Newton in Christo-Contributed by Susie

SATURDAY JANUARY 11, 2009 12:27PM

Newton is in Chistochina checkpoint. His pace was just over 10 mph which is very good. What I read from that is that the dogs are doing very well and the weather has warmed up. Hans had the second fastest pace from GA to Chisto, Lance was a half mile an hour faster. Hans rested in GA an hour longer than Lance, but they all have to put in at least 20 hours in checkpoints so he used up some of that time like they will all have to. Hans said he would run the first 100 miles easy and see where that puts him. he thought the weather was going to improve so the people who preserved their teams to do faster runs in the second half would benefit from that. He said he would also keep an eye on what Newton is doing and if Newton looked good half way, he would feel okay about taking off if it looked like he could win. Nevertheless, Mackey knows what he's doing and obviously has a very strong team again this year. I've never seen him 'blow up his team' as many do when they take off fast at the start. Lance has this race in the bag already unless something dramatic happens. He's far enough ahead that he has a safe lead on all of them. Allen Moore specializes in these shorter races and beat Hans by 2 minutes in the Sheep Mountain 150. Allen does not run the thousand mile races and trains his dogs to go a little faster. He's another one Hans will have a hard time catching. I suspect Brent Sass is overdoing it and will crash. We'll see. He is very ambitious, has made statements that he intends to WIN the Quest and the Iditarod. You have to start with the intention, but I wouldn't think he has the team to back that up. Nevertheless, so far he is doing great. There are just so many good teams within reach of Hans that I will stop commenting there. They are so close together that really the first 12 teams are all in contention. Newton is the 15th team in, and started first so he is probably in about 17th place. But his run time was very fast and he rested at least an hour longer in the last checkpoint than all the others except for Allen Moore and Hans. He's not up front but he's doing great. Newton still has all 12 dogs, Hans dropped a dog in GA. Newton's team has been very injury free this year. Hans has Two dogs with leg gators on due to the fur on their legs being rubbed off by cold snow in a recent training run. They are susceptible to frost bite. Another dog has a cut in his ear that requires him to wear a head band. These are articles that need to be adjusted on a regular basis and it would not surprise me if Hans just dropped the dog with the head band. They slip off every hour or so and you have to stop the whole team... Things are looking good. Susie