Iditablog.com – Iditarod 2010 News and Coverage

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.

There are several reasons that Doug Swingley and Jeff King are so interesting for Iditarod fans to watch mush. First, both have been serious contenders in the race since the early 90s when they started racing. Secondly, both over the last few years have had a hard time contending in the race, especially against the mushers from Norway who took over the race in 2003. Both mushers race, train & live sled dogs full time, this is how they make their living and it drives part of their competitiveness. And finally, a win for either musher would make Iditarod history.

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…

So, beyond the $72,000 and the brand new $44,000 dodge truck the winner receives in Nome, there are a number of other interesting prizes for mushers along the race. As a few have already been handed out this year, and a few major ones will be handed out in the hours and days to come I thought it might be nice to break them all down for you.

“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)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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!