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By Gwen Holdman
I just got a call from Glenn Blantz at 4:45am. He had just talked to Ken, who was eating breakfast at the time. Ken told Glenn that he had broken a sled runner between Nikolai and McGrath which had slowed him down on the last leg. Ken estimated he lost 20-30 minutes. While his 7 hour time was not out of the ordinary this year (normally it only take 5-1/2 hours, so the going must have been slow), it’s good to know he did loose some time and is not just slowing down relative to his competitors. And he is very fortunate this broken runner happened where it did, between Nikolai and McGrath, since Ken has a replacement sled waiting for him here.
Some years we don’t even send out a second sled, so he is really lucky. One thing for sure – we need to make sure we focus on getting Ken a new sled next year. The one he is using, built by Hans Gatt, has held up amazingly well through 4 thousand-mile races and countless training miles, but after a while the metal runners and other components are just prone to fatigue and will break. I think this is what happened, since there are no real obstacles between McGrath and Nikolai, and the trail is just relatively benign moderate rolling hills.
Interestingly, Ken also had the same complaint as Lance did last night – he is having a hard time finding a real pace-setting leader. Ken still has all 16 dogs, and all 16 are leaders, but it seems like these warm conditions and punchy trail are making the dogs a little less enthusiastic about pushing the pace. It’s probably like an ultra-marathon runner struggling through 90°F heat, except the dogs can bite snow to keep well hydrated and cool off a little.
Glenn also passed on the word that Ken is considering taking his 24 hour layover here in McGrath. This definitely surprises me, since he had planned to get quite a bit further down the trail and he seems like he is doing well. However, in looking at the times and seeing how long it took him to get there (about 9 hours from his last campout), I can see what his logic is. If he takes his break now he will be leaving tomorrow at 5:30am, which is a pretty good time to leave. And he had talked about doing a 10 hour run or so into his 24 hour layover. Ken may also be thinking about keeping his team strong for pushes further up the trail, and he is probably hoping things cool down a bit from the current sweltering temps the teams are experiencing.
Nonetheless, I think taking a break now would be a strategic error. He is going to wind up running in the middle of the day at some point if he starts extending his run times, and he knows that. I’d like to see him take a slightly longer run into his 24 (he did a 14 hour run into his 36 hour layover into Dawson in the Quest, but I know he thought that was too long). Anyhow, Glenn said Ken is undecided at the moment, and he is certainly very good at judging his team’s condition, so we’ll wait and see what happens. At the least I think he will take a long 7 hour break here. However, the fact he was in eating breakfast over 2-1/2 hours after he arrived when Glenn called me makes me wonder if he is leaning toward the 24. Ken is normally pretty fast with chores and should be napping by now.
In looking at the front teams, who have pushed on to Takotna, it is interesting to note the big difference in run times. While anyone can have a bad run which makes his team appear slower than it actually is, the fact that Lance was significantly slower than Backen (24 minutes) and King (15 minutes) is likely significant. Especially given his comments about lacking a front end. Mitch Seavey and Martin Buser also posted extremely fast run times coming into McGrath, so they are far from out of the picture. Anyhow, I think the overall picture will become even more confused over the next 2 days as teams settle down to 24. After that, we should begin to see some clear leaders start to emerge.
Addendum: I have been watching Insider videos for the past half-hour. I am impressed how quickly they have posted videos of the first teams in McGrath and even Takotna. It’s interesting that all of the lead teams who were interviewed (Mackey, King, Backen, Gatt) are at minimum contemplating taking their 24 hour layovers in McGrath or Takotna. So this may be a year for earlier 24’s, probably due to the warm, punchy trail conditions. So if Ken takes his 24 in McGrath, he may be in good company.
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