Iditarod 2011 – Day 3
There must be good snow on the trail because the times are very fast. Because of the start time differential, Hugh was actually a few minutes ahead of Lance when they left Rohn.
Lance’s step-son, Cain Carter (48), has overtaken Nicolas Petit (14) for the rookie lead, and Yukon Quest winner, Dallas Seavey, is positioning himself for a challenge after a slow start. Jessie Royer has let her puppies run, and they want to run up front.
Update: Melissa Owens has scratched. She re-injured a leg on the run into Rainy Pass. Mellissa is the first woman musher from Nome to finish the Iditarod, and she did it on her rookie run in 2008 as the youngest woman to ever enter the race, making it home just in time to get back to high school at the end of her spring break in her senior year.
They are now reporting that Zoya DeNure (9) with her team of “runts, rejects, and strays” has also scratched at Rainy Pass. The only explanation so far is that it “was the right decision” for the dogs. A guess would be a behavior change by the team that can’t be explained. Mushers really know their dogs, and if the dogs start acting “weird”, something isn’t right, and the middle of nowhere is not the place you want to discover the reason. [Update: she reported that one of her dogs collapsed from what looked like a heart attack after she left Rainy Pass, so she loaded him in the sled and went back. The dog recovered, but there is no explanation as to what happened. (It sound like a heat stroke.)]
Paul Gebhardt (34) scratched in Nikolai when he had to leave 4 dogs. Gebhardt thinks the warmer than normal weather led to overheating and dehydration which cause cramps in the dogs and poor appetite. Ideally the dogs like the temperature to be in the plus to minus 20°F range.
Martin Buser picked up the Spirit of Alaska award as he blew through McGrath.
Note: These are the official standings. That means they are official, not that they are correct. Things jump around a lot as people decide to update the standings. This problem is especially bad in the back of the pack, as no one bothers to update those standings when the lead is changing.
Beyond McGrath
1 Martin Buser (11)
Beyond Nikolai
2 Sebastian Schnuelle (31)
3 Lance Mackey (17)
4 Hugh Neff (35)
5 Robert Bundtzen (10)
6 Mitch Seavey (28)
7 Ray Redington, Jr (3)
8 Michael Williams, Jr. (41)
9 Dallas Seavey (21)
10 John Baker (53)
11 Gerry Willomitzer (33)
12 Bruce Linton (13)
13 Sonny Lindner (52)
14 Ramey Smyth (30)
15 Aliy Zirkle (18)
16 Sven Haltmann (45)
17 DeeDee Jonrowe (2)
18 Jessie Royer (58)
At Nikolai
19 Hans Gatt (23)
21 Judy Currier (29)
22 Rick Swenson (49)
23 Nicolas Petit (14)R
24 Peter Kaiser (54)
25 Kelley Griffin (20)
26 Michelle Phillips (39)
27 Ken Anderson (43)
28 Newton Marshall (6)
29 Jessica Hendricks (36)
30 Allen Moore (5)
31 Cim Smyth (59)
32 Kristy Berington (7)
33 Matt Hayashida (61)
34 Mike Santos (27)R
35 Justin Savidis (63)
36 Robert Nelson (51)
37 Cain Carter (48)R
38 Karin Hendrickson (37)
Beyond Rohn
39 Kelly Maixner (55)R
40 Trent Herbst (4)
41 Lachlan Clarke (42)
42 Jodi Bailey (16)R
43 Wattie McDonald (38)
44 Paul Johnson (46)
45 Ed Stielstra (56)
46 G.B. Jones (40)
47 Billy Snodgrass (24)
48 Gerald Sousa (62)
49 Matt Giblin (60)
50 Kirk Barnum (47)
At Rohn
51 Magnus Kaltenborn (22)R
52 Angie Taggart (19)R
53 Ellen Halverson (26)
54 Heather Siirtola (50)
55 Scott Janssen (32)R
Beyond Rainy Pass
56 Tom Thurston (25)
57 Kris Hoffman (8)R
58 Brennan Norden (44)R
59 James Bardoner (57)R
At Rainy Pass
62 Bob Storey (15)R
The Mushers in bold are former winners of the Iditarod, the numbers in parentheses are their Bib numbers, and the small “R” indicates a rookie.
Note: This post will be updated during the day, and the map changed on all posts to reflect the current situation.
All posts on the Iditarod can be seen by selecting “Iditarod” from the Category box on the right sidebar.
