Iditablog.com – Iditarod 2010 News and Coverage

Take a listen to today’s podcast as we break down the current standings, give analysis on layovers, talk about scratched mushers, answer emails, take your calls, and chat about the weather….. sounds like fun, doesn’t it?

A big thanks to the thousands of you who have downloaded the shows so far, we appreciate your support.

Feel free to email us with topics or questions you’d like to hear us discuss on the next episode… the email address is: josh@radioalaska.org, send us a twitter/facebook message or call the voicemail box at 253-773-MUSH.

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iTunes Listing note: We’ve been having issues with the podcast updating properly within the iTunes Store, it’s a problem many podcasts are having right now and iTunes is working to get it fixed. However, if you subscribe to the show you will still get new episodes delivered to your computer.

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When Jeff King arrived first into Takotna just shy of 11pm Tuesday night he proved that he was able to hold a tough lead which he grabbed earlier that day from Sebastian Schnuelle as he left Nikolai with a hour shorter rest. King had also gone into Nikolai with the fastest run time out of anyone in the top 15, he then had the fastest top 10 run time to McGrath, and had the fastest top 15 run into Takotna. Even with all of that, the lead King holds over a large pack of competitive mushers is still just an hour, something that doesn’t mean much when you’re looking at part of that time being erased during the musher’s 24-hour layovers.

Each musher is required to pick a checkpoint on the trail where they take a 24-hour break from the race and it’s at these layovers where the starting time differentials will be made up. King is wearing bib #15 which means that on top of staying in Takotna (assuming that’s where he’s decided to take his layover) for 24 hours, he’ll have to wait nearly 2 additional hours because of his early starting number. If everyone stays where they are, it might actually put Hugh Neff in a pretty good spot as he has a much higher bib number. Neff could be leaving Takotna pretty close to when King does, even though he arrived an hour and a half later.

Hans Gatt and Cim Smyth passed a sleeping crowd in Takotna and continued on to the checkpoint of Ophir. If the top 20 teams (minus Gatt & Smyth) that all arrived into Takotna really are taking the 24, today will be a slower day in the race and not much will happen. It is very likely however, that someone will try and position themselves a bit differently and head onto a further checkpoint – but we’ll just have to wait and see.

You can see the 24-hour layover rest times for this year’s Iditarod (click here)

Because it’s not all about the Grand Prize…

The first Award of Iditarod 2010 was given out this evening to Jeff King as he arrived at McGrath. There are several other awards given to mushers that arrive to specific checkpoints, there are also a handful of awards that are voted on and given in Nome once the race is over.

Special Iditarod Awards in Order of Presentation along the Trail

These awards are presented twice, once at the checkpoint or finish line and then again at the Musher’s Banquet in Nome. Only noted below are the initial presentation.

McGrath Checkpoint

PenAir Spirit of Alaska Award

• Original “Spirit Mask” presented to the first musher into McGrath
• $500 PenAir credit towards travel or freight shipments also awarded

Read more…

The first four mushers have scratched today from this year’s Iditarod.

According to Iditarod Race Headquarters, #30 Michael Suprenant, #5 Zoya DeNure, and #23 Karin Hendrickson all scratched at the Rainy Pass checkpoint as of late Tuesday morning. Michael Suprenant scratched at 10:00am Tuesday with 16 dogs and DeNure officially scratched at 10:15am with 15 dogs. Both mushers, according to Iditarod HQ, left this year’s race for “medical reasons.”

Karin Hendrickson scratched at 11:15am with 16 dogs – race headquarters cited “a damaged sled and equipment problems” as the reasons for Hendrickson leaving the race.

#34 Kirk Barnum scratched at 11:20am with 12 dogs. Barnum said he scratched “in the best interest of his team, it was evident that they were tired.” He had dropped 4 since the start of the race.

There are first-hand reports that #17 Pat Moon crashed into a tree outside of Rohn, but that has yet to be confirmed by Race Headquarters.

Update: As of Tuesday evening it has been confirmed by Iditarod HQ that Pat Moon, a rookie from Chicago crashed and was found unconscious by musher Sam Deltour in the Dalzell Gorge. He woke shortly after being found and was transported to Anchorage. Pat’s team is in good condition and in Rohn awaiting transportation back to Anchorage.

Heading into McGrath today the big question is what type of moves we’ll see from mushers who have been a few hours behind the race leaders thus far.  It’s not a surprise that Jeff King or John Baker haven’t been leading the race so far, both of them usually set a slower pace in the beginning and then kick it into a higher gear around the halfway point.  With King arriving into Nikolai just an hour behind Sebastian Schnuelle who got there first, he might be starting to find his pace.  Schnuelle is on his toes right now, he’s was also first into Nikolai in 2009 but lost the lead for good on the trail to McGrath. Mackey hasn’t been leading the early parts of the race quite as much as he has in the past, with his 2007 inaugural victory Mackey rarely gave up the leader position after arriving first into Finger Lake. Last year the defending champion led the way into Rainy Pass, although did not hold his position for long until after leaving Ophir.

Pretty soon teams will begin to think about the strategic decision of their 24-hour layover.  While at just two full days into the race it might seem a bit early but with a fairly fast (however snowy) trail, for the mushers deciding to take your mandatory rest can be a fine line between waiting too long, and calling it too early.

It’s the first full day of the Iditarod and we’ve got a all-new podcast for you (with audio bugs fixed!). This was the second show we did as a live podcast recording and enjoyed the interaction with those watching on the UStream feed. We catchup to the race thus far, listen to some of the Iditablog audio interviews from the start of the race and chat with our reporter Loren Liden who attended a pre-race open house for a few mushers in Anchorage. We also discuss:

• Snowy Conditions slowing teams down?
• Loren’s Alaska Trip & meeting with Gatt & Schnuelle
• Libby Riddles 1985 Win on Iditablog
• We read and answer your Emails
• Lots more!

Feel free to email us with topics or questions you’d like to hear us discuss on the next episode… the email address is: josh@radioalaska.org, send us a twitter/facebook message or call the voicemail box at 253-773-MUSH.

Subscribe to the Podcast in iTunes | Browse the Podcast Archives

iTunes Listing note: We’ve been having issues with the podcast updating properly within the iTunes Store, it’s a problem many podcasts are having right now and iTunes is working to get it fixed. However, if you subscribe to the show you will still get new episodes delivered to your computer.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

It’s the second day of Iditarod 2010 and although things are starting to sort themselves out, we have a long way to go until any type of trends can be accurately observed. What we do know is that mid-morning today we saw Paul Gebhardt become the first of several teams to check into Rainy Pass and begin a several hour rest. At the same time a number of mushers including Sebastian Schnuelle and John Baker opted to rest outside the checkpoint before flying through in the mid-afternoon. Its still anyone’s race at this point and it’ll be interesting to see what happens are teams continue to choose different run/rest strategies and the race spreads out.

Resting will be a key part of the day for most mushers because once leaving Rainy Pass the Dalzell Gorge stands between them and Rohn. The Gorge area contains some of the most infamous and treacherous trail in the entire Iditarod. Writer Craig Medred was on that section of the trail a week ago when he was covering the “Iditarod Invitational Ultra-Marathon” and said of the area between Rainy Pass and Rohn:

“At what point is a trail so bad it no longer qualifies as a trail.” And “Why all this talk about the Farewell Burn. Mushers will be lucky to make it here to Rohn.” He followed up those statements a few days later in Anchorage as he tweeted “hope ITC has Iditarod Trail in better shape… Dalzell Gorge scary last time.”

A lot of the strategy in today’s rests could be when to even tackle the Gorge. If the ice bridges that cross open water are weak in the Gorge you want to be one of the first to get across. The stories coming out of Rohn are always interesting, we’ll make sure we pass along any good ones.