Iditarod Trail Invitational 2014

[sean salach]

Still amazed by the lack of interest this race gets on this forum. Oh well.

Jay Petervary's incredibly fast 2d 19h record lasted a couple of days less than 1 year, as Kevin Brietenbach from Fairbanks destroyed a largely hardpacked snow and frozen dirt trail this year in 2d 4h 43m, with Tim Berntson from Anchorage 21 minutes back. Heather Best from Fairbanks also destroyed Eszter Horanyi's sub 1 year old record to finish in 2d 14h 13m. Aiden Harding from the UK bested Pat Irwin's 12 year old singlespeed record by 23 hours to get to McGrath in 2d 20h 46m.

Aiden, Jeff Oatley and Phil Hofstetter are continueing on to Nome and are days ahead of Mike Curiak's 'unbreakable' 2000 record pace of 15d 1h 15m. Jeff and Aiden will be in Unalakleet, 270ish miles from the finish, tonight, on day 6 of the race! DAY 6?!?!?!!! The trail is ridiculously fast this year.

[sean salach]

http://iditarodtrailinvitational.com/index.php

[sean salach]

Also incredible this year was Dave Johnston from Willow, Alaska. Week before the ITI he ran the Su100 in 18:22 minutes. The fastest Geoff Roes could cover the previous(different) course was 21:43. Different courses and conditions for sure, so in no way a direct comparison, but 3 hours shorter is phenomenal. One week later, he shows up and destroys Steve Riefenstuhl's 9 year old, 'unbreakable' record by 13 hours to finish in 4d 1h 38m. On the 50 or so miles of dirt, rocks and ice out of Rohn, the front end broke off of Dave's sled. He fixed it by tying the front end to the back end and dragging the sled backward for the last 80 miles.

[Area54]

I couldn't believe that lack of snow hard for the runners and pulks! 2 years in a row of super fast courses, but 3 years ago heavy conditions... what will it be next year? Hoping to see it back to 'normal' (haha, that's a loose term for Alaskan weather) next year.

It was summed up nicely, when one racer said he felt a little ripped off, having such nice weather, I'd kinda agree with him.