Iditablog.com – Iditarod 2010 News and Coverage

This quick little clip was taken by Mr. Tom Mute of Nome, AK.

It does a good job of giving you a real feel of the craziness that was happening.

(click here) to download

I just got back to race headquarters and wanted to get you some information as soon as possible before Mackey comes in.  As you probably know (if you’re up at 12am Alaska time) Mitch Seavey came in and beat Jeff King into Nome by ten minutes.  Mitch’s arrival time was 23:29, and King was 29:39.

It was craziness out there….

Madness.

Audio, video, and pictures coming soon…

I hate to do this to you…. but with King and Seavey getting into Cape Nome just a little bit ago (still minutes apart) I’ve got to get down to front street for the live KICY broadcast.

The good news is: Its being recorded….and the first 10 of you can listen online @ kicy.org.

If it seems odd at a time like this to break into the action, think how odd it felt for me to leave race headquarters around 8pm for a pre-scheduled auction, to raise money for the AAS Queen contest.

They were auctioning off Iditarod & Nome memorabilia. I got suckered into buying an Iditarod checkpoint drop sack from Joe Reddington Sr, for $30.

Then King and Seavey hit Safety and I had to leave……

21:02 – Seavey into Safety – King in sight

21:06 – King into Safety

Before I get to the story, King & Seavey just left Solomon within minutes of each other, and I just got a report from a pilot that landed a few moments ago that Seavey is now in the lead, he witnessed this from the air, just out of Solomon.

Kudos to Kevin Klott from ADN for reporting the following story:

(http://www.adn.com/sports/story/358945.html)

…..Who gets it done could become an issue tonight.

Perhaps the most interesting twist in this race could unfold when the first musher across the line discovers he has been duped by race organizers. Whoever crosses first underneath the burled arch – the same monument used for the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race — might not be the winner.

“There was a question (at a 3-1/2 hour mushers meeting) about how we were doing the (race) time,” race marshal Al Crane said Wednesday morning.

Mushers asked Crane, “How could you add minutes (secretly) at the checkpoints” to offset the two-minute gaps in the staggered start of 16 teams.

Mushers didn’t understand how easy it was, Crane said, so he told them the time differential wouldn’t be made up at all.

“Nobody is going to screw with the times (on the trail),” Crane said. “I don’t understand why they had a problem with the time differential. OK, the first team that comes back wins. I’ll explain (adding the time) after the fact. Nobody’s going to get hurt by it. (Now) they all have the same strategy – they want to win.”

Mushers thus departed Nome with the idea there would be no time differential, meaning each musher technically left at 10 a.m., despite the two-minute staggered start. Considering there are no mandatory rests, race marshal Al Crane said, there was no place to make up the time.

But really, to keep things fair, Crane said, the time will be made up when each musher crosses the finish line. The winner will be based on the best total elapsed time.

“I don’t want them to know all the information,” Crane said.

Theoretically, of course, whose first across the finish line and who is first on elapsed time might prove a moot point. Of the three frontrunners going for the biggest payout in the history of an Alaska professional sporting event, King left Front Street in Nome only four minutes ahead of Seavey and 10 minutes ahead of Mackey.

Mitch Seavey became the second musher to reach the checkpoint of Timber, at 16:22. Because Jeff King (who was there early this afternoon) hasn’t reached Topkok yet (its only 16 miles away) one could assume that while Mackey and Seavey spent their time resting in Council, King decided to head on and get his rest in Timber. He arrived there at 13:03, so has been there for quite some time now. Once these guys start, its pretty safe to assume that they will be headed straight into Nome. They are 85 miles from Nome (Council) or 67 miles from Nome (Timber). They are getting as much rest in this leg of the race as possible in order to sprint to the finish line as they would in Iditarod from White Mountain (which is 77 miles from Nome). I mentioned earlier that the trail from White Mountain intersects with the AAS trail after or around timber (before topkok). Once these teams hit that area of the trail, both the musher and the dogs will know exactly where they are, and where they are going. The trail from Council to Nome is going to be nice, hardpacked, and wide…. its a very common route for folks in this area.

Interesting strategy just coming in over the ham from the Boston checkpoint (at 17:10), Ramy Brooks got in a little while ago, but came in the back way and is setup up in the trees behind the checkpoint, but hasn’t signed in yet. Look for his incoming time to Boston to most likely be his outgoing time as he will probably checkin after he has finished resting.