Leaders check into White Mountain

Leaving Elim early this morning, Lance Mackey made what could be one of the best strategic decisions of this incredibly close Iditarod. Mackey arrived into Elim running just a little bit slower than Jeff King who arrived within 3 minutes of the reigning champion. Mackey did what he has done at most checkpoints along the cost, he cut his rest time a little short and forced King to consider doing the same. Jeff King has said he won’t fall into that cycle of shorter rests, which ultimately effect the performance of his team, he contends that his longer rests are what have allowed him to continuously run faster times than Mackey was showing. The run from Elim to White Mountain this morning was different, this time King wasn’t able to catch up with Mackey and the hour that had elapsed between when Mackey left Elim, and when King left Elim remained an hour as the two mushers arrived into White Mountain, Mackey at 8:53am, and King at 9:50am.

It won’t be until almost 5pm that Mackey will be able to leave White Mountain, and almost 6 when King can leave, from there the two will be sprinting to the finish line in Nome almost 80 miles away.. Look for a winner to arrive somewhere between 2 and 5am Alaska time.

We’ll be back in a few hours to look at the incredible race for third place….. it might even be closer than the race for first.

From ADN – The twenty closest Iditarod Finishes ever:

(No. 1) 1978: Dick Mackey beat Rick Swenson by 1 second.
(No. 2)1982: Rick Swenson beat Susan Butcher by 4 minutes.
(No. 3) 1977: Rick Swenson beat Jerry Riley by 5 minutes.
(No. 4) 1975: Emmitt Peters beat Jerry Riley by 27 minutes.
(No. 5) 1993: Jeff King beat DeeDee Jonrowe by 33 minutes.
(No. 6) 2005: Robert Sorlie beat Ed Iten by 34 minutes.
(No. 7) 1979: Rick Swenson beat Emmitt Peters by 41 minutes.
(No. 1981: Rick Swenson beat Sonny Lindner by 48 minutes.
(No. 9) 1986: Susan Butcher beat Joe Garnie by 55 minutes.
(No. 10) 1989: Joe Runyan beat Susan Butcher by 1 hour, 5 minutes.
(No. 11) 1984: Dean Osmar beat Susan Butcher by 1 hour, 34 minutes.
(No. 12) 1983: Rick Mackey beat Eep Anderson by 1 hour, 40 minutes.
(No. 13) 2003: Robert Sorlie beat Ramy Brooks by 1 hour, 49 minutes.
(No. 14) 2002: Martin Buser beat Ramy Brooks by 2 hours, 3 minutes.
(No. 15) 2007: Lance Mackey beat Paul Gebhardt by 2 hours, 19 minutes.
(No. 16) 2004: Mitch Seavey beat Jeff King by 2 hours, 21 minutes.
(No. 17) 1985: Libby Riddles beat Duane Halverson by 2 hours, 26 minutes.
(No. 18) 1990: Susan Butcher beat Joe Runyan by 2 hours, 28 minutes.
(No. 19) 1996: Jeff King beat Doug Swingley by 2 hours, 49 minutes.
(No. 20) 1994: Martin Buser beat Rick Mackey by 2 hours, 50 minutes.