“Josh Rogers, a former Nome resident, maintains a cleverly named blog on the race. He not only maintains it, he maintains it with passion. His coverage is far and away better than what is available through more traditional media sources, going into detail about back of the pack competition, who is moving in and out of the top ten, who is making a dramatic rise from out of nowhere to the leader’s board, etc. He also has some interesting comments on media coverage of the event, like this posting from earlier this week on Rachael Scordis, who last year attracted a lot of center media attention by being the only blind participant.His coverage reminds me of NASCAR coverage when done well. If you watch NASCAR on a major network that doesn’t know what it’s doing, the announcers pay attention to the lead, maybe the top five cars. But if you watch it on a well informed network, the announcers focus on the most interesting elements of the race: who is moving around, which positions are really heated, who has moved from 21st to 10th place, etc. Those intrarace dramas are important to the informed fan, and the educated network knows this.Josh Rogers does this for the Iditarod. Rogers isn’t the only blogger covering the Iditarod, and certainly not the only one doing it well, he just does it the best.”
  Sports Media Watch – March 9th 2006

The Iditarod Race is always a very exciting and emotional event for all involved. Thanks for sharing your own excitement well contained in your wonderful commentaries. Looking forward to next year’s blog! –
Commenter Karl Sooder

For a real expert opinion though, visit Iditablog.com. They’re linking back to their accounts of the race coinciding with the parts that make it on the show.
- Chicago SunTimes Sports Blog

The Iditablog has done a great job of covering the race once again this year, with regular updates, race analysis, and interesting information in general. For fans of the race, I’d recommend two recent blog posts in general.

The first is entitled The race is truly on! and is a recent update on the current leaders, Martin Buser and Jeff King, who are mere minutes apart at the front of the pack. Both of them have completed their mandatory 24 hour rest stop, and have fresh teams out on the course.
-The Adventure Blog

…were it not for the efforts of Joshua Rogers of Iditablog.com, we would know very little indeed about the details of this race (All Alaska Sweepstakes 2008). The Alaska newspapers are doing a dismal job, posting online articles that are invariably stale and perfunctory.
- Sled Dog Blog

Photos have just arrived from last night’s dramatic first place finish by Jeff King. (click here) to view.

A big thanks to Nate Hobbs who took these great shots in Nome and emailed them to me for all of you to enjoy. You can also listen to KICY’s compiled broadcast of the finish right here clicking here.

Just three hours after Jeff King got in, Doug Swingley arrived in Nome in second place, Paul Gebhardt got third place, DeeDee Jonrowe came in fourth and John Baker fifth. Team Norway’s 2006 entry into the race, Bjornar Andersen came in sixth and last year’s runner up, Ed Iten came in seventh.

We still haven’t seen the entire top twenty come through Nome yet, and there are still a bunch of mushers out on the trail. Four time champion Martin Buser is currently in 25th place right ahead of Jessica Hendricks and Ramy Brooks left White Mountain this afternoon around 3:00pm in 31st place. Former visual trail interpreter for Rachael Scdoris, Paul Ellering is out of Shaktoolik 6 positions ahead of Rachael and her current interpreter, Tim Osmar.

The story that everyone is talking about is Sonny Lindner and his amazing rookie dog team. Sonny, from Fairbanks Alaska has been racing in the Iditarod on and off since 1978 and this year took out a team of all 2-3 year old puppies, and managed to finish in 13th place. With such a great finish the first year look out of this veteran musher in 2007.

As is with all Iditarods, or even all great sporting events the first thing out of any second place finisher’s mouth is “wait until next year”. That’s what Doug Swingley was telling everyone in Nome, and to be fair he did have quite the race with another young team. You can also talk about 2005 champion Robert Sorlie who took this year off to let his nephew race and flew over from Norway to study other teams on the trail. He is dying to get back on the trail and reclaim the title.

It was early this morning Alaska time At 1:11am when Jeff King passed under the burled arch in Nome, to become the fourth musher ever to reach four career wins in the Iditarod. King won previous races in 1993, 1996 and 1998. Following right behind Jeff into Nome is Doug Swingley, one of the other 3 mushers who currently hold 4 wins along with Martin Buser, and retired musher Susan Butcher. Swingley, who was leading for almost the entire first half of the race, and in a close second for the remainder was hoping to win his fifth career title, which would have tied Rick Swenson with the most Iditarod wins ever.

King finished the race in 9 days 11 hours and 36 minutes. It all started with 87 mushers back in Anchorage on Saturday March 4th. To date, 11 mushers have dropped out of the race since the beginning, including award wining children’s author, Gary Paulsen. The Iditarod Sled dog race, currently in its 34th year runs over 1000 miles from Alaska’s largest city of Anchorage to one of the state’s oldest and most historic gold mining towns, Nome.

There is a battle going on for the rest of the top ten spots in the race, DeeDee Jonrowe will be battleing Paul Gebhardt for third place leaving White Mountian just under 30 minutes of each other. John Baker and Bjornar Andersen also left the last major checkpoint of the race within an hour of each other.

Just because the winning musher came in doesn’t mean that the race is over, there are still over 70 mushers on the trail, and for most of them even coming in with a top twenty finish was never an objective, they were here for one reason…to compete with nature, and to compete with themselves, and to simply get to Nome.

For audio of the finish from KICY radio in Nome, Alaska listen here click here (approx 14.meg)

ALSO: Look for photos straight from the finishline arriving sometime in the morning!

I wanted to hold off on this afternoon’s report because I wanted to wait until more mushers reached White Mountain.

Jeff King reached this small village first, at 6:34am AKST next came in Doug Swingley at 9:41am. Paul Gebhardt remained ahead of DeeDee Jonrowe on the trail from Elim to come in at 11:59, and Jonrowe herself arrived just a few minutes later at 12:24pm. John Baker was the latest to arrive, coming in at 1:14pm.

Each musher to arrive in White Mountain will take a mandatory 8-hour layover before making what is usually a final sprint into Nome. Its not to late for Doug Swingley to catch some time on Jeff King, but leaving the checkpoint 3 hours later with only 77 miles until Nome…its going to be hard to do.

King will leave at 2:34pm this afternoon and with weather calming down a bit, he should be able to maintain a pretty steady pace. The challenge will come at 5:41pm for Doug Swingley who will be leaving the checkpoint and will have only 77 miles to catch up with Jeff King.

Those who have already given King the victory are now looking at the race between Jonrowe & Gebhardt, as well as the rest of the top ten lineup.

I called and spoke with Iditarod Headquarters in Nome and they are predicting a winner to arrive somewhere around midnight Alaska time. I’ll try to record audio from KICY and hopefully you’ll be able to listen to a recorded version of the finish in the morning! I’ll also keep you updated as the mushers pass through Safety, the last checkpoint before reaching the finish line.

Jeff King keeps his lead although the rest of the top five has changed a bit. Doug Swingley continues to nip on the heels of King, the leader since the pack was on the Yukon River and started taking their 24-hour layovers. King took an earlier layover than Swingley who was previously ahead for most of the race, and since then King’s been fighting to stay in the lead. In this last leg of the race Doug Swingley wasn’t able to gain any ground on the musher from Denali Park Alaska, both him and Jeff King were running at a pace of nearly 9.7 mph.

 Out of Koyuk and on their way to Elim now, the leaders of this race will work maintain a good pace and healthy dogs, just as before…only now the stakes are higher, one wrong move could cost them a finishing place in the top ten.

DeeDee Jonrowe, who earlier today was in 3rd place, has slipped behind Paul Gebhardt who was able to arrive into Koyuk before her. The interesting part will be to see who gets into Koyuk first out of a group of 4 that left pretty much within an our of each other. Bjornar Andersen and John Baker are mirroring each other, arriving into Shaktoolik at the same time, both resting for 4 hours before both leaving for Koyu. Ed Iten decided it was a better idea to skip the rest at Koyuk when he heard that the Norwegian and Baker had just left 10 minutes earlier.

Rick Swenson and Martin Buser are are both surprising everyone with their amazingly low rankings for such veteran and decorated mushers. Along with the current leaders Swingley & King, Rick Swenson and Martin Buser have won more Iditarods than any other musher. The four racers combined, total almost half of all Iditarod first place finishes. So far, no one has won more than Rick Swenson – 5 times throughout the years. This very professional and sometimes temperamental musher was forced to scratch last year in McGrath due to sick dogs…it was the first time in over 25 years that this Iditarod legend had been forced to drop out of the race. Currently in 14th, a finish that low would be nearly the worst ever for this musher who out of 29 Iditarods has only finished out of the top ten 4 times.

Martin Buser (currently 27th) is newer to the Iditarod, running almost every year since 1980 has won 4 times, and would certainly love to tie Swenson’s all time record. He won in 2002, when he was also sworn in as a US citizen underneath the Iditarod Arch finish line in Nome. Buser was a contender last year but dropped about 10 positions after leaving Unalakleet. Buser, while always the competitor hasn’t been as consistent as Swenson he has finished out of the top ten numerous times, in 2001 he came in 24th, only to win the next year.

It appears as if Jeff King is either pulling ahead of the other racers, or Doug Swingley & DeeDee Jonrowe are pulling back, in an effort to muster energy and strength for a bliz run at the end of the race. They’re running out of time though, with teams starting to go through Shaktoolik there are just 5 checkpoints left before heading into Nome. We’ll have to see what today holds for our the mushers and how the storm on the coast effects them.

The small village of Koyuk is next, then Elim, Golovin, and White Mountain. There every musher in the race will have to take a mandatory 8 hour layover before heading onto Saftey and then Nome. These small villages are all great places with amazing people. We were lucky enough to be able to travel to these villages when we lived in Nome, my wife would head out to atleast one of them a week with her job as a social worker.

Bjornar Andersen is making a run for the top of the pack, rising to 4th place out of Unalakleet. The rest of the top ten has all left within 4 hours of Andersen. John Baker from Kotzebue, Paul Gebhardt, Aliy Zerkle, Aaron Burmeister, Jason Barron & Mitch Seavey are all contending for the highest spot possible.

Nome is very hospitable, especially during Iditarod season. The Nome visitors center for weeks before the race is appealing to the residents for open beds. Its not just the tourists that run out of places to stay during the end of the race, but often mushers and their families will be sleeping on someone’s couch after they complete their 1,000 mile trek. Veteran mushers might have a “Nome buddy”; a family that they call on every year for housing and a hot meal. Brothers Ramey & Cim Smyth stay every year with the station manager of the radio station that I worked at, and Robert Sorlie stayed with the local chiropractor. We even had a rookie musher’s family staying at our house last year. The family was nervous with excitement to see Dad come in underneath the burled arch finish line after completing such a grueling race.

Mushers are treated like rockstars in Nome, afterall many of the tourists who have just spent thousands of dollars to come see the end of the race will often run into their favorite musher at one of the 5 good restraints in town. If you ever get the chance to visit Nome, you won’t be disappointed. Even though in the summer the town looks dusty from all the dirt roads, and there is a lot of abandoned vehicles and snowmachines sitting around, along with the condemned house or two… what you will find is a town that is full of people who are interesting, full of querks, and just about as friendly as you could ever imagine.

Jeff King made it into Unalakleet as the first musher to reach the coast…but just by 22 minutes. Doug Swingley came in next, boasting that along the trail he had passed King sometime after “Old Woman’s Cabin” about thirty miles out from Unalakleet, but then he had to put an injured dog in his sled, and he lost the lead…costing him the $2,500 prize. Leaving Kaltag 2 hours behind King & Swingley were DeeDee Jonrowe & Aliy Zerkle.

The trail from Kaltag to Unalakleet was a tough one as there is a storm on the coast. The mushing time between the two checkpoints was about 12 hours for a team going around a brisk 7.5 miles per hour. Normally the first musher into the costal village of Unalakleet goes onto win the race, but not always…and this is a year where all bets are off. You’ve got two solid leaders who are fighting for first and have been mushing at a fast pace for the entire race, and then a pack of top ten contenders who are known for boosting up the the speed the last third of the race. You could see Ed Iten, Bjornar Andersen or Mitch Seavey really start to work up the standings over the next 48 hours and make a push for the highest placing finish possible. Bjornar hinted to the Iditarod insider that team Norway might have changed their strategy this year from a “lead the whole race” gameplan to a “make a hard run at the end” outlook. I’ve been looking forward to this stretch of the trail since the beginning; I know this is where the dramatic runs and surprising upsets will take place.

Doug Swingley wants his number one spot back, and coming into Kaltag just ten minutes after the current leader, Jeff King…he just might be able to accomplish that… The next spot on the race is Unalakleet, the fist village on the coast of the Bering Sea. With such a close race for the top two spots, and DeeDee Jonrowe being just two hours behind King & Swingley, it really is anyone’s race right now especially with the entire top three all resting at the same time in Kaltag.

The rest of the top ten has been pretty shakey for the last few days. The mushers names are usually pretty similar, but their positions are changing fast, and often. Yesterday was Aliy Zirkle in the top five, today its Lance Mackey. Jason Barron decided he would rather be competitive than mush together with his father, who was able to keep up for a majority of the trail Jason is right now in the 6th position, leaving Nulato late in the evening.

I was in Unalakleet last year when Robert Sorlie came in as the lead musher. About 1500 people live in this village, which happens to be the largest rural settlement outside of Nome. There were several hundred of us that waited out on the banks of the river for a few hours. Teams of snowmachiners would come back with conflicting reports, some saying that mushers where about an hour out, others were reporting mushers taking rests outside of town at a hunting cabin. It was dark by the time Sorlie came in and everyone went out on the river’s ice to greet him while he checked in and tended to his dogs. He was then awarded the Wells Fargo “Gold Coast Award” and went inside for a meal.

This village, which houses the regional offices of the Bering Straight school district was full of happy excited people, because they know that for just a day or even a few hours, their small village, comprised of natives who both live a substance type lifestyle or who work one of the handful of jobs as an agent for a local charter airline or school media specialist would be on the national map…it is their time to shine.

Jeff King, while having one of the most visible sponsorships in the race (a sweet Cabela’s contract) is only a three time champion, not having won since 1998. Winning three times for most mushers would be a dream come true…but King is often lumped into the Iditarod legend category with the likes of Rick Swenson (5 wins), Martin Buser (4 wins), & Doug Swingley (4 wins).

Doug Swingley hasn’t really been a contender in the race since he won his third consecutive race in 2001. The next year Doug coined his “retirement tour” saying goodbye to folks along the trail, and marrying his wife under the finish line. The retirement only lasted one year, and after taking 2003 off Doug was back in 2004. Unfortunately, complications with a recent laser eye surgery forced Doug to scratch the race in Takotna when he almost froze his corneas. Last year Swingley had a rookie team and didn’t expect to lead the pack he did expect to gain experience and train his young team on the trail for this years race. A win this year (his fifth) would tie Swingley for most Iditarod wins EVER with Rick Swenson, and Doug said in an interview with Iditarod.com that he has given himself 3 years to make 6 wins total… We’ll know in just a matter of days what the headlines will be touting next year…

 

Gebhardt didn’t rest until Galena, King is the man to beat and Swingley isn’t happy about it.

So, yesterday I reported that Paul Gebhardt was probably going to take his 24-hour layover (which can be taken anywhere on the trail) in Cripple, where he was going to enjoy his “first musher to the Yukon” award well, there was another required layover, an 8-hour layover that must be taken somewhere on the Yukon, and Gebhardt took his in Cripple and pushed onto Galena for the 24, and that made him one of the last mushers in the entire race to take his day long rest.

Looking at the standings, Paul Gebhardt is still in the number one position, but the fact that he is taking a mandatory rest at the moment means that he isn’t really the race leader. Jeff King is the race leader, and has about a 5 hour lead on Doug Swingley.

With Gebhardt, King, and soon Swingley & DeeDee Jonrowe all in Galena with layover requirements out of the way, we will start to see some real strategy on when mushers sprint, and when they take it easy. Doug Swingley has already said the he likes running this part of the race in 80 mile chunks, and maybe he can get a 100 mile run out of his team without exhausting them to much. Another factor that could soon become detrimental to the mushers once they hit the Unalakleet & the Bering Sea coast (probably around Sunday) is a big storm that is on it’s way. I was talking to some friends in Nome today who told me they expect the race to slow down quite a bit pretty soon due to some terrible storms that are expected to come into play Sunday night and Monday.

All we can do is wait and see.

P.S. I’m working on a little piece that I should have finished later Saturday afternoon that talks about Jeff King & Doug Swingley and why Iditarod fans love following these two Who do you enjoy following and why? Leave me a comment…

“PenAir Spirit of Alaska Award”
This award is presented to the first musher that reaches the town of McGrath, the winner receives an original “spirit mask” that is created especially for the award by Bristol Bay native artist Orville Lind. The winner also gets a $500 credit on PenAir towards travel or cargo shipments.

“GCI Dorothy G. Page Halfway Award”
This award, named after the “mother of the Iditarod” has been handed out every year since 1994 by race sponsor GCI, the major communications company throughout Alaska. During even number years the award is presented in Cripple, and odd numbered years is presented in the ghost town of Iditarod. The first musher to the checkpoint receives a trophy and $3,000 in gold nuggets.

“Millennium Hotel First Musher to the Yukon Award”
During even-numbered years this award is presented to the first musher that reaches the checkpoint of Ruby, and odd-numbered years the checkpoint of Anvik. The musher that reaches the first checkpoint on the Yukon River gets a seven course dinner that is cooked on a coleman stove by the Hotel staff, complete with an “after-dinner mint” of $3,500 in one dollar bills. The musher also gets the chance to reprise the dinner in Anchorage upon the Iditarod’s completion .without of course the pricey mint.

“Wells Fargo Gold Coast Award” Presented by Wells Fargo to the first musher who reaches the gold coast community of Unalakleet. For the remainder of the race after this checkpoint the trail follows and runs on the Bering Sea. The first musher to reach this checkpoint receives a trophy and $2500 is gold nuggets.

“Wells Fargo Red Lantern Award”
There is a story about the red lantern that tells about how the last musher into Nome must extinguish the lantern that was guiding the racers to the finish line. The last person to complete the race gets this award, and the honor of putting out the flame.

There are a few others that are voted on in Nome, such as the “Most improved musher award” or the sportsmanship award, and the inspirational musher award you know, the normal tee-ball banquet at Godfathers stuff.

Paul Gebhardt made it into Ruby before any other musher, claiming the prize of a seven course meal prepared over a camp-stove and an “after-dinner mint” of $3,500 in one dollar bills.

This is the second year in a row that the chefs from the Millennium Hotel in Anchorage have prepared a meal for Gebhardt, last year he was the first musher to reach Anvik, the first checkpoint on the Yukon River on the trail’s even-year route. I’m starting to wonder if Paul isn’t just running the race for the large meal, last year before leaving Anchorage Gebhardt told the Millennium’s head Chef that when he reaches the checkpoint in first position, all he wanted was a cheeseburger. Last year Gebhardt shared his meal with number two into Anvik, Martin Buser. It’s unclear for those of us not on the trail to know right away if he’ll wait the 11 or 12 hours for another musher to join him for dinner, its not like he doesn’t have the time to wait, if he is taking his 24-hour layover, he won’t be leaving until just after midnight tomorrow. The only time someone hasn’t shared the meal with another musher was the only time someone decided to pass on the whole thing completely, Doug Swingley on the way to winning one of his four victories blew through Anvik with grabbing only a slice of cheesecake.

Jeff King took an voluntary 8 hour layover in Cripple, he was the only musher there at the time who had already completed his 24-hour layover, and even with the extended break managed to leave a few hours before former race leader Doug Swingley, or DeeDee Jonrowe who was the next scheduled to leave.

To hear more about Jeff King, listen to the Bio & Interview I recorded on the trail last year (click here)

He’s at it again .Paul Gebhardt, (despite losing his dogs for an hour or so earlier during the race) has passed the lead group of mushers taking their 24 hour rest in Cripple, and is heading onto Anvik where he will take his layover. If you look at the time it took him to get from Ophir to Cripple its obvious that he has a tired team. Even after resting for 5 hours, why would he keep going, instead of stopping with everyone else? Well, he did this same thing last year, and even though it didn’t help him to much in the rankings (he finished 9th) the first musher to the Yukon River gets a huge 5 course meal, and a cash bonus sounds like a good place to rest if you ask me!

So, around 3am PST (2am Alaska time) Doug Swingley will be back on the trail from his 24 hour layover out of Cripple. Jeff King pulled into Cripple at 2:45pm AKST this afternoon and has already completed his 24, he could leave anytime he wants and be “in the lead” inroute to Ruby, he could probably even beat Paul Gebhardt’s tired team there! Here is the advantage taking your 24 hour rest earlier gives you, Jeff King traveled a rested team from Ophir to Cripple in almost 8 hours, Doug Swingley’s tired dogs took 13 hours on the same route.

Aliy Zirkle is on her way to Cripple after completing her layover, just behind her is Hugh Neff, Lance Mackey, and Nome’s own Aaron Burmeister.

Stay Tuned!

Jeff King came into Takotna in second place, just half an hour behind Swingley with amazingly all of his dogs in great shape. Instead of giving chase to Doug, King decides to keep his dogs healthy and happy and take his 24-hour layover there. By doing this and becoming on of the first mushers to take the longest break of the race, he is betting on the fact that he will have the energy and stamina to go faster past Swingley.

Most mushers on this northern route will take their 24 hour layover in Takotna, Cripple or McGrath. Expect the leaderboard to look completely different over the next few hours as people are off the trail for extended periods of time.

Each musher is required to take a 24 hour layover anywhere on the trail, they must take an 8 hour layover on the Yukon River, and an 8 hour layover in White Mountain, before sprinting into Nome.

I’m amazed. Not that Doug Swingley is keeping his lead and is hours ahead of anyone else leaving Ophir well, something about that is amazing, but I’ll get to that in a few minutes.

Martin Buser, who 24 hours ago was WAY behind in checkpoints and HOURS behind the race leaders has somehow managed to make his way up to the top 10 and left with a big group out of Takotna on their way to catch Swingley. Last night he was in 62nd position resting in Rohn, and is now in 11th place. This just goes to show you the crazyness and “leap-frogging” (as Iditarod.com put it) that is the Iditarod standings. Its all this jumping around the makes Doug Swingley nervous, sure he’s got a 3+ hour lead on the Barron Boys, DeeDee Jonrowe, Mitch Seavey, Ed Iten, and Bjornar Anderson .but one wrong move and that lead drops to an hour, and then anything can happen then. I’m just waiting for someone to come out of the lurches and jump ahead of Swingley . it’s gotta be coming.

However, here is what surprises me about Doug Swingley. Right now I’m on an Alaska Airlines flight flying to Denver for work, and in the Alaska Airline magazine is of course a great article written by Iditarod commentator Joe Runyan. In this article Runyan talks about a number of different mushers and their styles. He talks about Team Norway’s dominance over the past few years and how Bjornar Anderson is expected to do well this year, he talks about Martin Buser and his continued success……and then comes his piece about Swingley.

He tells point to point Doug’s strategy, which Swingley himself makes no effort of hiding. “On the first two days of the race he hides among the front runners, being careful to rest between runs and ease his chargers into the rhythm of the trail. On day three however, he makes a predictably bold move to the front .” Amazing. That’s exactly how he is running his race this year, and its probably how he won four previous championships. We’ll see how it pans out for him over the next few days, especially as he approaches Cripple early tomorrow, where he usually takes his 24-hour layover.

Last year was Rachel’s year, she was allowed to race, she was attracting national media attention and she even had a famous visual interpreter… not someone famous from the mushing world, but from the world of professional wrestling. “Precious” Paul Ellering was going to act as Rachel’s eyes on the trail, communicating problems, obstacles and trail conditions over a walkie-talkie. Paul had only run the Iditarod once before, in the year 2000 when he came in 54th. Even though Rachael was psyched and ready to go, things didn’t work out the way she hoped as both her and Paul were forced to scratch in Eagle Island.

This year however, things are different for Rachael. The media spotlight isn’t quite as bright, she has a much more experienced teammate acting as her visual interpreter. Tim Osmar is one of Iditarod’s Golden boys, he grew up in the system. Son of Iditarod legend Dean Osmar, Tim won the jr. Iditarod three out of four times before moving onto the big race in 1985. In twenty years, Tim has only finished out of the top 20 once..and has a previous nine year streak placing in the top 10. It’s the addition of a veteran like this who knows the trail like the back of his hand who might be able to help Rachael through her first completion, and if all goes well she’ll be able to make it to Nome via dogsled this year.

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!

We’re all waiting . Late last night Doug Swingley checked out of Rohn on his way to Nikolai, but less than an hour behind him was Jeff King and the rest of the top 7 follow within the hour. We’re sitting here at our computers waiting for another update to see who gets into Nikolai first, and who decides to spend some time resting there. The trail most of the mushers are on right now is some of the trickiest and toughest in the entire race. You’ve got the Alaskan range and many elevation changes. An hour isn’t that much of a lead in this area of the trail.

Doug Swingley is a four time champion, and Jeff King has won three times. Its been quite a number of years since we’ve seen these two go at it for the top slots in the Iditarod, since 2003 team Norway has been dominating the race, usually getting out ahead of the pack and staying there for most of the race, a strategy that Swingley told reporters he was going to attempt this year. The only representative from team Norway this year is Bjornar Andersen, who is currently in the 24th position about 9 hours behind Swingley, the current race leader.

There is still plenty of race to go, with plenty of changes in the top 25 ahead. We’ve got a few days before mushers start to take their 24 hour layover which plays huge in strategy, but I’m sure its on their minds right now…

ALSO: I just found out that this site doesn’t look right when viewed with some versions of Internet Explorer. I’ll work on a fix right away, hopefully if everything looks goofy for you, you’ll stick around as things SHOULD be looking right by this afternoon.

(photo from iditarod.com)

Rainy Pass is still pretty early to be developing race leaders, but the top 10 right now looks pretty believable. Ramey Smyth checked out at 2:46pm, that’s 3.5 hours ahead of Jessica Hendricks and Lance Mackey. Bjornar Andersen is going to start his race for the lead over the next few checkpoints, he technically is in 4th place, but he took a much longer rest than anyone else and should make up time quickly. Doug Swingley (currently #6) is also coming out of Rainy Pass with a very long rest.

Ramey Smyth is a musher who is addicted to the race. When I spoke with him in 2005, he expressed how much he needs to place high in order to pay the bills. At only 30, this will be Ramey’s 12th Iditarod, and in those 12 races he has finished in the top 10 four times, with 2004 being the closest he has come to winning first place. Last year was definitely an off year for Ramey as he placed almost the worst in his Iditarod career. Ramey also spoke about how important the dog’s safety is to him. Last year he had a rough training season with his team getting stomped by a moose, but going into the ‘05 race all he cared about was making sure his team stayed safe and healthy he knows that’s really the only way to come out ahead.

The Winter Games Have Only Just Begun
by Greg Asimakoupoulos

The Torino Olympics may be history, but the excitement of winter sports competition is not limited to the Italian Alps. This month marks the 34th running of the Iditarod Sled Dog Race in Alaska. Upwards of seventy mushers and their dog teams will participate in the “Last Great Race” that commences in Anchorage and culminates in Nome.

For the past two decades Wendy and I have followed this unusual arctic event with keen interest. Ever since our family spent six weeks in Nome in 1987 working at the Covenant’s missionary radio station, we’ve been Iditarodians. Three years ago while researching the history of Covenant missions in Alaska and KICY unique ministry, I experienced a dream come true. I was able to witness the Iditarod in person.

At two o’clock in the morning on March 13, 2003, I joined a thousand enthusiastic fans on Front Street to watch Robert Sorlie, a forty-five year old fireman from Norway, drive his team of dogs to victory. With sub-zero temperatures and a brisk wind off the Bering Sea, I can honestly say (even with long underwear, layers or clothing and a heavy down coat) I have never been so cold in all my life.

Of the sixty-four competitors who had begun the “Last Great Race” nine days earlier, Robert Sorlie was the first to glide beneath that famous burl arch that marks the Iditarod’s finish line. With eight of the sixteen dogs with which he had begun the thousand mile trek, a virtual no-name became was the first Scandinavian ever to win the Iditarod.

Sorlie was not however the first Scandinavian to travel in and around the coastline of the Bering Sea with hopes of breaking new ground. A Covenant missionary from Sweden by the name of Axel Karlson traveled by dog team blazing his own trail more than a century before. For Karlson the reward he sought was not a check for $68,000 and a new Dodge pickup. The thirty-something missionary would be satisfied with nothing less than the joy of leading the indigenous people of Alaska into a relationship with their Creator.

It was Axel Karlson who would penetrate the permafrost of Western Alaska and the frozen hearts of Alaskan natives with the news of God’s grace in Jesus Christ. This nineteenth century dog musher is credited with beginning our denomination’s mission in the North. For this young Swede, it was an urgent mission to save lives from an epidemic of sin and death for which there was only one known cure. Curiously, that urgency was illustrated fifteen years after Karlson’s death through a sled dog race in the very region where he’d lived and ministered.

On January 21, 1925, the lives of countless children in Nome were at stake. An epidemic of diphtheria had broken out. Tragically, the gold rush city did not have a sufficient amount of antitoxin. Dr. Curtis Welch telegraphed Fairbanks, Anchorage, Seward and Juneau, asking for help. 300,000 units of the serum were located at a hospital in Anchorage. It was the only serum in the entire state.

The problem was to get it to Nome in the shortest time possible. With the Bering Sea frozen and no railroad or roads extending to Nome’s remote location, dog teams were the only solution. The 300,000 units were packed in an insulated container and transported to Nenana on an overnight train.

Once the serum arrived a 674 mile relay race by dogteam awaited. It was a distance mushers who delivered the mail normally covered in a month. The first musher took the insulated cylinder of serum 52 miles where he passed the lifesaving baton to the second musher who traveled 31 miles. From musher to musher the relay continued until a total of twenty sled dog drivers cooperated to get the needed medicine to Nome by February 2nd. In only 127 ½ hours the lifesaving serum arrived due to the cooperative effort of individuals who were willing to do brave the austere Alaskan wilderness, sub-zero temperatures and blinding blizzards to accomplish a goal they alone were in a position to reach.

Isn’t that a remarkable story? No wonder Alaskans celebrate its significance each year. Since 1973 the Iditarod has been held to commemorate that historical lifesaving event in which Dr. Welch saved helpless children. It is also a gripping human drama that parallels how the Covenant mission in Western Alaska continued to persevere toward the goal of bringing a lifesaving message to Eskimos dying without knowledge of a Savior.

If you would like to know more about the Covenant Church’s efforts to evangelize the native arctic peoples of Alaska including the part played by a Christian radio station in the legendary gold rush town, why not read Ptarmigan Telegraph?

You can order this book online from www.covenantbookstore.com.

Iditarod 2006 is definitely underway. Right now the race leader is Lance Mackey who is the only musher so far to pull into the “Finger Lake” checkpoint, he did so at 6:19am this morning. Right behind Lance is Rookie Bryan Bearss who left Skwentna last night. We’re only 194 miles into this years 1112 mile race, so its very hard to see how things will pan out. Normally in this race, it isn’t until over halfway through that real race leaders start to emerge, and you might have some idea who your top ten finishers will be.

The Iditarod is an interesting event, its more marathon than sprint, more “NFL” than it is the superbowl. I say that because out of the 81 mushers who entered the race this year, there is only a handful who really wish to do well. Infact, the top twenty are the only ones who make any money from the event and at the starting line on Saturday one musher said they had aspirations of making the top 25. Most people who run the Iditarod do it for themselves. They love the challenge, they love the dogs and the love the outdoors. That isn’t to say they won’t go broke running the race, but they don’t have any grand ideas about finishing just ahead of race veteran Jeff King.

Jeff King leads me to the group of competitors who are just that, competing for the top slots of the race. There are about 20 mushers this year who could easily win the race, and an even higher number who could place in the top money making twenty. You’ve got Rick Swenson who has won the race more than anyone else, in three decades for a total of 5 times (currently in position number 52). Martin Buser (currently in position 37), who ran in second place for 80% of the race last year, only to finish 13th has won 4 times. Lance Mackie hasn’t yet won the Iditarod, but managed last year to break a record by placing 5th, because just weeks prior he won the Yukon Quest, another 1000 mile race that starts in Alaska and ends in Canada. He won that race again this year. The have been several winners of both races, but never in the same year and Lance wants to see that change in 2006.

Other mushers to watch out for in the 2006 Iditarod:

Doug Swingly:
This four time Iditarod Campion (currently in 3rd place) was claiming last year as his “re-tooling year”. He had a very young team that he chose to train on the trail himself, instead of having a handler do it, like many other professional mushers do. I spoke with Doug at the finish line last year and he said that he will win in 2006. Taking lessons from Muhammad Ali, coming up to this year’s race he still had that attitude. He’s got a strong, young team of veteran dogs.

Ed Iten:
This musher, from outside Kotzebuee Alaska has placed higher and higher each year he has run the race, leading up to a second place finish last year. Ed lives and breathes dogs & mushing, keep your eye open for what could possibly be another “sleeper” finish for this Alaskan.

I know there are probably many who don’t know about the Iditarod, so lets consider this Iditarod 101:

The race starts in Anchorage, runs through ghost towns, mountain ranges, Eskimo villages, and lots of wilderness for a total of about 23 checkpoints to finish in Nome. The race is just over 1,000 miles total. This year, 82 mushers will compete in the “last great race”. Each team starts with 12 dogs (that means at the start of the race, there are almost 1000 dogs within the 4 block radius of the starting line). Each musher can drop a dog at any checkpoint if they are sick or injured, but has to finish in Nome with at least half the team. In about 9 or 10 days the first musher will pass under the finish “arch” in Nome, and up to 6 days later the last musher will arrive in Nome.

I’m going to be reporting each day from results that I find on the internet and from the live updates that are posted on iditarodinsider.com. Its kinda lame, but for an Iditarod junkie like me, hopefully it will get me through this race until I can be back up in the great white north in a year or two. I’ll also be posting back links to the audio that I recorded last year on the race, while some of it might be year specific, relistening to most of it this past week myself, there is also some pretty interesting stuff in there as well.

I’ll be back later this evening with a re-cap of the ceremonial start this morning, and a look ahead at this years race.

Me Reporting Last Year:

Me Reporting This Year: