Good morning Pedigree Stage Stop Race fans from Pinedale,
It is not going to be near as cold yesterday, we are currently sitting at plus 4 F ( about minus 16 C ). And todays highs are supposed to creek up to the freezing mark by the afternoon under sunny skies.
Todays trail is about 4 miles longer than yesterday at Blackrock in Teton County, yet is does not have as much elevation gain as yesterday.
When talking to Lina Streeper yesterday prior to the Stage, she mentioned that her game plan was to run at 15 mph average, which is pretty much exactly how she executed the run with 14.8 mph. Both of her fastest splits sit at 15.0 mph. In short, she ran a very well managed pace. Amazingly that ” only ” landed her in 7th position.
All Top 3 Teams are from Quebec Canada. Anny’s split time from Mile 8.2 to 14.7 sits at a stunning 19.5 mph, Erick Laforce not much slower at 18.6 mph. Those are extremely high speeds. Noticeably Erick Laforce’s 4th split at 14.3 mph is the slowest of the Top 7, due to him loading a dog about 3 miles before the finish line. Jessie Landers ( Erick’s partner ) explains what happened on their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/jessie.landers.52
Notably all Top 3 Teams ran a record pace it Blackrock yesterday with under 1hr 55 minutes. It is nice to see JR Anderson in 4th position after day 1. In the past, he often held is team back quite a bit during the beginning stages, to then climb up the ranks towards the later part of the week. This year he is in the mix right off the get go.
Today Teams start in reverse order, slowest team out first, Anny Malo out last, in 3 minute Start Intervals. Only 10 minutes separate the Top 7 teams, so we are definitely going to see quite a bit change in standings today.
Unfortunately there is no cell coverage out at the Staging area, nor along the race trail, so updates will be only be happening, once we get back to town.
Here a few videos from yesterday:
