A 30 mile spread between 1st and 5th

It's getting more and more unlikely Dallas is going to be caught!  Here are the stats:

Dallas at mile 846
Burmeister at mile 833
Mitch at mile 822
Jessie Royer at mile 817
Aliy at mile 815

There is a good quote Aliy said during an interview....."you can only race as fast as your dog team will go and then you can't race any harder.  So that is a pill everyone has to swallow, and swallow with a smile on your face".

Basically your are only as fast as your dogs.....plain and simple.  You can not MAKE them run faster than they can....it simply is not possible.  Run your Team and finish the race.  Placement will happen regardless.  Yes, you can strategize the rest and run schedules.....but when a schedule isn't working you have to down shift.....if a strategy is working perfectly you have the option to shift into a higher gear or coast if you like where you are at.  I think this is where Dallas is right now.  He built a monster of a team and by Unalakleet he has another gear if he needs it.