Deborah Bicknell Iditarod update

Iditarod Red Lantern winner is ...

The last musher and her team have arrived in Nome and passed under the arch. Deborah Bicknell, 62, of Auke Bay, Alaska, born in, and a long time resident of, New Hampshire crossed the finish line late Monday night in a time of 15 days, 5 hours, 36 minutes and 12 seconds. Deb became the 78th and last musher to finish the 2008 Iditarod.

Her time, while not exactly speedy, certainly beats the slowest time ever.

Dave Straub holds the record for the fastest red lantern time of 14 days, 5 hours, 38 minutes -- set in 2002. The slowest ever is one of those Iditarod records that will never be broken -- John Schultz's time of 32 days, 5 hours, 19 minutes in the inaugural Iditarod of 1973.(From Sunday’s Anchorage Daily News: Iditarod Red Lantern winner is ...)

Just to remind you, Lance Mackey won the 2008 race with a time of 9 days, 11 hours, 46 minutes, 49 seconds.

Thankfully she did not take as long as Mr. Schultz did back in 1973, but her long trek from White Mountain to Safety (more than 17 hours to cover 55 miles) had a good number of fans worried about her. Some remembered her trail mishap during last year’s race* while others speculated about her health, her team’s health and any one of the multitude of things that could have gone wrong. Some contacted the Nome Visitor’s Center to ask for information, some emailed the Iditarod officials, and some contacted the bar at the finish line to see if they had any word.

Surprisingly, at least for this day and age and anywhere outside of Alaska, every one of those aforementioned sources replied! And so we learned that Deb was on her way to Safety and was being followed by the “sweepers”—those folks assigned the duty of picking up trail markers after the last musher had moved through.

When she passed through Safety and the information was posted on the leader (?) board, a cyberworld cheer went up on the message boards. It had taken Deb 17 hours and 16 minutes to cover the 55 miles between White Mountain and Safety, a “speed” of a mere 3.19 miles per hour. No word on the “why” aspect of that dramatic drop in speed, she had been averaging in the 6+ mph range for the previous four legs and had only one leg that was remotely as slow.

(Deb and her team covered the final 22 miles from Safety to Nome in 3 hours and 23 minutes or just around 6.5 miles/hour. A rate which makes her trip from White Mountain to Safety even more baffling.)

But then again, she did compete in—and finish—the Iditarod! Congratulations Deborah Bicknell!



*In 2007, Deborah “made it to Rainy Pass, 224 miles into the Race and was stopped by severe winds and sub-zero temperatures. She was the last team out of the checkpoint on Wednesday morning, and wasn't heard from again until a pilot spotted her the following afternoon at the foot of the Alaska Range. With no marker to show the correct Dazell Trail to Rohn (it had blown away), she headed through Ptarmigan Pass, getting soaked in overflow and spending a "night out with the dogs." Deborah's survival instincts pulled her through, but after a night at the Rohn checkpoint and out of concern for her dogs, that was the end of her rookie run on the Iditarod Trail.”