Iditarod Update – Race Day 3
The Anchorage Daily News has a nice piece on the back of the race about Kim Franklin (79) the rookie from Cottered, England currently in 92nd place. She figures this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and is taking her time to enjoy the trail. But Trent Herbst (85) of Homer, Alaska in 94th place, was fooled by markers leading to a local cabin and lost hours of trail time before he discovered his mistake.
Current standings:
1 Lance Mackey (6)
2 Hugh Neff (16)
3 Jeff King (11)
4 Mitch Seavey (33)
5 Cim Smyth (2)
6 Ramey Smyth (48)
7 Kjetil Backen (42)
8 Zack Steer (26)
9 Gerry Willomitzer (7)
10 Paul Gebhardt (69)
While Rohn Buser (37) is still the leading rookie, he moved up to 15th place, and Aliy Zirkle (17) has passed Sigrid Ekran (24) to become the leading woman, with Jessie Royer (3) right behind in the 21st, 22nd, and 23rd places. Aliy is a carpenter in the off season.
Rachael Scdoris (55) has moved up to 85th place overnight.
The rear of the field is between Finger Lake and Rainy Pass, and is one fewer as Tom Roig (94), a rookie from Shreve, Ohio, has scratched at Finger Lake. The first 29 teams are moving beyond the Rohn checkpoint on the 75 mile run to Nikolai with Kjetil Backen (42) the furtherest along the trail pushing the pace.
4 comments
gee, what an insightful commenter on that story: I guess there’s no way to filter out those who enter just to be awarded the ceremonial last place award. spoken like someone who probably can’t pilot a one-dog toboggan around a three mile loop in cottered, england, let alone a 16-dog team halfway across alaska.
i really feel for the guy who went off course, but the description of him driving his team practically up to the cabin’s front door and then trying to find his way back to the trail was entertaining.
To make it to the end of the trail in Nome will cost you in the $30 to $60K range, which filters out almost everyone I know.
Kim Franklin has moved up to 80th place the last time I checked, so she’s not just hanging back, but it’s not a good idea to push a rookie team or musher.
Herbst lost 8 hours of time on his dogs, he will play hell making that up, and the dogs now think he’s crazy. It doesn’t help that most sled dog breeds look like they’re laughing.
the dogs now think he’s crazy
wasn’t that a movie? 😆 but you’re right about sled dogs looking like they’re laughing. quite possibly they actually are laughing.
starting off too fast too soon is a common rookie mistake in any kind of race [if you ask me how i know this, i’ll flat out lie]. moving up from 93rd to 80th in a few hours is a respectable showing. good for her for using her brains and pacing herself well.
not that anybody who qualifies for the iditarod is exactly a rookie.
That must have been because of camp outs, because she’s back at 92nd in the latest standings. Things jump around a lot in the early part of the race.