The Iditarod has finally begun and teams are well on their way out of the Mat-Su valley and into the woods on their way to Nome. It’ll be a day or two before we can see any type of patterns or leaders emerge, we’re still under a pretty heavy influence of the two-hour time difference that exists between those who left first and those who left the starting line last. That doesn’t mean however, that strategy isn’t happening behind the scenes – for those hoping to place in the top 10 or 20, the beginning of the race is a very crucial part of positioning. Look for most teams to run for the next eight hours or so after leaving Willow before taking a rest of any decent length, although there might be some who take advantage of the high energy that their dogs have this early. What you’ll really want to be watching is if anyone starts cutting rests and when; that’ll show the confidence or strategy that some of the contending mushers have in the dogs they’ve selected once the first few hours are behind them.
The Race is on!
Take your best shot at who will be the first to arrive in Yentna, Skwentna, or Rainy Pass in the Checkpoint Guessing Game
.gif "Alaska Airlines")
March 8, 2010 at 9:03 am
I’ve been up since early morning tracking the progress on iditarod insider and gps. the gps is working pretty well. a lot more accurate than the current standings board. there must be quite a lag in getting times posted in the early moning hours. they still had mackey sitting in skwentna at 7 this morning on the checkpoint tracker!