Iditarod 2015 – Day 14 & Final
Ben Harper’s time for the sprint was beaten, by the Mackey brothers, but Laura Allaway and her 14 puppies bested them by a minute at 2 hours 24 minutes.
Cindy Abbott and 13 puppies are out of Safety at 9:11PM CDT with the Red Lantern. GNU Terry Pratchett
The Iditarod Trail Committee shut everything down before Cindy made it in. They closed down at 9PM local and are flying people back to Anchorage.
Finished at Nome
51 Chuck Schaeffer (67)R 3/21 5:24PM CDT
52 Brian Wilmshurst (50)Q 3/21 6:18PM CDT
53 Yvonne Dabakk (33) 3/21 6:55PM CDT
54 Lev Shvarts (40)R 3/21 7:03PM CDT
55 Yuka Honda (60)Q 3/21 9:32PM CDT
56 Alan Stevens (77)R 3/21 9:43PM CDT
57 Becca Moore (47)R 3/21 11:56PM CDT
58 Steve Watkins (66)R 3/21 11:57PM CDT
59 Mark Selland (17)R 3/22 12:22AM CDT
60 Alan Eischens (7)R 3/22 12:56AM CDT
61 Isabelle Travadon (43)R 3/22 5:26AM CDT
62 Marcelle Fressineau (25) 3/22 7:31AM CDT
63 Lachlan Clarke (5) 3/22 12:16PM CDT
64 Cindy Gallea (64) 3/22 1:57PM CDT
65 Trent Herbst (75) 3/22 2:57PM CDT
66 Cindy Abbott (10)R 3/23 12:14AM CDT Φ
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 or clicking on the Sled Dog graphic.
5 comments
“The Iditarod Trail Committee shut everything down before Cindy made it in. ”
I’m curious, were there any other people still out as well when the committee shut down? Or was it just Cindy alone? I hope there were still plenty of people left to welcome her through the arch. What an achievement. Maybe she’ll be healthy enough to be back again next year.
Well, this year, there was a total of 66 teams that made it all the way which is a load more than last year. Only 49 teams got to Nome iin 2014. Changing the route may have worked for the best after all.
Wonder what in the world happened to Lance Mackey’s dogs? At first thought, you might wonder if he wasn’t taking care of them, but Jason was there helping him so that definitely shouldn’t have been it. I haven’t found anything else about what the autopsies were showing. Just an awful situation.
What happened in 2014 is the reason they moved the start to Fairbanks in 2015. There was even less snow this year than last, which caused all of the wrecked sleds and injuries. If this is the new ‘normal weather pattern’, then this will be the new route for the race.
There were no abnormalities in Wyatt, the first dog who died and the cause of death couldn’t be determined in the initial exam. There were abnormalities found in Stiffy, but they didn’t cause death. Both dogs have been sent for further tests. They fact that they were both three-year-olds means that Lance is going to have to look at his breeding book to determine if they have a common lineage which would point towards a genetic problem.
Wyatt had been identified as a potential lead dog, so he was a high-value loss. Lance really needs to find out what happened, and fast. He is probably already done with the 1000-mile races, and this could cost him his kennel.
Oh, sorry, there was a crowd when Cindy arrived. It was still daylight at 9:16PM AKDT and the banquet was over, so a lot of people welcomed her in.
I doubt she’ll try it again. She has accomplished her goal of highlighting rare diseases, and it is very expensive to run in the Iditarod. She will probably shift to something simple, like canoeing the length of the Missouri River.
“She will probably shift to something simple, like canoeing the length of the Missouri River.”
Or perhaps she’ll take up the latest Olympic sport: Musher/Patent Lawyer Arm Wrestling. I know the girl got hurt, and I’m a bad person, but I’m still snickering over a California lawyer arm wrestling a musher. She probably worked out at her designer gym a lot and thought she could give Aliy a run for her money.
On a more somber note, I didn’t realize that Lance’s entire kennel could be in jeopardy. This is a sad way for his career to end just with losing two dogs that way, notwithstanding the possibility of losing the kennel altogether. And he hasn’t had an easy life as it is. Hope it works out for him.
If the problem is genetic, the line will have to be neutered and spayed to prevent continuation, and the dogs identified as not suitable for racing. These were three-year-olds, which means there are 2s and 1s who will have to be included in the program, and some will have been sold. It is a lot of money to deal with the problem, and a loss of reputation. It is hard to maintain a kennel faced with something like this. All he can do is wait for the cause of death, but he will be thinking about his breeding program.