We now have the top 10 finishers into Nome!! With our scratched list holding at 10 mushers, that leaves 13 teams still racing.
And (in my best booming announcer’s voice) we have Anna Berington! Out of White Mountain, mushing an 11 dog team, fresh off her final mandatory 8 hour stop. In 13th Place!!
It’s still 71 miles from WM to Nome (49 miles from WM to Safety, 22 miles from SFY to Nome), and there are some gnarly hills to climb (Walla Walla, Topkok, Cape Nome). But Anna is one heck of an athlete and she’ll be mustering up every last ounce of strength, stamina, and pure determination to hop off the sled and run up some of those hills to keep her speed up and lighten the load for the dogs.
Prediction time… when should we expect her into Nome?? I sharpened my pencil. I combed the run times of all the mushers already into the finish. I consulted Kristy. I checked the forecast…
This Mad Blogger puts her into Nome at 1:30am Sunday, March 16th. Alaska Standard Time!
Those detail oriented folks out there probably noticed that Anna opted to return one dog in White Mountain, arriving with 12 but departing with 11 dogs. Drax was handed over to vets and, I believe, will be transported on to the finish rather than flown directly back to Anchorage. Don’t worry, Drax is ok!
Anna is fully in race mode, thinking strategy and speed. Drax has been an amazing dog this race, and I know she will be shouting praise for all 16 dogs that contributed to this epic journey. But given what she will be asking of both herself and her dogs over this final 71 miles, it was best to have Drax just meet them at the finish rather than run there himself.
That’s Iditarod, folks. Despite writing this blog every year since 2012, I honestly have only touched on a fraction of the strategy and logistics faced by every musher out there.
And a couple fresh pics I received from Anna as she races toward the finish.
And (in my best booming announcer’s voice) we have Anna Berington! Out of White Mountain, mushing an 11 dog team, fresh off her final mandatory 8 hour stop. In 13th Place!!
It’s still 71 miles from WM to Nome (49 miles from WM to Safety, 22 miles from SFY to Nome), and there are some gnarly hills to climb (Walla Walla, Topkok, Cape Nome). But Anna is one heck of an athlete and she’ll be mustering up every last ounce of strength, stamina, and pure determination to hop off the sled and run up some of those hills to keep her speed up and lighten the load for the dogs.
Prediction time… when should we expect her into Nome?? I sharpened my pencil. I combed the run times of all the mushers already into the finish. I consulted Kristy. I checked the forecast…
This Mad Blogger puts her into Nome at 1:30am Sunday, March 16th. Alaska Standard Time!
Those detail oriented folks out there probably noticed that Anna opted to return one dog in White Mountain, arriving with 12 but departing with 11 dogs. Drax was handed over to vets and, I believe, will be transported on to the finish rather than flown directly back to Anchorage. Don’t worry, Drax is ok!
Anna is fully in race mode, thinking strategy and speed. Drax has been an amazing dog this race, and I know she will be shouting praise for all 16 dogs that contributed to this epic journey. But given what she will be asking of both herself and her dogs over this final 71 miles, it was best to have Drax just meet them at the finish rather than run there himself.
That’s Iditarod, folks. Despite writing this blog every year since 2012, I honestly have only touched on a fraction of the strategy and logistics faced by every musher out there.
And a couple fresh pics I received from Anna as she races toward the finish.
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