As already announced yesterday, we will have our race start at Takhini Hot Springs. Athletes were informed today at the pre-race dinner that there is only one change to yesterday’s plans. And that is concerning the distance for the 100 and 300 milers on the “out and back”. Instead of 12 km, they actually do need to run about 20 km out, back and then out again to make up for distance lost through due to our new start location.
Other than that the timing as such remains as planned. Loading of the sleds at 09:00 AM in front of the Coast High Country Inn. Transfer buses for the people are ready from 09:15 AM and scheduled to leave at 09:30 AM. Arrival at Hot Springs about 10:00 AM. There may be minor delays and it’s hard to tell with all the loading and unloading if we will make our 10:30 AM start. It may a bit later but at 11:00 AM at the latest we want to get going.
The Hot Springs will be open from 10:00 AM until 10:00 PM! So, anybody who watches us start can enjoy this unique experience right afterwards.
Pre-Race Dinner is over
We had a great dinner tonight at the Coast High Country Inn. Most important information had been past on during training course and trail briefing. So, there were not too many things that still needed taken care of. Food was excellent and everybody seemed in a great mood and anxious to finally get going tomorrow.
Now Nic, one of our volunteers, is waiting in the library until 11:00 PM for athletes to bring their drop bags. I am writing some more news updates and finalise some paper work. Then that’s it. It’s race time!
Due to the hard trails we do expect a fast race. It will be beautifully sunny and not too cold.
Latest on the SPOTs
Trackleaders.com is having difficulty getting the SPOTs to us in time. I had mentioned it already previously. Timing was too tight anyway but deteriorating weather conditions meant that courier companies could not guarantee over night delivery to Whitehorse. Matthew from Trackleaders.com then bought a ticket with the intention of bringing the SPOTs himself (from North Carolina!). But of course regular flights were also facing bad weather. After a long nightmare he did end up in Seattle and will now fly on to Vancouver. However, he won’t make tonights flight. There were too many delays. The earlist – if all goes well – I will have the SPOTs will be tomorrow at 3:00 PM. We will see.
All this does mean that the rental SPOTs can’t be given out in time for the start. Due to “out and back” this is not a big problem as it would have looked “funny” anyway. All the going back and forth off our original route. However, we do of course want everybody to head north with the SPOTs on their sleds. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.
The athletes using their own SPOT should be visible already tomorrow as soon as the link goes live.
