Melinda

Iditarod 2026 run/rest

BTW, I've got an Iditarod run/rest schedules sheet, including top mushers (will add top rookies when I get a chance). No surprises other than Riley.

Sorry, brain fart!

I do remember someone doing their 8 before their 24, and then doing their 24 in Kaltag. Seems like it was about a decade ago but I don't remember who.

Don't think it could have been the Quest - there's no way someone could run through Dawson, which was the closest thing to a 24. Could have been one of the mandatory 4s or 8s, I guess. I don't recall this happening so I'm guessing it was a *long* time ago!

"Macrohard or Digital Optimus is a joint xAI-Tesla project, coming as part of Tesla’s investment agreement with xAI. Grok is the master conductor/navigator with deep understanding of the world to direct digital Optimus, which is processing and actioning the past 5 secs of real-time computer screen video and keyboard/mouse actions. Grok is like a much more advanced and sophisticated version of turn-by-turn navigation software. You can think of it as Digital Optimus AI being System 1 (instinctive part of the mind) and Grok being System 2. (thinking part of the mind). This will run very competitively on the super low cost Tesla AI4 ($650) paired with relatively frugal use of the much more expensive xAI Nvidia hardware. And it will be the only real-time smart AI system. This is a big deal. In principle, it is capable of emulating the function of entire companies. That is why the program is called MACROHARD, a funny reference to Microsoft. No other company can yet do this."

as Tesla unravels Elon Musk will be forced to be increasingly incoherent with his vaporware hype slop until he's just left screaming incoherent strings of non sequiturs about GLORMS and interdimensional portals

Inside the Iditarod Sled Dog Race, an Alaska Native Tradition With Cultural Flair

Inside the Iditarod Sled Dog Race, an Alaska Native Tradition With Cultural Flair in Vogue. By Christian Allaire and 📸🎥 by Emily Sullivan

www.vogue.com/article/idit...

Dunno - Rohn to Nikolai is a long run. He's about 20 miles from Rohn and I can't imagine he'll want to stay there for the 18-ish hours he'd need to stay until tomorrow. Maybe he'll spend the night at the Bear Creek shelter cabin?

Also in Iditarod, Just Steve had a lovely long sleep overnight but is up and moving before dawn, headed up towards Rainy Pass. He'll do the gorge today - fortunately he's got Jeff with him.

Looking at his previous races, he didn't start doing very long runs until last year, when he did a 10-hour run two before his 24, then didn't do it again until White Mountain -> Nome. He finished 10th. This year he's doing more of it.

In Iditarod, Riley's last run was 11 hours. I've started watching him more closely, given how aggressively he's running. This could work out, or it could blow up. We'll see how things change after his 24.

Yes, I saw that and laughed. But this is the most brutal winter I can remember.

I’m officially a published poet now! The League of Women Voters poetry anthology (Democracy’s Urgent Call) is available now!

You can buy it online at most major bookseller, but also this indie bookstore in Minneapolis who is donating their proceeds:

www.magersandquinn.com/product/DEMO...

I think we're entering into the "screw it" phase of winter, where if it doesn't need doing it doesn't get done. -30 is "Yay" in December and "I'm done" in March.

I checked the NOAA weather station in Takotna and it's only -8. I would have thought it would be colder - it's -26 here.

Yeah, I'm surprised that he's stopping here. But, he certainly knows what he's doing.

Good, but really mild. They need to be eaten pretty much immediately or they get mushy. I guess it says something that a popular way to prepare them is to bread them with crushed sour cream potato chips. Wonderful to fish for, though!

Nice! Up here Moby Grayling is 16". And not that much protein, TBH

Thinking out loud ... Cripple is nearly 80 miles past Ophir and almost 100 miles past his current location.. He's 5 hours into his current run, which seems short for him to stop for a 24, so it may not be Takotna despite what he said. He'd need two additional runs for Cripple, though

Me, either - it's absolutely freaking rude.

FWIW there have been a few shifts in the consensus about how to run the race over the years and that's affected where people choose to 24 (among many other things). It'd be interesting to look at things like that to try to identify strategy clumps, but we're now living in the Time of Dallas.

That said, I'm hopeful that the jackasses running in the expedition class can get far enough out in front of the pack while everybody's doing their 24s that nobody never encounters them on the trail or in checkpoints again.

No, they don't need to - the rule is about competitiveness. He doesn't need a race judge there, etc. I kind of like the way Just Steve is running - I think he's doing the right thing given that in the grand scheme of things it's kind of the Wrong Thing.

But seriously, database problems. If you're storing the identity as a reference and pointing to something else entirely, you get stuff like this.

Yeah, I found a lot of weird artifacts and missing data when I pulled the site. Stuff like that can't be explained by the DST change, but rather, cosmic rays.

You'd think, given how much Alaska likes to lock people up, that we'd be the safest place on earth if incarceration really were a crime deterrent.

2/ 2014's chaotic mess, when Dallas jumped ahead in Koyuk. But they're frequently staying in the top 5 earlier - last year Jessie ran towards the front all the way from Manley.

1/ So, with regard to when Iditarod placings consolidate (and @benmatheson.bsky.social has done some fabulous visualizations of past races), I took a look and found that the winner has always been in the top 5 from Kaltag on. The only exception was

Before the race he said he was going to 24 in Ophir, but earlier today he said Takotna. He's been running 3.5 hours - Ophir would be another 35+ miles, Takotna 17.

Jonah owes it to Deke for Deke to run, I think. Not because he did anything wrong, but because Deke had to withdraw this year. We'll see what happens!

I think Jonah owes him an Iditarod!