March 18, 2006

• reading the right-hand columns

  Much of the information I have been passing along in my Iditarod updates have come from APRN‘s daily broadcasts with recorded interviews from the trail, the daily newspaper, Cabela’s Iditarod, the insider’s view from Roxy Wright, a champion dog racer whose son is in the Iditarod, and .iditarod.com.  The most useful resources have been the detailed standings and checkpoint summaries
  on Iditarod.com.  That’s where I learn how many dogs have been
  dropped from each team and where, how fast a team is running, how long
  they rest in any given checkpoint, etc.

  There  is a lot of information there, but occasionally the raw
  data just raises questions I can’t answer.  In time, some of those
  answers come out in one news source or another, but occasionally the
  issues don’t get resolved for me.
  
  This morning I was wondering what happened to Judy Currier on her final
  run from Safety into Nome yesterday.  She checked into Safety in
  39th position before 7 PM Thursday and left Safety in 44th place
  shortly before 4 AM Friday.  She got into Nome in 53rd place at
  about 9:19 that night.  That’s over seventeen hours to go 22
  miles, what is normally about a three-hour run.  My curiosity
  would still be eating at me if I hadn’t thought of Google.  That
  led me to a story at adn.com. 
  It’s another of those situations proving that in the last analysis,
  it’s the dogs who decide what’s going to happen in a dog race.

  Ben
  Valks (left), still the Red Lantern in 72nd place where he has been
  running since day 3 at Rohn after all the slower teams had scratched,
  checked out of Unalakleet around 8:30 last night.

  The latest two teams into Nome, at 1:42 this morning, were Tim Osmar in
  56th and Rachael Scdoris in 57th place.  Clint Warnke and rookies
  Warren Palfrey and Katie Davis are out of Safety on their way to
  Nome.  That’s the end of the “pack”, and none of the trailing
  mushers has made it to White Mountain yet

  Katie
  Davis is someone I expect to see in the Iditarod again.  She’s
  serious, lists her occupation as “dog musher.”  This year she has
  been giving Doug Swingley’s puppy team a training run after having
  cared for and trained them ever since they were weaned.

  I must keep this short today.  It’s Saturday, so Doug has his
  usual online session to DM.  I’m going to shower and hit the road
  down to the Willow library, where there’s a video swap this
  afternoon.  Greyfox has a load of groceries and mongo that he has
  been collecting for me in Wasilla and will meet me halfway, at the
  library.  Have a pleasant weekend, everyone.

  (photos are from iditarod.com)
  
   

  • 1:10 pm
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