Hans out of Christo-contributed by Susie

SUNDAY JANUARY 11, 2009 3:12PM
Newton is posted as being still in the check point but I would imagine he's out or will be soon and it just hasn't been updated. Here is some race analysis so you can start to understand how the mid-distance races are run. This could be valuable for the people filming the race so you know what you are hearing and talking about come Quest time. Mid-distance is similar to long distance stratedgy, at least 'mid-distance' in the North which tends to be 200 to 400 mile races vs. in the south where mid-distance can be anything down to 30 miles. However, you can get away with less rest in a mid-distance race. In long distance, the people who cheat their dogs in rest do great for about 500 miles, then they start to crash. Many people have leap frogged past Hans by cutting rest. We'll see if this stratedgy holds up on the 72 mile run to Paxon. This is the hardest part of the trail plus the longest between checkpoints. Generally you want to rest as many minutes/hours as you run. Lance has so far cheated his dogs 2 hours and forty minutes with time on the trail of only 10:40, so that's a pretty big percentage 'cheat'. Hans has 1 hour and 10 minutes owing to his dogs, so he has also been cutting rest. His dogs have two hours more rest on them than Lance's do though, so we'll see if that means something good for Hans's team in this 72 mile run. Lance's team is not suffering so far from being shorted on rest, and his time on the trail is a full half hour less than Hans. Hans had planned to rest 6 hours in Chisto and cut it short to 5, so he's decided to race. If he didn't care about his standing, he'd have stayed another hour. Newton will stay the 6 hours as per the race plan. Maybe longer if he feels it's best for him or the dogs. There are lots of other mushers ripping their dogs off on rest so it should be really interesting to see what happens in Paxon in about 8 hours! Susie