A Little Less Talk & A Lot More Action

I’ve got to admit, there was much less shakeup going into Nikolai that I was expecting. Doug Swingley has however lost his hour lead over Jeff King, they left for McGrath just 5 minutes apart. Aliy Zirkle is just half an hour behind those two, and could have just as good of a shot as anyone else.

I’m still expecting someone to shoot out from behind though, whether its Bjornar Andersen (currently #11), or Lance Mackey (13th), or maybe even Ramey Brooks (30) who is resting at very different places that his other competitors. I am very surprised to see Martin Buser keep slipping in the rankings, right now he is placed at number 62, still resting in Rohn. Even though Buser only placed 13th last year, despite having sawn off a finger three days before the race, he was nipping at Robert Sorlie’s heels in second place the entire way to White Mountain, just right before reaching Nome.

Its good to see father and son team, “The Barron Boys” John & Jason Barron doing well. John has run the Iditarod 26 times, since 1979, and his 34 year old son Jason has been at this regularly since 2002. Last year they finished together, placing thirtieth, and thirty-first, but right now they are number 8 and number 10.

I’m excited to wake up in the morning and see what direction the race has taken, and how things have shifted around.

P.S. Any true Iditarod fan who isn’t part of the “Iditarod Insider” over at Iditarod.com is really missing out. I just got done watching some of today’s new videos and I’m really impressed with what the team is able to get out, and the depth that they go into during each segment. Its worth the $19.95 for sure!