Race Day 7 – Iditarod
The ADN reports, and the GPS tracking confirms that Lance Mackey (47) lost up to two hours of lead when he missed a turn on the trail from Shageluk to Anvik. [The guess is that he fell asleep on the trail.]
He is now running in fourth position, but he has completed the mandatory 8-hour stop on the Yukon, while the three teams in from of him and the three teams behind still have to take theirs and he is less than a half-hour behind the current leader, Jeff King (41). He can make it up, but that’s a lot of time to lose.
The back of the race is in McGrath, apparently taking the mandatory 24-hour stop.
The Current Standings [12:10 AM CDT]:
1 Jeff King (41)
2 Sebastian Schnuelle (34)
3 Aaron Burmeister (56)
4 Lance Mackey (47)
5 Cim Smyth (37)
6 Sonny Lindner (42)
7 Hans Gatt (25)
8 Mitch Seavey (21)
9 Hugh Neff (55)
10 John Baker (44)
11 Paul Gebhardt (15)
12 Dallas Seavey (62)
13 Ken Anderson (54)
14 Jessie Royer (17)
15 Rick Swenson (8)
16 DeeDee Jonrowe (31)
17 Warren Palfrey (7)
18 Aliy Zirkle (24)
19 Gerry Willomitzer (14)
20 Ed Iten (4)
21 Martin Buser (33)
22 Bruce Linton (40)
23 Ramey Smyth (16)
24 Aaron Peck (2)
25 Matt Hayashida (19)
26 Linwood Fiedler (28)
27 Judy Currier (22)
28 Sven Haltmann (53)
29 Ryan Redington (13)
30 Ray Redington Jr (10)
31 Melissa Owens (30)
32 Ed Stielstra (46)
33 Gerald Sousa (36)
34 Cindy Gallea (49)
35 Robert Bundtzen (51)
36 Rick Larson (5)
37 Karin Hendrickson (29)R
38 Robert Nelson (23)
39 Chad Lindner (26)R
40 Jim Lanier (35)
41 Bill Cotter (65)
42 David Sawatzky (66)
43 Harry T Alexie (67)R
44 Mike Williams (39)
45 Allen Moore (6)
46 Eric Rogers (60)
47 Jake Berkowitz (12)
48 Jeff Holt (68)
49 Michael Suprenant (11)R
50 Wade Marrs (48)R
51 Tim Osmar (57)
52 Rachael Scdoris (58)
53 Tom Thurston (27)R
54 Laura Daugereau (45)
55 Heather Siirtola (63)
56 Trent Herbst (20)
57 Jen Seavey (61)R
58 Alan Peck (32)R
59 Rob Loveman (50)R
60 Timothy Hunt (64)R
61 Kurt Reich (59)R
62 Lou Packer (43)R
63 Blake Matray (9)R
64 Kim Darst (52)R
2 comments
Real life intrudes again!
Not getting enough sleep seems to be part of every major story line in the last legs of this race – last year it was to Jeff King’s embarrassment. This year it’s Lance, poor guy.
I can’t help but root for Lance – the man has a endearing balance of audacity and humility. Overcoming cancer and then hitting the trails as a winner over and over- pretty amazing.
Thanks much for the details on the snow. I hadn’t thought about it evaporating that way, but now I see it makes sense that it would. Seeing some of the mushers with their eyelashes frozen shut instills appreciation for watching from my computer in a nice warm room. 🙂 Although, I do have dreams of some day being in Nome to watch the racers arrive. But until then, warm is good.
On the two feet of snow, I’m curious to see how that will be affecting the front runners now. Could easily be another change in lead with all that. As usual, it is getting interesting!
When it’s -20 it takes about an hour to dry a pair of jeans outside. Alaska is the home of “freeze drying” with single digit humidity in the winter.
Sebastian acts like he want to win a Quest/I-Rod double, but the 8-hour will get him if Lance doesn’t mess up again.
Lance still has 16 dogs, so he is going to be hell to catch. At this point it’s his race to lose.