Originally Posted by FrozenK

Another thing that you have to consider on these winter races is that the trail conditions the leaders rode may have been completely different from what the guys behind had. As you have probably experienced, a few inches of snow, and just traffic can change things where you go from rideable to "push fest" in a matter of minutes. It happened to me on a race in Talkeetna three years ago (the first 20 or so guys rode ~70% of the course. The rest of us probably pushed 70% of it)

Carrying on for 31 hours is an amazing feat. Your buddy is a tough guy.