'Nothing about this race is on schedule for me,' said reigning Iditarod champ Brent Sass. 'It’s on my fifth plan [that] I’m right on schedule.'
Brent Sass arrives in Iditarod around 12:30 p.m. Thursday, the second musher into the remote checkpoint.
Sass has almost completely avoided checkpoints the last few years, choosing instead to grab straw and camp on the trail. But at the race’s most remote checkpoint, the 2022 Iditarod winner wanted to get out of the sun. “You know you don’t really ever want to do that. But I had to, so I carried a bunch of dogs. There were definitely a bunch of trials and tribulations in the beginning,” said Sass.
Richie Diehl was an hour and 10 minutes behind Sass coming into Iditarod. He ripped off his jacket under the hot sun and snacked his dogs with slabs of frozen pork belly, hoping to keep energy levels high for the next big chapter of the race.
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