Almost halfway on the Iditarod

The Iditarod has claimed its first musher. Norwegian native Sylvia Furtwangler scratched yesterday afternoon at the Nikoli checkpoint. A rookie to the Iditarod, Furtwangler gave concern for her health as the reason for her withdrawl. She had 13 dogs on her team at the time. (The Dispatch story is here along with other news from the trail.)

Elsewhere, the leader board is in a state of disarray(?) as a whole lot of jockeying is going on. The Current leader seems to be Jim Lanier who left the Ophir chceckpoint at 23:25 (ADT) just a little more than an hour ahead of Trent Herbst (00:35 (ADT)) but that’s likely to be only temporary as neither has taken a mandatory 24 hour rest yet.

This first mandatory rest is also when the difference in starting times back in Willow is corrected. Those who had an early start must wait a bit longer than 24 hours before moving out. Those who started near the end of the pack will need considerably less time beyond the 24 hours. With 2 minutes between each official start back in Willow, the difference in times can be sizable. Start 1st out of 66 mushers in Willow and you might 132 minutes (2 hours 12 minutes) to give back. Your 24 hour rest is suddenly 26+ hours long. It's okay, though 'cause after this, it's all straight racing.

Meanwhile several mushers have taken their mandatory 24 in Takotna and are on the trail. Listed as running in 5th through 9th place, Mitch Seavey, Alit Zirkle, Dallas Seavey, Kohn Baker and Jeff King all stayed in Takotna but headed out between 01:13 and 02:08 this morning. Many more mushers appear to be taking their 24 hour rest at Takotna. Running in 3rd and 4th place, Martin Buser and his son Rohn have been at the Ophir checkpoint since 12:19 and 13:34 respectively so it’s likely they are taking their 24.

Much further back in the listings, in 44th and 45th places, Lance Mackey and Kelly Griffin took their 24 at McGrath but are once more on the trail heading to Takotna. (Lance was probably playing dog whisperer trying to convince his team that as much as he wouldn’t mind having puppies sired by his two lead dogs, there will be plenty of time for lovin’ once they get to Nome. )

The Ophir checkpoint is 73 miles from Cripple considered the “official” halfway point in the race when the northern route is used. The first musher to arrive at Cripple, an old gold rush mining town, is awarded a poke of $3000 in gold nuggets. That’ll buy a lot of kibble!

After Cripple, the next stop is 70 miles further along the trail at Ruby. Ruby is 495 miles from Anchorage, about 480 miles to Nome, and the first stop on the fabled Yukon River. The first musher to arrive there gets a gourmet meal and a cash prize curtsey of the Millennium Alaska Hotel in Anchorage. They actually serve up the meal at Ruby having the chef make the trip.

There’s a lot of prestige (not to mention good food and cash) involved in getting to either Cripple or Ruby first So this stretch is often a bit of a race-within-a-race. But the Big Prize--first to Nome--that’s still a long way away.