Iditablog.com – Iditarod 2010 News and Coverage

As Lance Mackey rolls into Eagle Island continuing his steady 6-7mph pace, it looks as if he has a lead that is getting tougher to challenge. The two teams who were previously leading the race and now running behind Mackey, Aaron Burmeister and Sebastian Schnuelle will see the lead they built up, slowly start to fade away over the next day as they take a manditory 8-hour layover on one of the two remaining Yukon River checkpoints.  Mackey has already taken his and he’s 30 miles ahead of them, but so have the teams running right behind them – Hugh Neff, Mitch Seavey, and Jeff King.

The question now shifts to if either Seavey, King, or Neff will be able to make up the distance between them, and Lance Mackey.  Hugh Neff is facing some pretty formitable competitors in a hunt for his first victory, Jeff King is searching for a 5th Iditarod Championship, and Mitch Seavey is looking for his second.

It’s becoming clear going into Eagle Island that teams are running a little bit quicker than in years past.  General wisdom says sometime on Sunday is when the town of Unalakleet usually expects the first musher to reach the coast, and the last few years it hasn’t been uncommon to see a team come in closer to sundown.  The pastor of Unalakleet Covenant Church told me once as long as it isn’t during the church’s morning services, he doesn’t have a preference as to the time of day – but its looking like Lance could possibly interrupt a sunday morning sermon if he isn’t careful.

Lance Mackey is just about to reach Anvik by late Friday morning, the first stop along the mighty Yukon River. It doesn’t appear at this point that any of his competitors are going to be able to catchup in route to this milestone of the Iditarod although Sebastian Schnuelle and Aaron Burmeister are closing the 10 mile gap between them and Mackey.

The Yukon River is a major part of the Iditarod trail which, in southern-route years goes from Anvik up to Kaltag. The river runs along many small villages that rely on the Yukon as a main thoroughfare for transportation, not only with boats during the summer but also by often using the frozen river as a snowmachine highway during the winter. The first musher to the Yukon is always greeted by a gourmet chef from the Millenium Hotel in Anchorage, where they receive a 7 course meal prepared over a campstove and a nice “after dinner mint” of several thousand dollars cash. If eating in a rush doesn’t sound like fun, don’t worry – the musher is also invited back to the Millenium to enjoy the meal again with a loved one (except for the “after dinner mint” – you only get that once).

From Millenium Chef Cory Gerber, here is the menu he created for this year’s musher to have for lunch in Anvik (should they choose to stay!)

appetizers
Braised Pork with potato & yokee (sp?)
Beef & Goat Cheese Salad
Alaskan Crab Ravioli

Fish course
Alaska Bouillabaisse with a saffron tomato broth

intermezzo
Mango Sorbet served with Lemon Preserves

entree
Crispy Duck Leg with Braised Red Cabbage and Bacon
Dry Aged Rib Eye with Celery Root Puree served with a slow cooked mushroom sauce

Cheese plate
Platter of assorted Artesian cheeses, sausages, chutney, and Salmon

dessert
Flamed Strawberry Romonoff, served with French Vanilla Ice Cream and a Lemon Shortbread cookie.

Prepared and served on site by Food & Beverage Director – Bill Wallace

Lance Mackey claimed the gold nuggets that are offered each year to the musher who is the first to reach the halfway point of the race. Mackey passed Aaron Burmeister, and Hugh Neff to become the first musher to the checkpoint of Iditarod. The long stretch of trail from Ophir took all of the top ten mushers most of Thursday to travel, however Mackey was the only one so far to make the trek without stopping. A 15.5 hour trip for current third place musher Hugh Neff took the reigning champion, Mackey only 10 hours to complete.

It’s still a close race for most of these competitive mushers, but we are starting to see some key players attempt to separate themselves from the strategies their competitors might be using, such as Mackey’s decision to go straight from Ophir to Iditarod, or Martin Buser’s decision to rest 6 hours in McGrath before taking his 24-hour layover in Ophir.

We’ll be back later this morning to keep tabs on these mushers, and hopefully take a look at the rest of the Iditarod participants – its been easy this year to focus on the top ten because they’re all so close together and the GPS tracker system allows for instant data. There are amazing people and stories in the middle and back of the pack too…. it would be fun to hear them.

Whew, our 24-hour layover time is complete for the top ten mushers and the race is on to the checkpoint of Iditarod. Race pundits were saying yesterday that they expected to see three mushers emerge after the layovers were completed and that some mushers might start to loose ground. Specifically it was speculated that Hugh Neff & Sebastian Schnuelle might not be able to hold back Jeff King and Lance Mackey, but Aaron Burmeister had the rest and the right dog team to compete and hold his own….. lets see where we are now.

Burmeister was first of out Takotna and first into Ophir just three hours later. But look at these run times & speeds for those in so far -

Between Takotna & Ophir:

The *CURRENT* GPS positions going into Iditarod have Burmeister staying in 1st by a few miles, however Lance Mackey has advanced into 2nd place going quite a bit faster than both Burmesiter, and Neff who is just a under a mile behind the reigning champion.  Schnuelle is a few miles behind still in fourth place and Jeff King passed Ken Anderson to move into 5th.

The one really noticeable difference between these competitors after watching the GPS tracking this morning is that Mackey is moving quite a bit faster than everyone else.  He’s clocked in at 10mph sometimes, with everyone else previously mentioned clocked at 6-7mph – obviously these might not be totally acurate, but its a pretty big difference.

Out of the top ten there are some big moves being made, that could change what the top positions look like in a day or two – Ed Iten came out of his 24-hour layover at a BLAZING 11.87mph between McGrath & Takotna, we’ll see how he compares going into Ophir.  Aaron Peck continues to impress after being the very first musher to take his 24-hour layover all the way back in Nikolai, he’s into Ophir at 7.85mph which is close to how fast Neff & Schnuelle did that stretch.

I’m still dying to know what happened to Martin Buser – resting 6 hours in McGrath before pushing onto Ophir where it now appears he is taking his 24… was it the trail conditions that kept him from going further, or is he planning on a very well rested team that doesn’t have to break trail? There are still lots of voices saying its all going to come down to patience in this weather & trail conditions, and thats what Martin is good at… We’ll have to wait and see!

Finally, some bad news coming out of Takotna this morning – former top ten contender Bjornar Andersen decided to scratch after being injured in a crash between the Rohn & Nikolai checkpoints. He traveled another nearly 70 miles to Takotna where he decided to scratch from the race. His injuries appear to be internal, but the extent isn’t currently known. Race officials said he will be taken to Anchorage for medical assessment. Kevin Klott with Anchorage Daily News was in Takotna and has a few more details (click here).

Today we continue talking about the mushers 24-hour layover strategy, knowing that the race will look very different in just a few hours as the leaders emerge from their rests. We talk more about the loss in Jeff Holt’s team the other day, as well as the current scratched mushers.

keep sending your questions to josh@radioalaska.org, we love hearing from you – thanks again to the THOUSANDS of you who have been downloading our shows!

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24-hour layovers are the biggest part of Iditarod strategy today for those looking to be first across the finish line in Nome. The scheming started last night when some of the first into McGrath decided that they weren’t going to take an early layover, but use the overnight conditions to push on another 3 hours or so to Takotna and possibly even further if possible. Another half of the leaders decided to gamble that those continuing on might fatigue themselves by going too far, or that an early rest might mean more speed needed to pass the top 5 as they rested themselves. What you’re thinking and planning and what nature has in store can be two different things. Blowing snow covers the trail from Takotna to Ophir and going onto Iditarod presents its own problems. This type of weather could change the plans of those who were counting on a 24-hour layover further along up the trail, and those who were counting on others resting up the trail. Iditarod victories have been born from risky moves in unsetteling weather, but its also a good way to wear out your team unnecessarily.

Aaron Burmesiter continued leading the whole pack into both McGrath and Takotna, this relatively unknown musher from Nome with 11 years of Iditarod experience has caught the eye of an international audience. There is still plenty of competition for his positing though, all of the top ten teams arrived at Takotna within 4 hours of Burmesiter, Neff, and Schnuelle. Keep an eye on Martin Buser, he has been jumping back and forth from the top to the bottom of the standings lately, and his website indicates that he has a plan and some new strategies this year – being the only musher so far to continue out of McGrath after a full 6 hour rest might indicate heavily he plans on pushing as far as possible before taking his 24-hour layover.

It will be hard, but keep in mind that racers will seemingly disappear from the standings as they wait out their layovers – Ken Anderson went from nearly top 5 to being currently represented in the 20s on the standings because he was the first to declare his rest while many others have continued on ahead. Ken will be the first one back on the trail with his mandatory layover complete and will sure aim to regain his position at the front.

Keep an eye on the twitter feed, either on the right side of the page under the “navigation menu” or by subscribing here, these times of waiting can be rough on all of us fans and spectators!

The confusion on who will be leading two days from now hasn’t let up as an extremely large and competitive field of Iditarod mushers continue to make their way to McGrath Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning. Aaron Burmeister was enjoying what he calls the strongest team he’s ever had as he was leading the pack out of the Nikolai on late Tuesday afternoon, just a few feet behind him was Hugh Neff – Sebastian Schnuelle hopped on the back of his sled just 10 minutes later. These three mushers represent what is often referred to as a group of “young mushers” waiting for their shot at a victory and Iditarod fame. Lance Mackey was once part of that group but two years of consecutive wins have put him in the “establishment” category (the ESPY nominations and Conan O’Brian appearance might have contributed to that as well). Lance isn’t very far behind these three, and neither is Paul Gebhardt or Jeff King. There is no denying the fact that right now it is anyone’s race. Will the leaders start taking their mandatory 24 hour layovers soon? Takotna, and Ophir could be good guesses, but some have been known to push it as far as possible… we do know that where teams start taking their 24 hour rest will play a part in the eventual outcome of the race.

About the Layovers:
There are a few things each team must do in order to complete the Iditarod and among them is completing a series of mandatory layovers. A 24-hour layover must be taken at some point during the race, but can be wherever a musher chooses. An 8-hour layover must be completed at a checkpoint of the mushers choosing along the Yukon River (Anvik to Kaltag), and a final 8-hour layover must be completed in the village of White Mountain before making the final stretch into Nome.

Other names to watch include Bruce Linton, he is doing very well so far in the 20s and running near Linwood Fiedler, Dallas Seavey, and DeeDee Jonrowe. As we mentioned in the podcast Nome’s 19-year old Melissa Owens is rocking the trail in her second Iditarod appearance, shes running in the teens near Rick Swenson, Aliy Zirkle, Cim Smyth, and Jessie Royer.