Lance Mackey is holding on to his Iditarod lead, though only barely. The Fairbanks musher left Koyuk at 12:13 this afternoon, followed closely by Paul Gebhardt at 12:36. Martin Buser is in third place. He checked into Koyuk at 1:30. He was followed by Zack Steer at 2:16 and Jeff King at 3:06.
When Mackey first hit the coast in Unalakleet, he was confident his dogs were strong enough to hold onto the lead into Nome. But he says this year’s race has been a tough one. And with Gebhardt nipping at his heels and more than 150 miles to go, there’s no guarantees for Bib 13.
The performance of Mackey’s team is even more incredible when you consider he finished winning the 1,100-mile Yukon Quest less than two weeks before the start of Iditarod. Five other Quest teams are running the Iditarod this year. Despite’s Mackey’s success, at least one musher running both races says he’s not so sure it was a good idea.
APRN’s Annie Feidt has the story in this evening’s report. [Listen to the attached audio].
Meanwhile, sad news from the Grayling checkpoint: Canadian musher Karen Ramstead scratched from the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog race this morning after one of her dogs died. Race officials say she wanted to be with her family to grieve the loss of Snickers, a 6-year old female. Officials say the dog died last night at 11:00 p.m. at the Grayling checkpoint. Ramstead and her team of 14 dogs had arrived at the checkpoint about seven hours before Snickers died. Race officials say a necropsy will be conducted to try to determine the cause of death.