The flight to the finish….

I’m here at the checkpoint at White Mountain where Paul Gephardt, Martin Buser, Zach Steer and now Jeff King are all waiting and resting during their mandatory 8 hour layover. Paul stands to leave this checkpoint in just about 15 minutes, and will most likely arrive into Nome in second place later this evening. The most real race is now going to be for third place, with Martin Buser and Zach Steer coming in just 15 minutes apart. Steer told me that he is going to push his dogs into Nome trying to place as high as possible, but Martin can be very elusive. They left the previous checkpoint of Elim just about an hour apart and Zach had a little bit of a faster pace. Zach couldn’t be happier even if he does come in fourth, in Anchorage at the start of the race Steer was one of the mushers hoping to place in the top twenty, he was so impressed with his team he said, that early in the race he changed his goals to a top 10 finish, and now he is looking at finishing 3rd or 4th.

Jeff King’s team is finally looking a bit better than they did in Unalakleet, I wouldn’t be surprised if he tried to make up the 2 hours that he is behind Martin and try for 3rd place himself. Ed Iten could also be a contender, he has been known to make dramatic pushes into Nome.

Of course, the big story is still all about Lance Mackey, he left White Mountain just as my plane arrived around 9:40 this morning. Lance not only will become the first musher to ever win two long distance races in the same year (he won his third consecutive Yukon Quest, another 1,000 mile race two weeks ago), but Mackey will also become the third member of his family to take home a championship.

Paul Gephardt described his Iditarod career in the phrase “always a bridesmaid, never a bride” coming in second in 2000, and in the top ten four other times.

It will be later this afternoon/evening when we can expect to see Lance in Nome, it quickest anyone has ever made it from White Mountain to Nome is 10 hours, average is somewhere around 11 or 12.

View photos of White Mountain (here)