Your Iditarod update.
From a distance standpoint, musher Jeff King is in the lead.
But distance ain't everything.
After racing his dogs to the halfway point, Robert Sorlie gave them one of their mandatory 24-hour rests.
King hasn't.
King has only given his team a mandatory 8-hour rest.
Sorlie hasn't.
Confused?
A little math will show you that although Sorlie is about 9 hours behind King in the standings, King has yet to take his required day-long stop.
24 - 9 = 13
So King is actually 13 hours behind?
Nope.
Since Sorlie hasn't taken his 8-hour rest, you have to factor that into the lead.
13 - 8 = 5.
Which means that Sorlie (although second in distance) is actually 5 hours ahead of King.
Considering that he was 3 hours ahead of Martin Buser before Buser dropped back two days ago, Sorlie has actually extended his lead.
What's interesting is that King still has 14 dogs. Sorlie only has 11.
More dogs means more speed. A least until they reach the coast and switch to their faster, lighter sleds.
Another kink in the race: Poor trail conditions are forcing another revision in the race course.
And since everyone is on new territory due to the different course of the Iditarod trail this year, plotting strategy about when to make a move for the lead gets more difficult the further the race goes on.
Stay tuned. This has a long way to go.