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Iditarod 2011 – Day 15 & Final — Why Now?
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Iditarod 2011 – Day 15 & Final

by Bryan

Iditarod map odd yearsThe snow storm was saved for the first day of Spring and the last day of the race, just as a reminder of what things can be like, and usually are, for the Iditarod.

Ellen has given the Lantern to Heather by leaving a couple of minutes before her, and they came off the mountain last night to run the last of the race into the blowing snow. The windchill is 15°, which is not extreme, as long as the team will run into the wind. They should be in around lunch time.

Update: They are beyond Safety and Heather returned the Lantern to Ellen with a 4 minute lead. They are not going to break Celeste Davis’s Red Lantern record.

Update: No one else seems to be interested, but it would appear that Ellen and Heather are setting up a race in Nome. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a photo finish to resolve the Red Lantern. Both are now down to 9 puppies, and I assume they have left everything but survival supplies at Safety for the final run. Heather arrived 14 minutes before Ellen, but they both spent an hour at Safety, and left a couple of minutes apart. They are having their own private race within the race.

Update: Heather is in after 13 days 19:24:13 and Ellen receives an unwanted second Red Lantern after 13 days 19:45:49.

At Nome

40 Matt Giblin (60)
41 Tom Thurston (25)
42 Scott Janssen (32)R
43 Angie Taggart (19)R
44 Kirk Barnum (47)
45 G.B. Jones (40)
46 Heather Siirtola (50)
47 Ellen Halverson (26) Φ

  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.

2 comments

1 JuanitaM { 03.21.11 at 9:11 am }

Poor Ellen! Just checked in and read where she and Heather were having an end of the race run with each other…dang, I missed that. I’ve been with clients all week-end, and I haven’t had time to check in much.

Who would have thought there would be this much of a race over the Red Lantern (or over “not winning” the Red Lantern, actually :))?

In other news, just heard this a.m. that PAWS has adopted out all my pups except 2. She said they were going like bread and milk during an ice storm. A mother brought her two little girls to pick out one each. She said they knew immediately which one they wanted. Love it.

2 Bryan { 03.21.11 at 11:49 am }

I’m glad to hear about the puppies. They need their own families … families that want and need them.

I’ll be running a final report on the awards and such with a link to a post about Ellen and Heather from someone who saw them on the trail at the end.