We're halfway there…

Lance Mackey claimed the gold nuggets that are offered each year to the musher who is the first to reach the halfway point of the race. Mackey passed Aaron Burmeister, and Hugh Neff to become the first musher to the checkpoint of Iditarod. The long stretch of trail from Ophir took all of the top ten mushers most of Thursday to travel, however Mackey was the only one so far to make the trek without stopping. A 15.5 hour trip for current third place musher Hugh Neff took the reigning champion, Mackey only 10 hours to complete.

It’s still a close race for most of these competitive mushers, but we are starting to see some key players attempt to separate themselves from the strategies their competitors might be using, such as Mackey’s decision to go straight from Ophir to Iditarod, or Martin Buser’s decision to rest 6 hours in McGrath before taking his 24-hour layover in Ophir.

We’ll be back later this morning to keep tabs on these mushers, and hopefully take a look at the rest of the Iditarod participants – its been easy this year to focus on the top ten because they’re all so close together and the GPS tracker system allows for instant data. There are amazing people and stories in the middle and back of the pack too…. it would be fun to hear them.