Trent has had an amazing past 24 hours in the race.  He pulled out of McGrath yesterday morning and cruised the 18 miles to the Takotna checkpoint in 1 hr 49 m averaging 9.91 mph.   Most of the mushers and the race elite had stopped at Takotna for their 24 hour rest.   Trent checked right through Takotna and headed out the trail in 4th place.  He made the quick 25 mile run to Ophir in 2 hr 26 m at 10.27 mph and just missed catching the leader, checking in to Ophir in 2nd place in the race right at noon yesterday. 

Trent had talked about taking his 24 rest in Ophir, even before he left Ketchum.  There is a video of Trent and the dogs at the Ophir checkpoint up on the Iditarod site from yesterday afternoon.   The weather looked perfect, blue skies and 20 degrees.  Trent was in great spirits.   I think he and the dogs took a 5 hour rest and decided they could go on.   And go on they did.   The ghost town of Iditarod mark the halfway point of the race.   One of the sponsors, GCI, offers $3,000 in gold coins for the first musher to reach the halfway point.   I think Trent considered the opportunity and the team's disposition and decided to take a run at it.   Only 3 mushers checked out of Ophir for the 90 mile journey to Iditarod.  Trent left at 5:42 last night and pulled in to Iditarod in 1st place at 5:29 this morning.   Including his rest along the way, he averaged 7.64 mph.   Trent has shown that he has one of the fastest and strongest teams in the field.   In a few hours the real leaders will go through the Iditarod checkpoint, but for the moment Trent is the leader in the race!