Iditablog.com – Iditarod 2010 News and Coverage

The Iditablog.com Podcast is back for Iditarod 2009! In our first episode this season we:

Subscribe via iTunes: (click here)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Right before Lance Mackey’s 2008 All Alaska Sweepstakes 3rd place finish in Nome, Lance was hit by a snow machine. The machine was traveling at a high rate of speed behind Lance. He flashed his lights and yelled at the driver, but says it didn’t seem to matter. Mackey jumped off the sled just before the snowmachine hit the sled from the rear and ran it over.

The day after the accident Lance went on local Nome radio station KNOM and talked about his story.

We know things have improved quite a bit since then, but its still chilling to hear Lance tell this story.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Attached is a recording of the live KICY broadcast. I co-hosted this broadcast with Nate Hobbs, Josh Remer was the mobile unit out at Fort Davis, and General Manager Dennis Weidler was back at the studio running the board.

Mitch arrived at 23:29, King arrived at 23:39

Keep looking for more fun things posted over the next few hours.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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

Nate & I sit down again (in a very cold studio) and talk for almost 20 minutes this morning on what has transpired since last night.

In this podcast we cover:

• Current Standings
• Can mushers maintain this pace into Nome?
• When will the first musher arrive?
• What is going on with start differentials?
• Scratch Updates
• What can we learn from 2007 Kobuk 440?
• Where is everyone else right now?

We’ll have more as the morning goes on! – (click here) to download the podcast

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

In tonight’s podcast we sit down with Dr. Phil Schobert, the Executive Race Director and talk with him about how the race is going so far, when we might expect a first place musher into Nome, and briefly speaks about the first scratch of the race, and I try to get some information about all the confusion that is going on with the starting time differentials.

Right now the race leaders are on their way back from Candle – Lance Mackey was the first musher to arrive into First Chance at 19:56, and according to ham traffic stayed and rested there while King and Seavey were behind resting in Gold Run. King arrived into First Chance at 22:58, and Seavey at 23:40.

I’ll have much more news in the morning, and will have a new podcast posted mid-morning. There should be some interesting developments overnight and word on the street is that there is an airplane coming into Nome that contains a second scratched musher’s dogs, can’t mention who yet…..although nothing has been reported officially, I’m sure we’ll know more soon.

Speaking of scratching, many folks have been wondering about Hugh Neff, and wanting to make sure that he and his dogs were ok. As Dr. Phil says in the podcast, Hugh scratched on his own accord… however rumors are that he had issues with his support team, and it just came across the radio a few minutes ago that Hugh has mushed himself back and is in Council right now awaiting further instruction from the Lead Judge.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

I just got back a few minutes ago from recording our first podcast, I was trying all morning to get some information to post, but ended up just going with the info we had at the time and recording this podcast. Right before the podcast we got the word that Hugh Neff has withdrawn from the race at the Haven checkpoint earlier this morning, although the information didn’t break until around 11-11:30. I spoke with Dr. Phil, the race director and he said that Hugh withdrew not because he was forced to, not because of an injury to his team or any of his dogs, but simply because of how tough this trail is, and how much more overwhelming it was than he was expecting (see above posts on issue’s with Hugh’s support team) I’ll be following up and trying to get more information as the afternoon goes on.

In this podcast, we talk about the current standings, our conversation with the checker from Safety, race expectations, and early speculation on Hugh Neff’s withdrawal from the race. I want to quickly apologize for the quality of some of the audio, we didn’t hear that it was goofy until it was to late…and I didn’t want to delay getting this thing out. The problem has been resolved and will be better for next time!

We will be recording again later this evening, and either at that recording, or another time tonight I’ve got a sit down interview with Dr. Phil, the race director scheduled that I’ll record and post in its entirety.

Subscribe in itunes by (clicking here)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download