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Iditarod XL Day 14 — Why Now?
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Iditarod XL Day 14

Iditarod XL MapEveryone should be in Nome before the banquet tomorrow. The Red Lantern will probably be decided between Safety and Nome as Bob and Jan are traveling together, not unusual given the trail and weather conditions they have encountered on the coast, and their desire to get the belt buckles.

The end of the race is at Koyuk, putting the wind to side of teams, rather than in their faces, as they parallel the North shore of the Norton Sound.

It is 48 miles to Elim from Koyuk, then 46 miles to White Mountain, 55 to Safety, and 22 to the finish – the final 171 miles.

The ADN blog has a nice, short video with Colleen Robertia and Penny, the tiny [≤ 30 pounds] lead dog who led their team through the wind. This was Penny’s last Iditarod.

Update at 11:30PM CDT

Finished At Nome
41 Art Church Jr (64)
42 William Pinkham (4)
43 Anna Berington (33)R
44 Kristy Berington (31)
45 Justin Savidis (38)
46 Travis Cooper(19)R
47 Jaimee Kinzer (30)R
48 Matt Failor (57)R
49 Hank Debruin (48)Q
50 Karen Ramstead (56)
At White Mountain
51 Dan Seavey (65)
Beyond Elim
52 Jan Steves (40)R
53 Bob Chlupach (49)

The Mushers in bold are former winners of the Iditarod, while italics indicates Yukon Quest winners. The numbers in parentheses are their Bib numbers. The small “R” indicates a total rookie, while the small “Q” indicates an Iditarod rookie who has completed a Yukon Quest.

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 { 03.18.12 at 9:02 am }

What a great little video of Penny! As I’ve said before, I just love that dog. She has such a sweet, noble look on her face. That’s the temperament that makes a great dog no matter whether it’s a working dog or pet. I’m so enamored of her, I printed a picture of her last year and pasted it over my desk. Everyone that came in the office wanted to know about it, so I tried to be a good Iditarod fan and spread the word. 🙂 Oh well, all good things come to an end.

It’s 9:58 a.m. and three mushers are still out: Seavey, Chlupach, & Steves. Seavey has left White Mountain, so I guess the Red Lantern is now with either Chlupach or Steves. We shall see. What do you suppose they do, Bryan, fight over whose going to be last (snicker)…

2 Bryan { 03.18.12 at 11:41 am }

Actually, the Tour de France started eliminating competitors who were outside a time limit because people were fighting over who would win the Lanterne. No one remembers who was next to last, but the Lanterne Rouge had advertising value.

As I wrote in today’s post, I hope Bob lets Jan get it to take home in addition to her rookie buckle. Making it to the finish line even knowing you are in last place takes grit, as just scratching would be so much easier.

Dan has been relaxing on the trail. He has a good, solid Seavey team as shown by his run times. At 74 he isn’t rushing to get on the trail, but resting as much as he needs. Even so, he is completing a 1000-mile run is about two weeks. That’s faster than I have received stuff from Atlanta via UPS, and twice as far away.