Aaron Burmeister and trotting team arrive 8:11Am in Nikolai

Aaron in at 8:11AM, Lance Mackey at 8:50 AM, and Aliy 9:02 AM.

There it is, that’s the summary for this morning.  We have three race leaders, notwithstanding Martin Buser resting 77 miles back in Rohn, and King, Seavey, Dallas Seavey, Jonrowe, Baker, et al on the trail to Nikolai

Now to the leaders.  Aaron and team came into Nikolai this morning trotting powerfully and quickly located to a parking spot on the high bank of the South Fork of the Kuskokwim River.  Trotting is the key word because he has purposefully not allowed his dogs to change gaits and lope since the race start.  Although the dogs will willingly lope, Aaron has not allowed them to shift gears.  Initially that meant he may not have had the fastest team, but now it seems that after two hundred miles on the trail, his team is emerging.  The power and efficiency of the trot is beginning to dominate.

Second in to the checkpoint was the Incredible Lance Mackey.  It appears that Lance is training his team on the run.  As he admitted in interviews at the checkpoint, he has struggled to overcome obstacles the last two years, including two disappointing Iditarods and a scratch in this year’s Yukon Quest.

Lance was moving in his normal fast staccato mode, laying out straw for the dogs and at the same time fielding questions from the media, “When did Aaron come in?” as you could tell he was putting the numbers together in his mind.

Lance, as many fans know, survived a battle with cancer.  The residual damage was deterioration to his extremeties resulting in cold, painful hands and feet, and , with the removal of his salivary glands, a constant requirement that he sip water from a water bottle that is always in his pocket.  He will always have the bottle with him and during a conversation will sip from time to time.  This is a tether that is always with him, for without the water he is seriously compromised.  Interestingly, he now has a welded aluminum cooker bolted to the runners that also serves as a seat.  He is able to light the stove on the “run” which solves one of his biggest problems—always having thawed water to sip.  He can also dry out gloves and warm his frozen meat.

I asked him if he felt that this team, which he assembled from dogs from his Yukon Quest team and a second team from his kennel were starting to gel.  He said, “Not yet!  I thought I had a good team last year, and they folded about 200 yards from here,” as he pointed on the out trail.  Last year his team lost their zip and basically transformed to average, a very frustrating development for the 4x champ.

The team, however, does seem transformed.  Mackey is capable of easing his team into a race, along the way convincing his dogs that he always be there to feed and protect them.  Lance has an unusual ability to empathize with his race dogs, a fact that obviously gains him confidence from the team.

“I have been running about 8 hour runs and the dogs are understanding the schedule,” Lance said.  On the last couple of miles his team lengthened out their trot, “This showed me they had a little juice left, especially the young dogs (which haven’t really been tested in their life).  That gave me a little confidence.”  To another reporter he commented, “If my dogs feel like going thirty miles, well, then we’ll stop.  It totally  depends on the dogs.”

Lance apparently passed Aliy Zirkle coming into Nikolai.  Lance and Aaron never allow their team to lope.  Aliy, on the other hand, does it allow it and has in certain trail conditions been very fast.  In the conditions we had today—relatively hard trail—the trotting team can be more efficient.  If conditions change—generally speaking—aliy may become the fastest again.

Aliy Zirkle

Aliy is consistently cheerful, kind to even the most persistent fan, and perpetually optimistic and smiling.  She is a huge fan favorite.  Her team is resting in Nikolai in between Burmeister and Mackey, prepared for a good shot at the exit in direction Mc Grath.  She might be the first out because temperamentally she appears committed to taking her 24 hour mandatory in Takotna.  Simply put, she may rest for only four hours, pull the hook and point to Takotnal.  Mackey and Burmeister are question marks—Are they thinking Iditarod?

The dogs in the yard

The vets were going through each dog, confirming observation written in a vet book that must be carried by each musher.  The yellow vet book is a mandatory item which must be presented in each checkpoint.

The dogs are so accustomed to handling that the vets can approach each dog, stretch legs, check for sprains, touch for soreness, open mouths, and take heartrates.  Try that with a big group of house dogs and see if you could escape being nipped.  These sled dogs are incredibly easy to handle.

Final Thoughts

Bruce Lee and the rest of our crew just came in from rohn.  Observations included huge regard for Jeff King and Pete Kaiser’s team, which were eating and resting as if hardly stressed by nearly two hundred miles of travel.  We wait for their teams and supporting cast (watch for Michelle Phillips, a tough seasoned musher who has also run the 1000 mile Yukon Quest) who found herself in the lead pack, with informants telling me her dogs are inhaling calories and resting like seasoned racers.