Unsurprisingly the three remaining racers are all rookies, at least by virtue of never having finished the Iditarod before, they certainly have a wealth of mushing experience and background, and all three are determined to complete the trek from Anchorage to Nome. They range in age from 26 to 62. They are currently in positions 77, 78 and 79. All three left White Mountain last evening at approximately 11:20 PM Alaska Time. The fact that they left within three minutes (11:18 – 11:21) suggests they are working together to see that they all complete their goal.
Did I mention that all three are women. In order of their departure from White Mountain:
Liz Parrish (r) Klamath Falls, OR, USA
Bib Number: 75
<>Liz Parrish, 49, is an innkeeper who along with her partner Peggy, own and operate Crystalwood Lodge, a destination pet-friendly resort in the Southern Oregon Cascades. She also owns and operates Briar's Patch Sled Dogs, which currently has 28 canine members and Liz who is the musher and chief pooper scooper. From an enthusiastic and naive beginning with the "Motley Crew" team (an Aussie, Norweigian Elkhound, and Beagle Mix), Briar's Patch has developed into a small kennel of Alaskan Huskies, whose duel missions are to train for and race in distance sled dog events and provide opportunities for the public and individuals to learn more about sled dogs and sled dog sports. Liz's goal has been to train her own distance racing team and to learn how to competently travel through the wilderness by dog team. Why Iditarod? Well, how do you know if you have those skills if you don't try? Liz started her mushing career through several trips with Wintergreen Lodge and subsequently through training her own dogs via Mushing Boot Camp and the many friends she and Peggy met there. She began acquiring Alaskans (starting with Briar) through her mentor Jamie Nelson and Briar's Patch was born, along with the dream of doing the Iditarod for her 50th birthday. Her recent races include Red Lantern and Best Rookie finish at 2005 Shasta 135, a 4th place finish at 2007 Shasta 135; a 4th place finish at the 2006 Eagle Cap 200 and a 2nd place finish at the 2007 Eagle Cap 200; and the Red Lantern finish of the 2006 Race to the Sky as well as 11th place at the 2007 Race to the Sky. She is having a blast training and learning with her young team and is looking forward to continuing to enjoy the ride.
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Molly Yazwinski (r) Fairbanks, AK, USA
Bib Number: 62
Molly Yazwinski, 26, was born and raised in Deerfield, Massachusetts, where she grew up working on the family's dairy farm. She raised her own flock of sheep as a 4-H project and gained experience training border collies for livestock/farm work and herding trials. She graduated from Middlebury College in Vermont in 2004 with a degree in biology. While in college she ran competitively on the NCAA DIII cross-country team. She says she continues to run road races and has finished three marathons. "My mother raced a sprint team on the New England circuit in the 1970's and her aunt mushed dogs in Alaska during the 1980's, so she says she grew up hearing a few mushing stories. "Mom's sleds still hang in the garage and on occasion, we sometimes hook up a team of border collies. When she was six, she and her mom traveled to Alaska to visit her aunt and she was in Nome to see the finish of the Iditarod. Since she graduated from college, she has spent the summer months back in Massachusetts working on the dairy farm and other shepherding jobs and the winters in Fairbanks mushing dogs where I have been a handler for Susan Butcher and Dave Monson. "I decided to run the Iditarod this winter after having traveled part of the trail in March of 2007 with Tekla and Dave. We experienced the energy and atmosphere of the Race and traveled through some spectacular country. In the 2008 Iditarod I will be mushing a team from Trail Breaker Kennel. I have been working with many of these dogs for three years and I am excited to see how they will perform in the Race. I am deferring my enrollment at Cornell Veterinary School for one year in order to have the opportunity to run Iditarod. Then I plan to pursue a career in veterinary medicine with a focus on large animal medicine and serving rural communities.
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Deborah Bicknell (r) Auke Bay, AK, USA
Bib Number: 21
Deborah Bicknell, 62, was born in New Hampshire. She began mushing at the age of 11 and ran her first race with a family pet, a Saint Bernard. She determinedly worked her way up through the junior and adult ranks with the New England and Lakes Region sled dog clubs, earning two fourth places and one second place on the three-day open World Championship Sled Dog Derby in Laconia. During the winter of 1970, she gained experience with Earl and Natalie Norris at their kennel in Willow and placed third in the Willow Winter Carnival race that year, beaten only by Norris and George Attla. 1996 was an outstanding year for Deborah, the first woman to be awarded an "unlimited team" medal by the International Sled Dog Racing Association. She was nominated by the Manchester Union Leader sports writers was one of the outstanding athletes in the state and was featured as "musher of the Year" in Team & Trail. She moved to southeast Alaska in 1981 with her husband, Sandy, and over the next few years, she gave up racing in favor a developing a prosperous boat canvas and upholstering business, but the dogs were never far from her mind. Since Southeast is not a favorable area for training sled dogs, they purchased land in Tagish, YT in the 1990's to maintain and train her team which was comprised of dogs from family sprint lines and long distance race kennels. By this time her focus had turned to distance racing. After getting some mid distance races under her belt, Deborah's turned to a new and greater challenge, the 1,000 mile Yukon Quest. She finished in 21st place out of 29 entrants in her rookie year. In 2006, she and Sandy, along with her sister-in-law, flew from checkpoint to checkpoint to observe the teams on the Iditarod Trail. She told her fellow travelers, "You have to be nuts to go through what those dogs and mushers are encountering on the trail." But after returning to the comforts of home, she couldn't get the Iditarod out of her mind, and one day, said to Sandy, "I can do that!" In 2007, she left the Iditarod start line with the intention of going to Nome and arriving with a healthy dog team. She 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. But as indicated by her entry into the 2008 Race, her desire to reach Nome with a dog team has not diminished!
One of these ladies will be the last to cross the finish line (unless they conspire to ALL cross together!) and will take home the Red Lantern for this year’s Iditarod. That, in and of itself will be an accomplishment to celebrate for the rest of their lives. Imagine being able to say, “Yeah, I completed the Iditarod in 2008.”
UPDATE: Shortly before 11 AM Alaska Time Liz Parrish pulled into Nome. She had been on the trail for 14 days, 19 hours, 51 minutes, and 27 seconds.
Still on the trail and not yet checked into Safety (22 miles short of Nome) are Molly Yazwinski and Deborah Bicknell.
UPDATE 2: Just in at 13:35 Alaska Time: Molly Yazwinski has scratched. She is out of the race somewhere between White Mountain and Safety.
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