Greetings Fellow Facebookians, What are Kelly Maixner, Nick Petit, and Martin Buser doing? My thoughts on the Run-To-Rohn (RTR) strategy. Last year when Martin ran for 200 miles without stopping out of Willow we feared the worst. Either he was being chased by an invisible moose demon, or he had misplaced his snow hook in the pre-race race confusion and was simply hanging on for dear life, yelling “whoa” occasionally. Not so. In fact, it turned out to be the trial run for the RTR strategy, a bold move which has since gained popularity, despite the failure of the original prototype. Here’s the basic idea The RTR strategy works in conjunction with the 24 to maintain an even run/rest ratio throughout the race. Essentially, if you run for 24 hours straight, then rest for 24 hours, you will leave Rohn with an even run/rest ratio, and be about ten hours in front of the pack. Here’s why it shouldn’t work They’re still driving to the “race start,” remember? These dogs have most likely never run 24 hours straight before, and the night before the start seems like a strange time to throw something like that at them. While all the other top teams are establishing a strong rhythm that they can maintain for the next eight days, these guys are making a huge push and hoping they can hold it together until Nome. Here’s why it might Kelly, Nick, and Martin have all improved on the original RTR strategy. Let’s take a look. Martin Martin hasn’t actually done a true RTR. He took a 4 hour break in Rainy Pass, and will presumably 24 in the McGrath area. Two 150 mile runs instead of one 200 mile run will get him even farther ahead, but I question his ability to bounce back and hold his lead. Nick and Kelly – Upon closer inspection, these guys arent doing a true RTR either. Have you seen the trailers on their sleds? Apparently they can haul up to four dogs at a time. To make things simple(ish), imagine this; you are mushing a 12 dog team with three groups of four dogs (groups A, B, and C). Your goal is to keep all the dogs on a 2/1 run/rest ratio WITHOUT STOPPING except to feed and re-bootie. Dog groups A & B run for 4 hours (8 dogs total) while C rests, then B & C run for four hours, then A & C. Repeat. The advantage to this plan, of course, is that you can keep mushing indefinitely with 1/3 of your team riding in the trailer. Questions like “when does the musher sleep?” and “what happens when the eight dogs who are pulling decide they no longer want to haul around 200lbs of dead weight?” are what have prevented anyone from trying this until now. I would imagine that somewhere around Takotna Kelly will ditch the trailer and continue as usual. If any of these mushers have figured out how to gain a 10 hour lead on the race without compromising their dogs, it would be scary. However…… Here’s the bottom line Let’s look at the archives. 2010 Sebastian Schnuelle (Fastest to Rohn) arrived in 27h 46m Lance Mackey (Winner) arrived at Rohn in 29h 36m 2011 (Record setting year) Paul Gebhardt (Fastest to Rohn) arrived in 26h 40m John Baker (Winner) arrived at Rohn in 29h 16m 2012 Aaron Burmeister (Fastest to Rohn) arrived in 28h 8m Dallas Seavey (Winner) arrived at Rohn in 31h 26m 2013 Martin Buser (Fastest to Rohn) arrived in 19h 53m Mitch Seavey (Winner) arrived at Rohn in 29h 28m 2014 Kelly Maixner (Fastest to Rohn) arrived in 21h 4m ????? (Winner) arrived at Rohn in ??h ?m It would appear that if you want to win the Iditarod, you should book reservations at the Rohn Day Spa & Resort about 29 1/2 hours after the start, so for now I’m putting my money on whoever arrives between 7:00 and 9:00 AKST. Conway Seavey
Posted on: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 05:38:50 +0000
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