March 7 7pm Mushers into Nenana,  Dallas slow as a rowboat

What a great way to start a race.  Within fifty  miles we already have a radical departure in strategies.   Martin Buser, the 4x champ, was in and out of Nenana after a blistering 5hr 1 min run on the Tanana River, while the current champ, 4x Dallas Seavey,  walked in at 6hr 5min.   MOre on this astonishing difference in style in a moment.

First!!!!!  Cody STrathe and then Martin Buser led the pack out Nenana, stopping just long enough to pick up additional dog food and allow for a quick check by the Iditarod race veterinarians.  Strathe at 11.5 mph and Buser as the race fastest at 11.96 will undoubtedly camp further up the trail to Manley.

For those number crunchers, consider that Manley is approximately 80 miles from Nenana, the trail will probably remain solid but relatively slow.   I talked to Hans Gatt, a very experienced musher, who told me the trail was good but had not haredened into that  polished surface musher’s dream about.   Probably, one would guess that most mushers will adhere to the well accepted practice of 60 or 65 mile runs.  

Others, including Jeff King, Michelle Phillips,  Ray Redington, Lynwood Fiedler, Hans Gatt et. al, opt to remain in the civilized confines of the Nenana checkpoint.  Writing this arcticle I say hello to many mushers who come the Community center for wonderful meals of spaghetti, moose stew, salad, desert, all wonderfully prepared by the locals of Nenana.

By 8pm we have a good idea that about ten mushers in the following pack have decided to rest somewhere on the Tanana River  before entereing Nenana.

Dallas Seavey

Greg Heister, deeply emersed in an editing project for the Insider, and I are regularly interrupted, “Who’s winning?” which is actually a running joke.  How could anyone responsibly make any kind of prediction at this stage on this years race?

Yet, I very much enjoyed the action in the Nenana chute this afternoon.   Martin Buser, as he has been known to do, dominated the field with pure speed and advanced to the front of the pack at 12 miles an hour.  Others, like Nicolas Petit, and Mitch Seavey were slightly slower but in similar fashion blew through the checkpoint to camp 15 or 20 miles up the trail.

Dallas Seavey arrived in Nenana at a lethargic 9.86 miles an hour and was reported to have arrived with 16 dogs.  However, the stats fail to reveal that he actually was only driving 12 dogs while, comfortably curled up in his specially designed boxes of his carbon fiber reinforced sled bag were four resting dogs.

On arrival to Nenana, Dallas quickly launched into a 15 minute drill.   He checked his dogs, looked at the booties, released two dogs from the tow line who obediently stood calmly by the team, moved like a dervish to the sled, unhooked the stoppers to the kennel door from which two resting huskies emerged.  An exchange was made,  two fresh dogs were hooked into the team with one assuming the single lead.  Then again, two more dogs were unclipped, two emerged from another kennel door, and before the crowd really comprehended the new order, Dallas was ready to leave with thirteen dog team with three dogs now resting comfortably.  Deep breath, and now he retrieved fresh bags of what appeared to be frozen snack bags for the dogs and installed them and some fresh booties and harness into well designed compartments that fit to the size of his gear bags.

Laughing, breathing hard, he looked up at this handlers standing by and asked how fast he did it? “14 minutes!”  we hear.  Certainly, most mushers are taking on average fifteen minutes to reorganize their loads at checkpoints.

So, obviously, Dallas is working with some kind of calculus that leads him to believe that his slower speed—-basically a very safe trot that reduces the risk of injury—the rested dogs, and his physical efforts will gradually afford him an advantage in a few days.  Certainly he has done the math or considered the consequences and found that the overall workload will be his benefit.

Of course, we’ll never quite know his rotational schedule—-but it does present great math puzzles.  I am told by reliable sources that the boxes could actually house five dogs.

Nicolas Petit

This is a guy pundits predict could break open the race.  He arrived with a raucous dog team lunging in the harness.  I watched him as Mitch Seavey and Dallas Seavey departed to the Tanana River taking off booties, laying down a bed of straw, and offering snacks.  Jeff King advanced to the dog yard and decided bed his dogs for a rest.  Nicolas rested inexplicably for only 34 minutes and then departed in direction Manley and reassumed the front of the race while Martin Buser, Mitch SEavey, and Dallas Seavey were already resting on the side of the trail.

what to look for?   WEll, now we know Dallas is hauling dogs and we can watch to see if he gains an advantage with fresh dogs on the tow line.  As a footnote, Dave Branholm , who started in 60th, told me that the trail disentegrated.  “Defintiely, the trail was better for the mushers in front.”  Could that be the case for the trail to Manley and Tanana?