Jeff and his team of 13 dogs arrived under the Burled Arch early this morning at 4:07!! His total race time is 10 days, 13 hours, 7 minutes, 20 seconds!
The team looked great upon arrival! With tails wagging, they began getting excited to move along not long after they arrived – pulling in their harnesses as if they were ready to continue down the trail! This is so fun to see! When Jeff pulled to hook to make the short run over to the Nome dog lot, they took off like a rocket from the chute!
Looking back on Jeff’s run from Elim, he crushed other times on his run to White Mountain! They ran that stretch in 5 hours, 56 minutes – currently more than an hour faster than the next team. Jeff said Jerry “so knew where we were” and looked like he was “gonna run right over everyone else” so he put him in lead and off they went. Go, Jerry!
Maren was there to greet the team as they arrived! She had some snacks waiting for the pups at the lot, and we’re sure somewhere in a pocket was an ice cold can of Pepsi for the Boss.
When told his total race time, Jeff mentioned that one of his wins (1993 – we checked) had him in at 10 days, 15 hours, and how at that time it was a speed record. Here in 2019, that time brings you in a full day off the winning pace.
The only dropped dog on the team, Rambo, made it back to Anchorage late last night and is hanging out with our friends (& their dogs!). He’ll get picked up by our crew when the rest of the team flies in from Nome, and they’ll all come home together. 🙂
We’re truly so excited and very proud of Jeff and the team, and we look forward to having everyone back at the Homestead.
Thank you to all of YOU for following along with us! We appreciate your encouragement, enthusiasm, and your support more than you know.
Until later… we’re going back for more coffee!