Iditarod XXXVIII

Good Morning Race Fans.

While we were all snuggled in our comfy warm beds, Lance Mackey checked into the White Mountain checkpoint at 20:14 AST last night and is back on the trail this morning. He will take a mandatory 8 hour layover in Safety and should arrive in Nome sometime late this afternoon.

Update 4:00 CST:

I'm bad, the mushers stop in White Mountain for the final mandatory rest stop not Safey. The leaders are now back on the trail for the final dash to Nome. Expect about a 6pm finish.

From Iditarod. Com

This has been an epic race with epic dog teams and the final chapter is about to be written here along the Bering sea coast. This is a vast open landscape with rolling hills, open tundra and an endless horizon of sea ice.

The lead teams at this point are all in White Mountain and Lance Mackey has just headed out on this final stretch to Nome. All the dogs in the front 3 teams ate well here and all the mushers were exceedingly sleepy.

Both Lance and his team seemed revived after their 8 hour rest and the others most
likely will be too. Although this is Lance’s race to lose at this point, the race isn’t over until the lead dog reaches the finish line. Many Iditarods have been won and lost along this last 77 miles of trail. Lance’s Dad, Dick Mackey took the lead to win his 1978 championship along this section.

Rick Swenson has taken over the lead a number of times along this section of trail as well. I don’t expect Lance to falter in this run but as the saying goes, it isn’t over until it’s over.

Lance was greeted in White Mountain by his father Dick Mackey as a little bonus to his run.