Whew!
Everyone is scorching up the trail today! At 2:00 Kelly Maixner is
currently in first place, having pulled into the Rohn Roadhouse checkpoint at
11:30 a.m. Reports say the trail is “hard” and icy. Several blog
posts I read talked about mushers having trouble getting their dogs to stop in
checkpoints because their snow hooks aren’t able to grip into the ice and slow
down those 16 happy, excited dogs who are doing their favorite thing in the
world.
Everything
I’m reading and hearing says not to worry too much about the stats at this
point in the race. Some of the most difficult terrain is here (especially
the Happy Steps and the Dalzell Gorge). At least one musher has a broken sled,
another lost a bunch of gear from a spill, and everyone is coming in with bumps
and bruises. There is a great article here.
I
love these comments from Conway Seavey, Dallas’s little brother and winner of
the Jr. Iditarod, about this first part of the race.
As I type this I'm on my way home from the 2014 Iditarod
start, where 69 mushers and 1,104 dogs left willow in a flurry. The trackers
are live, and the Iditarod stat sheet has already started to populate with all
kinds of juicy information: run times, team size, time in, position, etc. The
race is FINALLY underway, and it's time to do some serious analyzing, right?
Well, not really. Here's my advice - have a trusted friend or family member lock you in a closet for the next few days, because otherwise the stats will drive you crazy. Stay off the computer and don't worry about who has the fastest run time to Rainy Pass, or who dropped two dogs in Yentna. For years my brothers and I would intentionally disappear immediately after the start and go to the most secluded place within mushing distance. This place will have no cell service, no gps, no wifi, no trees with north-facing moss, etc.
Well, not really. Here's my advice - have a trusted friend or family member lock you in a closet for the next few days, because otherwise the stats will drive you crazy. Stay off the computer and don't worry about who has the fastest run time to Rainy Pass, or who dropped two dogs in Yentna. For years my brothers and I would intentionally disappear immediately after the start and go to the most secluded place within mushing distance. This place will have no cell service, no gps, no wifi, no trees with north-facing moss, etc.
Why? Imagine the Iditarod as a 600 mile race from Takotna
to Nome, the catch being that you have to mush 400 miles to the start (Willow
to Takotna) prior to the race. That's what's happening now - each team is
mushing to the "start." Mushers are paying special attention to the
dogs' weight, appetite, feet, and they're setting a rhythm for the days to
come. Some mushers will go TOO FAST (common), they may even go hundreds of
miles without resting to get out in front. Some teams will go TOO SLOW
(uncommon). Actually, nobody will go too slow, especially not on this trail.
The most important thing to remember is that the winner of the race will be the
team who leaves Takotna with a happy, healthy team that is ready to race, not
necessarily the team that gets there the fastest.
Now
that I’ve told you to ignore any stats this early in the race, here is the
current top 10:
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13
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2
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29
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3
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36
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4
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7
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5
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35
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6
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61
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7 •
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23
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8 •
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28
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9
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10
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10
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Below
are comments from Jen Seavey, Dallas’s wife, talking about the trail conditions
and what it might mean for the mushers:
Typically, when you hear talk of a "hard
trail", it means well packed snow. Often times warm conditions (between 10
to 30 degrees) followed by colder temps will set a trail up nicely.
Today's trail reports are of glare ice conditions between Willow and the Alaska range. Finger Lake checkpoint looks identical to the plowed staging area for the re-start today on Willow Lake… only shinier. To call this a "hard trail" would be a euphemism.
So how will this affect the race? There may be more bruised mushers and broken sleds than usual, and a couple of teams might scratch because of it. However, the biggest role this trail will play in the race may not be recognized until several hundred miles later.
A common error for a musher to make is to let a team travel faster than they did in training. Even 2 or 3 miles an hour faster on the first day of Iditarod can set you up for trouble later in the race. You can expect two things to happen.
One: Sore wrists. The carpal joint as well as the meta tarsals are usually referred to as wrists. A common soreness for an Iditarod dog is tendonitis in the wrist caused by the repetitive motion of running. Mushers carry massage oils and neoprene "wrist wraps" to treat sore wrists, and you can usually expect full recovery in a couple of hours. If a wrist is still sore when it is time to go, then the dog will be "dropped", and sent home to the kennel to heal up. Hard trails and running too fast are major contributors to wrist injuries.
Two: Sprinting a Marathon…you get the point. Run too fast, and you lose the energy that you need to go the distance.
I expect several teams that went too fast in the beginning to either scratch in the second third of the race, or have to dial it back and rest their teams up in order to make it to Nome.
On the flip side, a team that trains faster can be really scary on a tail like this. "Rabbits" like Sorlie and Buser could very well run away with this race. If they get out in front, they could be almost impossible to catch.
Today's trail reports are of glare ice conditions between Willow and the Alaska range. Finger Lake checkpoint looks identical to the plowed staging area for the re-start today on Willow Lake… only shinier. To call this a "hard trail" would be a euphemism.
So how will this affect the race? There may be more bruised mushers and broken sleds than usual, and a couple of teams might scratch because of it. However, the biggest role this trail will play in the race may not be recognized until several hundred miles later.
A common error for a musher to make is to let a team travel faster than they did in training. Even 2 or 3 miles an hour faster on the first day of Iditarod can set you up for trouble later in the race. You can expect two things to happen.
One: Sore wrists. The carpal joint as well as the meta tarsals are usually referred to as wrists. A common soreness for an Iditarod dog is tendonitis in the wrist caused by the repetitive motion of running. Mushers carry massage oils and neoprene "wrist wraps" to treat sore wrists, and you can usually expect full recovery in a couple of hours. If a wrist is still sore when it is time to go, then the dog will be "dropped", and sent home to the kennel to heal up. Hard trails and running too fast are major contributors to wrist injuries.
Two: Sprinting a Marathon…you get the point. Run too fast, and you lose the energy that you need to go the distance.
I expect several teams that went too fast in the beginning to either scratch in the second third of the race, or have to dial it back and rest their teams up in order to make it to Nome.
On the flip side, a team that trains faster can be really scary on a tail like this. "Rabbits" like Sorlie and Buser could very well run away with this race. If they get out in front, they could be almost impossible to catch.
Many
of the mushers will start settling in for a rest now during the heat of the
day. Heat being relative, of course. According to Thad McCracken,
the Cascade Sled Dog member that came to talk to us yesterday, anything over 40
degrees is too warm to run dogs and they really like it around 20. Right
now in Willow, which is the closest city I can get weather information for, it
is 33 degrees and sunny. There are lots of pictures of dogs lounging in
the sunshine out there.
It
sure is a beautiful landscape up there in Alaska.
I’ll
have another update for you tomorrow morning.
Kris Leibrand, CAP-OM
Administrative
Assistant to Bernard Seeger, Finance Director
Finance
& Management Services Department
City
of Gresham |1333 NW Eastman Pkwy |Gresham, OR 97030
503-618-2445
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