Still in Mc Grath. We should have both machines running again and soon hit the trail, bound for Iditarod. Having good internet here , I finally looked a the tracker, as I was not able to do that before. Not sure how many of you ( or if I am the only one who did not know ) know, but there is some pretty awesome features this year. Klicking on eachs mushers Info sheet, you also have a second layer called stats. And than a third one with the graphs showing the elevation, temperature, moving speed, average speed. And for a number guy like myself, all I can say I LOVE IT. I can already forsee to spend countless nights analyzing this once back at home. It interesting to see the correlation of drop in moving speed and rising temperatures, not that this is new knowledge, but now for the first time ( at least to me ) I can see the hard numbers of exactly how much the speed drops.
This years race is no cookie cutter race. Not 40 some teams resting in Takotna with all the lead players doing the same game. NICE. Exiting to flollow with Lance and Jeff pushing all the way to Iditarod ( or beyond??? ) for their 24hr layover. Yet others sitting in Ophir like Jake Berkowitz and Nicolas Petit. That is a nice long run into your 24 hr layover form Nikolai to Ophir. It used to be the standard to just to Nikolai to Takotna. Jake is set up at a perfect daytime hour, once he leaves tonight around 2 a.m. to run all the way to the ghost town in one shot, with out having to carry straw and with getting there before the heat of the day. Nice move, perfect schedule. Nicolas is not quite sitting ideal time wise, as it will be more like 6 a.m. leaving for him, and he will not make it to Iditarod before it gets warm. An the warm is still a concern right now.
Martin Buser is sitting here in Mc Grath. He is not having the fastest team in the race anymore, while his runtime of 5.26 is very quick, a few speedsters, who are out of contention though, like Cim Symth did the run in 5.10 or Jessica Hendricks in 5.14. But do not get me wrong, fifeandhalf hours to Nikolai is FAST. Very fast, specially being technically in the front of the race.
Aaron Burmeister, Aliy Zirkle and many others are running the more traditional Iditarod, with resting in Takotna. Looking at their daytime hours, they also can reach Iditarod in one long shot, if they choose to do so, before the sun heats up the day. I personally always liked resting in Takotna, not only because of the food, but also the fact that I have another checkpoint come up right after and thus I can take a better look at the dogs, before dropping one. If I did not like what I saw in a dog, I could still drop it in Ophir, without having to carry it for a long ways, in case I misjudged.
Here a bit number crunshing:
Lance Avg 5.1 mph. Moving Avg 8.8 mph Run 11hr 20 min more than rest
Jake Avg 4.8 mph. Moving Avg 8.2 mph, Runs 10hr more than rest
Jeff Avg 4.7 mph Moving Avg 8.9 mph, Runs 3 hr 20 min more than rest
Aaron Avg 4.5, Moving Avg 8.2 mph ,Runs 5 hr 20 min more than rest ( is in 24hr )
Mitch Avg 4.6, Moving 8.7 mph, Runs 3 hr 10 min more than rest ( is in 24 hr )
Aliy Avg 4.5, Moving 8.3 mph runs 4 hrs more than rest ( is in 24 hr )
Than in comparison a few of the back of the packers
Matt Giblin, Avg 4.1 , Moving 8.5, and ran 40 min LESS than he rested
Newton Marshal Avg 2.7, Moving 7.7. and ran 20 HOURS less than he rested.
So its hard to deny that these numbers tell you most, what you need to know about a team. I love those features on the Tracker. My on the ground observations are pretty much in line with that.
Aaron is playing the snow but steady came. He does not help his dogs, he does not push them, he lets them do “ their thing “. His team looks superb.
Aliy, although about having the same moving average, is working quite a bit harder for that. Her team looks peppy though
Lance runs his team a bit more aggressively, it also shows in the fact that he is “ down “ to 13 dogs, although that is still a great number to have. An Average of 8.8 mpg all the way to Ophir is VERY impressive.
Mitch is having a very fast run, he ran an average of 9 mph for the longest time, and just now into his 24 hr layover has dropped to 8.7 mph moving average, Yet, that is a very fast pace
Jake, who keeps on telling me how fast his team runs, shows an average o 8.2 mph, which is slower than some of the other teams , although he rests them more. The energy of his team is very high, he sure could turn on the heat coming out of his 24 hr in Ophir.
Martin, although he his positive in rest with having done his 24 hr layover is moving at an average of 8.8 mph, which is as high as the fastest team with Lance. That shows that his unconventional move has not taken a toll on his team ( yet ).
The pack of the packers, who should be flying at a blistering pace, with resting 20 hrs more than they ran, still have much slower runtimes. As harsh as it sounds that shows the quality in training and conditioning. It’s a pleasure to watch the front teams and how well they look. And I better hit the trail, if I do not want to be left in the dust, dang it´s hard to even keep up on the snowmachine.
For you folks at home, keep on playing with the tracker, what a wonderful tool it is!!!
Sebastian
