Hi all, an early update today as I'll be out working later (yeah, working as in an office, how weird :)...

Here's a look at the tracker* as of "now":

We can see Nic Petit has just made it into Nikolai after a long run through what most feel is the worst section of the trail.  Congrats to him.  It was a long run and he'll need a long rest, but it does put him in the [still early] lead.  For me Brent Sass is still the favorite - he took a long rest around mile 216 and so he has more gas in the tank, his average of 9.0 is still the fastest, and his rest/run mix is only 59%.  I would add Jessie Holmes to the leaders, based on the long rest he took at mile 221.  Ryan Reddington is probably going to be next into Nikolai and he did take a rest at mile 207 so he's also in the mix.

Next group would include Kelly Maixner and Riche Diehl, both seemingly running well.  At this point in the race the truism is true; you can't win it here, but you can lose it.  Interesting to note the rest/run mix of the "leaders" is higher in the top 20, 60%+ instead of 50%+.  That might mean their teams are in better shape, or it could be they're burning matches.  I feel like Peter Kaiser and Mille Porsild have fallen back a bit.  But stay tuned!

Some pics:

resting at Finger Lake
the lack of "crowds" in the early checkpoints is most apparent this year

Jason Mackey and team

from Mille Porsild - view of the trail from Rohn to Nikolai
"the first 20 miles out of Rohn has some of the consistently worst trail of the whole race"

* I've posted links to the tracker in a few places - if you're new here, welcome! - and thanks for your "thank you" emails ...

Comments?