Iditarod Update – Race Day 4
Here’s the current leader board:
1 Mitch Seavey (33)
2 Lance Mackey (6)
3 Jeff King (11)
4 Kjetil Backen (42)
5 Paul Gebhardt (69)
6 Jim Lanier (4)
7 Aaron Burmeister (14)
8 Sebastian Schnuelle (68)
9 Jessie Royer (3)
10 Sigrid Ekran (24)
Obviously Jessie leads the women and is back in her accustomed place, Sebastian, also from Whitehorse, carries the Yukon flag. Rohn Buser (37) as moved to 21st place to continue to lead the rookies.
With Silvia Willis (40) 12th, DeeDee Jonrowe (39) 13th, and Aliy Zirkle (17) 19th, if there were any lingering doubts after the reign of Susan Butcher, sled dog racing is not a “boys club.”
Lance Mackey won the PenAir Spirit of Alaska award for being the first into McGrath, but he knows that he needs an hour lead on Kjetil Backen to be truly ahead because of the difference in start times.
Rachael Scdoris (55) is in 72nd place.
The first 10 are at or just beyond Takotna, while the back of the race is in Rohn.
4 comments
gebhardt left ophir a few hours ago [the only to have passed that checkpoint so far].
rachael checked in at nikolai just about an hour ago, and is still there.
kim franklin is still in rohn [the only one who hasn’t left there] and has been there for about 14 hours now. i hope everything’s going ok for her.
Gephardt may be going for the gold in Cripple or looking for some cold weather.
The trail is mush and the dogs don’t like it. Two more scratches, a minor eye injury for an amateur musher and another team that is off its feed.
When this stuff freezes, it is going to be chunky ice, which will be hard on the dogs’ feet and on the sleds.
of 39 teams listed on the board right now as having checked into and out of a checkpoint, 12 have left behind at least one dog. i don’t remember what the attrition rate has been in other years, since i haven’t followed the race this closely in a while.
i googled it to make sure i wasn’t remembering wrong 🙂 — sled dogs need about 10,000 calories per day when they’re racing long distance like this.
an unyielding and uneven surface like chunky ice is hard on more than just their feet. the dogs can’t fall into an efficient and balanced rhythm that would maximize their momentum, and every footfall comes down at a different angle from the previous one, increasing the chance of injury.
The drop out rate is higher than I remember from last year, and it’s occurring much earlier in the race.
The trail is going to become the nightmare of the Burn from last year when there were so many wipe outs on the snowless terrain.