On the day of the start (Wednesday 26 June) we were at the park early to get the boat kitted out with everything we needed and gad our final gear check. The only issue was we had packed thermals and it was bikini weather. Ingrid was pleased that we had socks. 
The race starts with a 300 metre run and we had agreed to walk. We didn't - we did a jog to the boats and were soon away down the familiar stretch that had been covered on training runs.
Onto the lake and we had been warned of the extreme conditions this could have. It was glassy but extremely hot and we were drinking and dipping our caps into the water to try and stay cool. The lake is over 30 miles and goes on and on and on and on. We spent a fair bit of the lake with Super Maryo who we had been with on training paddles and as the end of the race evidences we were pretty evenly paced. As we went past a lake checkpoint we saw Paul and Sue out on the side and understood that they were dropping out due to illness.
When the lake finally ended we stopped at the end of lake checkpoint for a necessary bush visit and to pop on warm clothes for the night. Volunteers man the checkpoints and keep fires and hot water going throughout and just keep a general eye on the racers. Seasoned veterans know the "best" checkpoints to stop at.
So its approximately 11pm and we head into the 30 miles stretch of the river which immediately wakes you up with some very decent size riffles - Esther only got water in her lap a couple of times. We are both comfortable with this type of water so there was no issue and we pressed on.
We pressed on to Big Salmon where we stopped for another necessity break (next time we need a better bathroom solution as the buckets we had planned didn't work with the room we had}. Time would have been saved if we could have easily peed in the boat. Onto Little Salmon (a premier checkpoint with a hot chocolate supply) we ran into one of the other female tandem canoes who had decided to scratch as they were feeling unwell. 
The next section was the long hike into Carmacks and where I misjudged our placement on the map by about 2 hours paddling - thinking we were much closer than we actually were. Not unsurprising given that we had been going for almost 29 hours with only quick stops.The dock at Carmacks was a welcome sight - we arrived in on Thursday at 16.50 which meant that we were allowed to leave at 23.50. Getting out of the boat was a relief as it had been a long slog. We were hot and tired and the support crew that we had signed up for at Carmacks took the boat off our hands to clean and tidy it (what stars). Another lady whose name I can't remember showed us to a tent that they had pitched for us and where they had put our bags and made sure we knew where to get food from and even gave us the coins that we needed for the showers.
After a shower I obtained the best burger and fries ever tasted all washed down with a root beer. Took them to the tent but lay outside to eat as it was hot and literally lay down in the dirt. I woke up a little later to find a foam matress next to me, rolled onto it and continued sleeping. All of this with food right next to me in a campsite which warned of bears - at least there were plenty of others being equally irresponsible with food etc. I would say we got a max of 5 hours sleep but probably a fair bit less.
We were woken an hour before our fixed set off time at 23.50 and it was light and hot. We got ready for the next stretch and were probably 15 minutes late leaving due to general faff
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