February Challenge - final tally

[ilanarama]

Here's the final tally for Our Iditarod! We made it past our original goal of Unkaleet, though not quite all the way to Nome.

ilanarama - 200/200 miles = 100%
thalia - 27.5/35 miles = 79%
semielliptical - 46/45 miles = 102%
silveraspen - 3.5/50 miles = 7%
cadenzamuse - (3.5)/15 miles = 23%
ell - 129/140 miles = 92%
temve - 135.2/120 miles = 113%
meri_oddities - 116/100 miles = 116%
calico_jane - 10/35 miles = 29%
linaelyn - 75/50 miles = 150%

blnchflr - 63.8/55 km = 116%
ridicully - 73/75 km = 97%

830.7 miles total.

At the end of last week we were in the town of Kaltag. When I added up our goal miles at the beginning of the challenge, I was guessing we could make it to Unkaleet - but that town is only 82 miles from Kaltag along the ancient Kaltag Portage route, a relatively straight valley through the coastal mountains that we followed to the Bering Sea coast, and we quickly passed through the Unkaleet checkpoint. After another 25 miles of wooded ridges and valleys, we broke out onto the barren coastline for 12 miles of beach-running to the tiny town of Shaktoolik, to gather strength for the next leg to the Koyuk checkpoint.

Here's what the Iditarod website says about this leg (which is officially 60 miles long):

There is only one thing to say about this leg—bleak, flat, and deadly monotonous. Locals say the actual distance is under 50 miles, but it always seems like a hundred. There is not so much as a shrub on this stretch, most of which is over the sea ice of Norton Bay....The water underneath you isn’t very deep (maybe 20 feet at the most) but it’s definitely salt water....There may be cracks in the ice, some of which can be several inches wide. These are normal and shouldn’t cause you any concern. You will probably also hear the ice cracking under or around you; also normal, if a bit unnerving. Stories about the ice cracking off and drifting mushers and their teams out to sea are probably a bit overdone. (At least it hasn’t happened in recent memory.)

From Koyuk the route goes southwest along the shore towards the small village of Elim, 852 miles from Anchorage and 123 miles from Nome. We can't quite make it on our mileage, so we stopped at the Kwik River, where there's a convenient shelter cabin where we spent the night...before being airlifted out to our March challenge!



Thanks to everyone for participating, especially to our lead dogs who ran more than their goal mileage to pull the rest of us slackers along. Whether you ran one mile or one hundred miles, you got out (during FEBRUARY!) and moved your body, yay for you! Even if Condescending Dog is, you know...

Comments

[semielliptical]

Go us!! This is very cool. Your descriptions of the Iditarod trail helped me remember that I could be running in much more difficult conditions. Or, not really, because I would never be racing through a remote wilderness - so, let's say it was a reminder that *some people* endure much more difficult conditions than I did this February. :)

And I'm impressed at your spot-on mileage for the month!

[blnchflr]

Go us!

Wow, that dog has a really sarcastic look about her/him ^__^

[linaelyn]

WOW! YAY!!!!

This has been SO MUCH FUN. Thanks for bringing such a fun and interesting adventure to us all.

And that sled dog puts it all in perspective, eh? I love it.

[ilanarama]

I have friends who do 100-milers with river crossings, and, um, NO.

As far as my mileage goes, I actually checked what I needed before heading out on my last run of the month (on the 27th). And then I forgot what it was, and decided if I had fallen short by less than 2 miles I would go out and run whatever was left on Friday morning before going skiing, but fortunately that was not necessary!

[ilanarama]

Someone posted that, um, loldog, I guess, on Facebook a few weeks ago, and it was so hard to hang onto it until the end of the challenge, I wanted to post it right away!

[ilanarama]

Thank you! And thanks so much for participating!

[blnchflr]

It was worth the wait, *g*. I sat on "bring out your miles" for the whole month, but I think it was also really only funny in my head, being a completely unrelated Monty Python reference… :)