For the secnd year in a row, Nic Petit is the first on the Yukon River, this year its the village of Anvik that gets to greet the first Musher with church bells ringing to celebrate this "race within the race". Nic gets a wonderful 5 course gourmet meal, which consisted of a cocunut and Curry pork tenderloin soup served in a bread bowl, then on to a mandarin salad, followed by stuffed jumbo shrimp wrapped in prosciutto, then on to pan-seared and flambeed bison tenderloin and completing the meal with a warm citris dessert medley...and of course 3,500 crisp 1 dollar bills as the "after dinner mint! Sure beats trail food!
I suspect Nic will be settled in for his mandatory rest here in Anvik, not only to digest but to allow his dogs to rest after the 80 mile run from Iditarod. Mitch stopped for a rest in Shageluk 26 miles back from Anvik....I see he just left that checkpoint after a 4.5 hour rest with 13 dogs. Joar I see is also moving out of the checkpoint right behind him....the stats have not updated for him yet, but he had a shorter rest than Mitch.
It was a bit of a surprise Joar stopped in Shageluk since he just came off his 24 hour rest only 55 miles back, but in a video clip Joar says the Team looked great, they are eating well, and he just didn't want to push them so soon after the 24 hour break...which may be a little different than the conventional thinking, but Joar knows his Team best and wanted to stop in for a short rest. Mitch in another interview basically said the same thing...his Team looks good, is doing well, and felt since the trail conditions are so difficult he felt it better to stop and rest them BEFORE they actually got tired. Nic opted to make a monster 80 mile run, and his Team loped into the check point in Anvik looking alert and animated. Right now Petits Team is the one to beat....but we still got 480 miles yet to get to Nome....this is far from over!
The rest of the chase pack looks like this:
Petit resting in Anvik at mile 513
Mitch now running at mile 489
Joar right behind Mitch at mile 488
Richie Diehl and Pete Kaiser resting in Shageluk at mile 487
Jessie Royer and Wade Mars running at mile 486 and about to reach Shageluk
Lindwood Fiedler running at mile 485
Aaron Burmeister running at mile 484
Aliy Zirkle running at mile 480
Hugh Neff running at mile 475
Matt Hall running at mile 465
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