Update #2: Jeff pulled in to Meiers Lake at about 6 am this morning. Again, right on schedule. He dropped Beaver here - another shoulder injury. Beaver is an extremely hard worker, and that is sometimes his downfall. Jeff reported that again this section of trail was very soft, and with some steep downhills. This means that larger, hard-working dogs like Beaver can come down on those shoulders too hard sometimes. Jeff rested for 7 hours in this checkpoint. That is a 6 hour mandatory that every musher has to take somewhere in this race, plus an extra hour to make up the start time differential. Jeff left Meiers at 1:15 pm and pulled into Sourdough at about 5:30. Again, a very nice run time; right on track. Jeff decided to drop George in Sourdough because his hips were looking tight. George is a young dog (only 18 months) and its very important that these young dogs take it extra easy. He, Beaver and Stoic are all in very good spirits, with tons of energy, despite their small dings. Jeff decided not to rest in Sourdough. Instead he will rest a little further down the trail. I expect him to take a break around 8 pm. He will likely stay put for 5 to 6 hours. This will help break up what would be an 85 mile run between Sourdough and Mendeltna into two shorter runs. Expect the front runners who stayed in Sourdough to push all the way through to Mendeltna. For those of you new to racing, all mushers must check into and out of all checkpoints, regardless of how long they are staying there. Jeff checked in to Sourdough, but neglected to sign his name out when he left. He did tell some race officials, but they are not the actual checkers, and they did not realize that Jeff had not checked out with the actual checkers. A signature on the sign-in/out sheet with the checkers is required. This particular checkpoint is VERY spread out, quite confusing, and different from when Jeff was here in 08. It is also structured different from all other checkpoints in this race in terms of where teams check in, how they park, and how they check out, etc. This may have contributed to the error. At this time it is unclear to all of us whether this was simple miscommunication, sleep deprivation, poor structuring on the part of the race, etc. Either way, he will be penalized for forgetting to do this. This will be a time penalty. We dont know yet how much time will be assessed, and whether this time will simply be added to his final finishing time as a formality for record sake, or whether he will actually be forced to spend extra time at Mendeltna. Our hope is for the former. Its a wierdly common error, so well see what they decide, and if this happens to anyone else. I expect Jeff in Mendeltna at about 8 am Monday morning. All in all, Jeff and team are in good spirits. Talk to you tomorrow! Thanks for following.
Posted on: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 05:35:25 +0000
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