Feeding the dogs at the Central checkpoint.




After a long evening I am back with the trailer, Karen and the extra dogs. Warren left Mile 101 just after 430 this morning. I cleaned up his camping spot, fed my threesome and then got on the road at 515am. About a half hour later I found staying awake very difficult so I pulled into a pullout and slept for about an hour and a half - enough to get me here to Fairbanks. Wonderful Karen is grabbing me a bite to eat as I write this. After breakfast, or is it lunch or dinner? - my body time clock (and I am sure this is the case with all people directly involved in the race) is on its own unique schedule separate from the rest of the"normal " world. Whatever meal it is I am on it will be good to eat something. Then the plan is to get another good meal into the dropped threesome and water the extra dogs as in a few hours I will be taking them out on a run. Today I have the time as my guess is that Warren will be arriving at Two Rivers/Twin Bears campground anywhere from 1230 - 330 looking at run times for the teams prior. We both recognize that it is very important to get the extra dogs out for a run so I will miss seeing him come into the final checkpoint but will arrive later and be able to see the team leave and of course do the obligatory straw raking session and clean up before heading back into Fairbanks for the finish. He will however not be alone as his mother Bette and our three boys are planning on heading out to the final checkpoint to see him in. I know that will be great for Warren. Overall his spirits were good in Mile 101. He knows that there is no chance of improving his current position so he is now already strategizing for Iditarod and even into next season's plans and the future of the kennel. As he said, there is a lot of time to think about things out on the trail especially with the long runs that this race holds. So, on that note I will sign off to go start another full day. Thanks to everyone for your web emails and regular ones, we will be working to answer them all over the next few days. After Warren gets some sleep he will I m sure be on the computer. My days will be full in a different fashion with running the Iditarod dogs and giving lots of TLC to those dogs from the Quest team. Kate