non-running times work themselves out. All you have to look at are the run-times between checkpoints and their cumulative value. Whichever team runs the course in the least cumulative run-time will win.

As Yoda might say, “Mind what you have learned!… Save you, it can!”

Update from the trail! Moira and Ray had two bars at Meiers Lake briefly and wanted to let everyone know what was happening. The call was short and choppy, but a wonderful surprise. Both Allen and Aliy are out of Meiers Lake after completing their 6 hour mandatory rest. Allen left with all 12 dogs and Aliy left with 11 dogs. No information is available about which dog was dropped or why at this time.  All of the remaining dogs and the two mushers looked great leaving the checkpoint. As reported earlier, the trail from Chistochina to Meiers Lake was very wet and punchy, but the cooler temperatures over night and today have improved the conditions. The trail from Meiers to Sourdough is reported to be hard and fast. Meghan and the Red and Black team are resting at Meiers Lake now after the challenging trek from Chistochina. It didn’t look like she was worried about any of her dogs and is not expected to leave any at the checkpoint. Moira will post a complete update as soon as she has internet access. 

After working the “night shift” out on the trail, the teams are all resting at Meiers Lake. In this photo from Moira via iPhone, you can see Aliy’s team nicely tucked in. Sweet dreams!

Now’s the time for you to start speculating about how long each of the teams will rest!

This text message from Moira is pretty self-explanatory… at least for those of you who are familiar with terms and fluent in text-speak.

For those of you who aren’t, there’s good news: The teams looked “GREAT!” coming into the Meiers Lake checkpoint and everyone is now sleeping well, including Aliy and Allen. (No news on Meghan yet, but she’s moving well on the tracker and should be in soon!)

Moira confirms what we’ve heard elsewhere, that the trail is “wet” (which usually means wet, heavy snow) with lots of “overflow” (where river crossings have running water on top of the ice).

There’s no such thing as “usual” weather/trail conditions on the CB300, but this is certainly not out of the ordinary. Every member of the SPK teams is very experienced in dealing with these conditions, so it’s more of a nuisance than a problem at this point.

Finally, Moira reports that she has lost all internet connection. Again, this is a “normal” nuisance in the interior of Alaska. Communications there have gotten better over the past few years, but it’s still a challenge!

We will all just have to wait until Moira gets to the Lake Louise checkpoint for our next photos/videos… Stay tuned!