One of the greatest joys and what keeps things interesting is that things are constantly changing on course. So as I was wrapping up my Explorer Course, Amber was updating folks who were moving onto this course from Expedition. So... here's a quick snapshot of the very recently updated Explorer Course.

It's time to check in on teams on the Explorers course! We have 3 teams competing on the Explorer's Course - 42, 25 and 4. There's quite a gap between the teams, so we expect the finish to look like it does on screen, but never say never, right? Someone could still get a mechanical and suddenly the gap gets smaller. The white line shows the route the Explorer teams are biking into the finish.

We all know WT has been taking teams across part of the beautiful wild lands of central Ontario, but I think it's time we just took a moment to enjoy a couple photos that are less 'race' and more 'relaxing'. If these don't bring your cortisol down just by staring at them... you probably need to go sit in a forest. That should do it.

The field at the back of the pack is racing to meet cut-offs and get that full course finish. Many of our teams are chasing this as their goal - all the training, planning, logistics that went into this event are coming to bear now. These teams have racing - racing - for 25+ hours. Let that sink in for a moment. 25 hours and they're not done yet, my friends! They have almost certainly not slept (unless you call zombie walking or paddling 'sleeping') and they are probably cycl

The WT mid pack sees the greatest amount of change over the course of the race - some teams decide to retire from the race, the night takes it's toll and other teams miss a cut-off and get moved to a different course. The Expedition mid-pack has spread out, with a few teams still relatively close together. Quite a few of our top teams ended up on an un-planned side-quest taking roads and trails that headed east, away from the route they actually wanted to be on. Quite a few

If you've been following on, you might be wondering why RaidPulse didn't get posted as 3rd place and now they're showing as DQ (disqualified). So what happened?!? The team had to pull out their sealed cell phone to get themselves back on track after an unplanned detour on the bike left them in the lurch. This is the same area of the bike leg that has seen many racers heading off in an unexpected (and not correct) direction. But that's not really the story. This is a story of

Spare Parts has taken the third spot! From the HQ view, this team ran a pretty clean race, keeping a steady pace and momentum that carried them into the finish in third place! Natalie was looking particularly muddy and filled us in on how she ended up with mud up to her hips - more than we've seen on anyone so far! Sometimes commitment looks like tired faces & lots of mud.

We're expecting our 3rd and 4th place teams very soon here at HQ - RaidPulse and SpareParts - and while there are definitely gaps in the field unlikely to be closed on the final bike, we keep checking in on the four teams clustered pretty close together - 5 - Dad Reckoning, 3 - Beowulf, 7 - GRIT Racing and 10 - Kinetic as there's definitely still a race inside the race happening here!

Why yes, you you are. We now have several 'dot' colours going on. Let's cover what they mean real quick. Orange - these are our teams on the Expedition Course. Blue - these teams are on the Challenge Course. Green - these teams are on the Explorers Course. Purple - these teams are retired from the race. This means they either missed an 'absolute' cut-off (e.g., the 07:00 at TA3), or chose to withdraw. You will see some at points on course as they move to a pick-up point, or a

Sunrise. Beautiful any day, but it will be particularly welcome for teams coming out of a dark night of racing. It's quite amazing what the sun can do to a team - a sudden buoy of spirits, extra pep (and speed) in those steps and a renewed sense of determination. Good morning sun and thank you for the pick me up! A misty sunrise 'good morning' from TA4.