Running on the Yukon - March 9,2008
So sorry for the lag in coverage, although not as exciting as Laura's day, mine was fairly busy and I didn't get a post done. Let me catch you up as best I can. Laura is now 615 miles into her race at Ruby with only 497 to go! She has now run the distance of the average of two of her long distance races back to back. She amazes me. The last leg she ran was 112 miles between Cripple and Ruby. She made excellent time and averaged 7.16 mph for a total of 17.5 hrs. This is an excellent average because it would be including a camping stop. The temps have still been warm and I’m noticing a majority of her running is taking place at night. This will make for a lot faster run times. The dogs are much “zestier” (one of my sister’s terms) during night runs. Laura will have to bundle up more but the trade off is worth the sacrifice. Speaking of temps, I had quite a scare today. As I do my research for writing these posts I always check the Stormcenter to get the weather updates. As I checked this afternoon my stomach flip flopped when I saw it was 70 degrees in Ruby. The panic only lasted a second before I realized that it had to be mistake. I checked weather.com and got a more accurate reading. It is actually 28 degrees with wind-chill at 20 degrees. So, no panicking, there will be no flash floods and this will continue to be a sled race and not a swimming competition. Laura is resting now as far as the charts indicate but I have a feeling she’s already on the trail to Galena and the updates aren’t reflecting it yet. The trail to Galena is 52 miles of fairly easy trail. The trail will be on the Yukon River for a good bit of the leg. This can be intimidating for some dog teams as the river is 1-2 miles wide in most spots. The mushers use extreme caution on the river. They will need to stick to the marked trail on the river as there will be many spots of open water big enough to hold boats. Some open water will be covered by thin layers of crystallized snow making for a dangerous trap. Laura will want to do the bulk of her running at night so she will have to use her headlight to pick up the reflectors on the trail. As I read about the trail and the conditions my own adrenaline starts to dump, I can’t imagine how she must feel. I’m turning in now but will be posting a story tomorrow that everyone needs to check out. It will be covering how Josh (our brother) and I helped condition Laura as a child for these conditions. For all of you out there who are trying to understand why she does what she does, this may help.