Iditablog.com – Iditarod 2012 News & Coverage

Jeff King was the second musher to arrive into Nome this morning, crossing under the burled arch at 4:05am. King had been purposefully nipping at the heels of Lance Mackey for over half the race allowing Mackey to break trail as the two mushers worked their way to Nome. Jeff did pull ahead of Lance between Kaltag and Unalakleet and King won the Wells Fargo “Gold Coast Award” for a record-tying 5th time, King remarked that there was another record he was hoping to tie at 5 wins this year.

King is one of a handful of successful mushers who haven’t been able to bring home the record-tying 5th Iditarod Championship…. The late Susan Butcher was on her way in 1989, but similar to this year wasn’t able to hold the lead to Joe Runyan after leaving White Mountain. Martin Buser, and the recently retired Doug Swingley have also attempted a 5th championship.

Probably the most defining moment of King’s race came just over 24 hours ago when he arrived into Elim three minutes behind Mackey – both mushers headed inside the checkpoint to take a few hours break and when Lance put his gear down to take a nap, so did King. Mackey didn’t fall asleep but waited for King, and after only 1 and a half hours rest, Mackey headed out onto the trail while King slept back in the checkpoint. King woke up less than an hour later and gave chase to Mackey, but was never able to catch up.

Audio from KICY of Lance Mackey winning his 2nd consecutive Iditarod is being uploaded right now and will be posted soon, along with Photos taken by Iditablog photographer Chris Carlson.

(above: Mackey takes a few moments with each of his dogs on the sea ice moments before entering Front Street, Mackey speaks to his father on a cell phone under the burled arch after winning the 2008 Iditarod)

In one of the closest Iditarods in recent history, Lance Mackey and Jeff King led the race for most of the last week coming into some checkpoints just minutes apart. There were many times over half the race, and even the last 24 hours it was impossible to predict who was going to be crossing under the burled arch first, but we can now congratulate and celebrate with the entire Mackey family as at 2:46am:

LANCE MACKEY WINS HIS SECOND IDITAROD TITLE IN TWO YEARS.

Its a tough feat that’s very rarely done, but back to back Iditarods are still possible and this whole thing is even more amazing given the fact that Mackey just won his fourth consecutive Yukon Quest title just a mere few weeks ago.

History was going to be made this morning, regardless of which of the two mushers arrived into Nome first, Jeff King came into this year looking for his 5th Career Iditarod win, a number that would have tied him with Rick Swenson as the most winning-est musher in history. Martin Buser, Doug Swingley, Jeff King, and the late Susan Butcher have all attempted to make the monumental leap from being a 4 time champion, to being a 5 time champion but all have come very close, but have been unsuccessful. We’re expecting Jeff to arrive into Nome in just under an hour from now.

We’ll have audio in just a few moments, and will have more pictures coming in throughout the next few hours from Iditablog photographer Chris Carlson.

The next, even more contested spot in this year’s Iditarod is for third place as Ramey Smyth, Ken Anderson, Martin Buser and Hans Gatt all left White Mountain within half an hour of each other. I’m sure that the next 70 miles for these competitors will be pretty stressful as the difference between 3rd and 6th will be separated by just a few moments. Ramey Smyth has been an “up and coming” musher for the last few years after his 4th place finish in 2004. Smyth is one of those guys that you least want to go up against in the final stretch of the trail, he has won the Nome Kennel club’s “fastest from Safety to Nome” award six times and has been called one of the best closers in Iditarod history. Ken Anderson is also an up and coming musher, his best finish was fifth in 2003, although he was in Jeff King’s shoes just a few weeks ago as he battled Lance Mackey in the Yukon Quest and narrowly lost to the reigning champion. Martin Buser was looking for his 5th Iditarod win this year just like King, however was the first to admit his schedule was not competitive enough to go up against Mackey and King. Finally, Hans Gatt is looking to improve his Iditarod best of 12th back in 2000 with a top ten finish this year, however Gatt knows the thrill of victory all to well as he won the Yukon Quest three times in a row over 2002-2004.

The most interesting part of this year’s top ten is the amount of successful Quest mushers that have run both races back to back with mostly the same teams. Mackey proved last year that you could be competitive in both races without sacrifice. Look for the Iditarod to change even more over the next few years as it feels the “Mackey effect”.

In what is one of the closest Iditarods in 30 years, Lance Mackey and Jeff King left White Mountain this evening just one hour apart, and have over 70 miles to cover before crossing the finish line in Nome. The Iditarod website’s GPS function shows both teams going about 7 miles per hour, and shows Mackey with just under a 10 mile lead on King. The first musher could cross the finish line most likely around 2am Alaska time. We will be up and watching the finish and will report immediately on this year’s winner, and will have archived KICY audio, along with photos and possibly video from the finish line.

Leaving Elim early this morning, Lance Mackey made what could be one of the best strategic decisions of this incredibly close Iditarod. Mackey arrived into Elim running just a little bit slower than Jeff King who arrived within 3 minutes of the reigning champion. Mackey did what he has done at most checkpoints along the cost, he cut his rest time a little short and forced King to consider doing the same. Jeff King has said he won’t fall into that cycle of shorter rests, which ultimately effect the performance of his team, he contends that his longer rests are what have allowed him to continuously run faster times than Mackey was showing. The run from Elim to White Mountain this morning was different, this time King wasn’t able to catch up with Mackey and the hour that had elapsed between when Mackey left Elim, and when King left Elim remained an hour as the two mushers arrived into White Mountain, Mackey at 8:53am, and King at 9:50am.

It won’t be until almost 5pm that Mackey will be able to leave White Mountain, and almost 6 when King can leave, from there the two will be sprinting to the finish line in Nome almost 80 miles away.. Look for a winner to arrive somewhere between 2 and 5am Alaska time.

We’ll be back in a few hours to look at the incredible race for third place….. it might even be closer than the race for first.

From ADN – The twenty closest Iditarod Finishes ever:

(No. 1) 1978: Dick Mackey beat Rick Swenson by 1 second.
(No. 2)1982: Rick Swenson beat Susan Butcher by 4 minutes.
(No. 3) 1977: Rick Swenson beat Jerry Riley by 5 minutes.
(No. 4) 1975: Emmitt Peters beat Jerry Riley by 27 minutes.
(No. 5) 1993: Jeff King beat DeeDee Jonrowe by 33 minutes.
(No. 6) 2005: Robert Sorlie beat Ed Iten by 34 minutes.
(No. 7) 1979: Rick Swenson beat Emmitt Peters by 41 minutes.
(No. 1981: Rick Swenson beat Sonny Lindner by 48 minutes.
(No. 9) 1986: Susan Butcher beat Joe Garnie by 55 minutes.
(No. 10) 1989: Joe Runyan beat Susan Butcher by 1 hour, 5 minutes.
(No. 11) 1984: Dean Osmar beat Susan Butcher by 1 hour, 34 minutes.
(No. 12) 1983: Rick Mackey beat Eep Anderson by 1 hour, 40 minutes.
(No. 13) 2003: Robert Sorlie beat Ramy Brooks by 1 hour, 49 minutes.
(No. 14) 2002: Martin Buser beat Ramy Brooks by 2 hours, 3 minutes.
(No. 15) 2007: Lance Mackey beat Paul Gebhardt by 2 hours, 19 minutes.
(No. 16) 2004: Mitch Seavey beat Jeff King by 2 hours, 21 minutes.
(No. 17) 1985: Libby Riddles beat Duane Halverson by 2 hours, 26 minutes.
(No. 18) 1990: Susan Butcher beat Joe Runyan by 2 hours, 28 minutes.
(No. 19) 1996: Jeff King beat Doug Swingley by 2 hours, 49 minutes.
(No. 20) 1994: Martin Buser beat Rick Mackey by 2 hours, 50 minutes.

The All Alaska Sweepstakes has been dubbed the “birthplace of competitive Long distance dog mushing”.  It all started back in 1908 when the newly formed Nome Kennel Club decided to hold the longest race they had ever attempted, most previous races were 3 or 4 mile sprints.  At that time in Nome, during the middle of the gold rush there were many things for people to bet on and the new All Alaska Sweepstakes was marketed as the greatest.  The first year the race was attempted it was completed in just about 100 hours, and the all time record was set by “Iron Man” John Johnson in 1910, for the next 8 years mushers like LeonardSeppala (of Serum Run fame) and Scotty Allan would try to break the 74 hour record, but no one was ever able to.  It was because of these first 18 years when the All Alaska Sweepstakes was run that things like selective dog breeding came into the picture, and mushing went from being a part of life to a full time sport.

In 1983 the Nome Kennel club had been recently working with the new Iditarod Sled Dog race, and managing the Nome aspect of this exciting new venture.  It was decided that in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the All Alaska Sweepstakes, it would be run again on its original course, and using the original rules.  Rick Swenson competed with 22 other mushers on that original course and went home with the trophy and the $25,000 winner take all purse.  Even after winning 4 Iditarods, Swenson only was able to come within 10 hours of Iron Man Johnson’s record, coming in at 84 hours.

This year’s race will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the All Alaska Sweepstakes and competitive dog mushing, and will be offering one of the largest purses in mushing history, $100,000 winner-take all.  Even though the race is winner-take-all, the 14 other mushers entered in this year’s race will have something to look forward to.  Right now in Nome there is a contest for the “All Alaska Sweepstakes” Queen, members of the public can vote for a queen by a $5 vote.  The winning queen’s vote money will allgoto the second place musher as their prize, and all other queen vote money will be spread out among the other mushers in the race.

Just like in 1983, this year’s race will operate on the very same rules that the original races operated on, this means that every musher must sign a bill of sale for their dog team over to the Nome Kennel Club, and the Kennel club will take ownership of a team if a musher breaks the rules along the trail.  This also means that while its 200 miles to Candle, the mushers will then turn around and travel back to Nome on the same trail in order to finish the race.  Every musher must also finish the race with the very same number of dogs as they started with at thebeginning of the race.  The rules differ pretty dramatically from today’s current Iditarod rules, and are interesting to read.  (click here for the full rules)

It should be an amazing race, and will be an exciting follow up to this year’s Iditarod, especially since both front-runners Lance Mackey and Jeff King are signed up, as are Mitch Seavey, Ed Iten, Ramy Brooks, Hugh Neff, and other big time mushers.

I will be in Nome for the entire race, and will be bringing you updates, pictures, audio, and video on the race from a firsthand prospective – on the trail and in Nome.

As Lance Mackey and Jeff King approached (and reached) the native village of Koyuk this morning he was able to hold his lead. According to GPS tracking on the Iditarod website, its been a close race since leaving Shaktoolik about half an hour apart, at times King was about a mile behind Mackey, and at other times running 3 or 4 miles behind.  They arrived into Koyuk around 1:30pm just under 10 minutes apart.

All of these villages along the Bering Sea coast (Unalakleet, Shaktoolik, Koyuk, Elim, Golovin, White Mountain) are amazing places with beautiful and friendly people.  When living in Nome I had the opportunity on several occasions to spend time meeting the people who live in these small communities (usually 200-300 people live in these villages on the Iditarod trail, except for Unalakleet where nearly 1,000 people live).  The people of this area were our listeners while working at KICY, and would always welcome us into their home.  It is a tough region to live in, and the awkward mix of modern life and the subsistence lifestyle has never been stronger.  With an average of 15-20% of all families in these villages living below the poverty line (mainly because there are very few jobs in each village) the need to remain subsisting off the land is great, however satellite television and DSL Internet are so common now in villages that much of modern American culture is also part of daily life.  Many of these villages are “dry” locations, due to the abuse of alcohol and its extremely negative effects on these remote places, despite so many challenges the people of the region remain strong and find ways to survive.  The Iditarod is something that everyone in the villages look forward to and enjoy being a part of.

I’m still curious whats going to happen between Mackey and King, in Unalakleet yesterday Lance spoke to reporters about how he just wanted to do well, how he was already thinking about next year’s team, and if you go back to the beginning of the race in Anchorage Mackey always talked about wanting to have a good showing in the All Alaska Sweepstakes over winning his second Iditarod. Compare that to King – he was the first into Unalakleet and immediately mentioned going onto winning his fifth Iditarod this year, bragged on his team, and had a pretty upbeat attitude.  Last year after coming into Unalakleet Jeff King sounded like Mackey did this year, he told me about how if he didn’t win, he hoped Lance would because it was “such a magical story”.  Perhaps Mackey’s quotes this year were taken out of context when I read them, he’s holding King back pretty well right now…..but Nome isn’t just right around the corner either.

Later today on I want to talk about the All Alaska Sweepstakes that starts in just about two weeks, the impact that it’s had on this year’s Iditarod, and what makes this upcoming race so special.

As the leaders head up the coast on their final leg to Nome, I want to take a minute and make a few predictions on what we will see over the next day, feel free to make some of your own by calling the toll free number, or leaving comments in the area below.

Prediction #1
King is on his way to overtaking Mackey again.  Things played out earlier today in Unalakleet just like they did last year.  King came in first, Mackey over an hour later, but after cutting the rest short Mackey took off earlier and got ahead.  I’m guessing thats where the similarities will stop.  King has a stronger team, and will overtake Mackey either on the way to Shaktoolik or Koyuk.

Prediction #2
Someone is going to make a mad dash and either catch up, or come close to catching up with Mackey and King.  Many mushers hold out until this final leg up the coast and pull out all the stops to sprint into Nome. Look for Backen, Seavey, Gatt, Gebhardt, or a wildcard (Swenson?) to really change what the top five will look like….as I said in a previous post, many of those spots are totally unclaimed right now.

Just as predicted yesterday, Lance Mackey was passed on the trail from Kaltag to Unalakleet by 4-time champion Jeff King.  King has been running at a faster pace than Mackey for the last few days, but because of rest schedules Mackey was pulled over this morning when King flew by.  This is the third year in a row that Jeff King has been the first musher to the Bering Sea coast, even though he went on to win in 2006, it wasn’t the case last year and it was the ultimate winner Lance Mackey who came into Unalakleet just an hour behind him.

The situation isn’t quite the same however this year, in 2007 Lance was the one doing the passing coming into Unalakleet, he had been working his way up the standings over the previous days and passed Martin Buser on the way from Kaltag, he wasn’t leading the race like he was this year.  King also was running a team of only 12 dogs, this year he has managed to keep all 16 that he started with, and continues to look very strong.  Last year Mackey ended up cutting his rest short in Unalakleet and left earlier than Jeff King did, and King never caught up, Lance ended up leading the race all the way to Nome.

Its not to late however for some of the other contenders, as they fight for first, second or third place. Paul Gebhardt left Kaltag just two hours after Jeff King did, Ramey Smyth, Zach Steer, Hans Gatt, Martin Buser, Rick Swenson and a ton of others still have plenty to fight for as some positions in the top 5 are up for the taking.