Keeping Secrets

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.