Good Morning Race Fans!
The 2018 K300 Race is a little hard to follow, but follow along and let’s see if we can make some sense of what is going on.
In a traditional K300 route, Mushers race up to Aniak and back to Bethel. They have to take 6 hours of combined rest in the three checkpoints, Kalskag, Aniak, and Kalskag the second time.
In this race, Teams will run up to Bogus Creek and then back to Bethel and then do it again. They must take 6 hours of combined rest in Tuluksak on the first lap coming down (Which is kind of like Kalskag) and then they can also add to that combined rest in Bethel or in Tuluksak on the way up. Once they reach Tuluksak on lap 2 going up, they must have completed 6 hours of mandatory rest. Then on lap 2 once they reach Bogus Creek, the race is actually back on the traditional route and Teams must reset one final time as they always do in Tuluksak for 4 hours.
So the checkpoints in order are:
1- Bethel – Start
2- Tuluksak – Lap 1 – Coming Down
3- Bethel – Halfway Point
4- Tuluksak – Lap 2 Going Up
5- Tuluksak – Lap 2 – Coming Down
6- Bethel – Finish
Pete and the Team are leading the pack into Bethel at this point, but it appears he took only 2 hours of rest which skews the picture just a bit. The Bethel Checkpoint is at the ME school, so it will be interesting to see how this all stacks up for us shortly. I just talked to Ron, who talked to Pete on his Cell Phone. Pete told him everything is going according to plan. He’s doing a different strategy than he has before with the less rest earlier, but he is happy, the Team is happy and he’s excited to be racing.
We cannot assist him in Bethel, we can just watch like everyone, but he may have thought that it was a better strategy to run the Team “Home” and then make another lap.
I’m working on rest calculations right now and will have it shortly. If you are in Bethel you can still head over and cheer him on. Just give him lots of breathing room- a checkpoint is a very busy place.
Believe it or not, Pete has caught up to the Bogus Leader and may end up in Bethel before that leader. What a powerful Team!!
Go Team Kaiser!!
