Comments on: Iditarod 2015 – Day 12

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sun, 22 Mar 2015 01:38:35 +0000

Everyone will drop an injured dog. Some will drop a dog that is slower than the team. Others will drop dogs because they don’t think they can care for the full number of dogs that are healthy.

The real racers will cut down on the number of dogs to reduce the weight being carried in food and supplies.

There are a lot of reasons to drop dogs that have nothing to do with the dogs dropped.

Alan is finishing with 15, and Laura and Lisbet already finished with 14 each. That is a definite accomplishment. Allen Moore came in 14 members of his and Aliy’s B team.

The dogs that finish, especially young dogs. go up in value for other mushers. The dogs have seen trail, ran for a 1000 miles, and have seen a lot of strange teams, so they have important skills to a musher.

By: JuanitaM

JuanitaM — Sat, 21 Mar 2015 16:21:42 +0000

Yeah, no kidding, Cindy has earned it by everything that the Iditarod is supposed to be. At least she’s on her way to Elim, so it’s getting too late (hopefully) for the committee to have a leg to stand on for taking her out. She’s probably less than 5 hours behind Trent Herbst, at this point, and there’s no question she’s doing everything she can on her part and not malingering. Still, this committee has made some strange decisions. It’s a matter of trust. Not.

Alan Eischens is still hanging in there with his 15 puppies. Good for him. Laura Allaway and Lisbet Norris still have 14. Laura is a rookie and she’s just a few minutes ahead of a whole slew of rookies that are all just minutes apart from each other. She should be pretty happy with her run. Keeping all her dogs healthy and happy through the Iditarod is a win right there.

Still, there are a few teams that have really lost a lot of dogs. Some coming in with only 8. A total of five teams if all of them get to Nome. I’m not sure if that’s considered normal or not.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Fri, 20 Mar 2015 19:26:35 +0000

Cindy had a good run into Shaktoolik, and she’s on her way to Koyuk, so I damn sure hope they don’t pull that ‘uncompetitive’ rule crap and withdraw her. If she makes it to Nome she deserves the belt buckle, patch, and Red Lantern. If they drop her after all that has been written about her and her attempts to complete the race, it will be a PR nightmare for them.

Alan Eischens is the only other team that still has 15 puppies running and he’s between Koyuk and Elim. Caring for the dogs is one of the reasons that DeeDee has frostbite. You can’t apply salve with mittens on.

By: JuanitaM

JuanitaM — Fri, 20 Mar 2015 16:09:06 +0000

Do you think they’re going to let Cindy finish since she’s this far along? I would think that they would. Not letting her finish after what she went through before would make the Iditarod committee look pretty bad. Then, when did that ever stop them.

But she’s almost to Shaktoolik now, so maybe that’s far enough along to keep her in.

There’s still a large field out there yet. Lance and Jason Mackey haven’t come in yet. And Allen Moore is a bit ahead of them. He still has 14 dogs, so Boondocks may still be with him. It will be interesting to see if he keeps all 14. Apparently DeeDee came in with 15 dogs which was surprising enough to warrant an article on Iditarod.com.