Lance Mackey, winner of the 2007 Yukon Quest — a 1,000-mile dog sled race between Whitehorse, YT and Fairbanks, AK — is now poised to take the 2007 Iditarod, another 1,000-mile dog sled race. The Yukon Quest ended on February 9. The Iditarod looks to be finished today, March 13. And yes, 13 is the lucky number, as reported by the Crow Village Iditarod Blog last week:
In 1978, Dick Mackey was running his 6th Iditarod race. He drew bib number 13. Dick went on to win that race. Five years later, Dick’s son Rick was running his 6th Iditarod race. Oddly enough, he drew bib number 13 as well. Rick would win that race. Now 24 years later, Dick’s other son Lance is running his 6th Iditarod. Lance would make it his top priority to draw bib 13 for the race in the hopes that there might be something more than coincidence for that combination of numbers…
Mackey arrived at the White Mountain checkpoint this morning just before 1:45. His closest competitor for the past several hundred miles, Paul Gebhardt, arrived at White Mountain about 4:15 this morning, about 2.5 hours behind. Both are currently taking their final and mandatory 8-hour rest at the checkpoint, as will all mushers that reach this remote community some 77 miles from the finish line in Nome.
Assuming Mackey can maintain some portion of the 2.5-hour buffer between he and Gebhardt, the race is his. He could even post slower times than Gebhardt — up to 1.8 mph slower on the last 77 miles — and still win. But all these are assumptions — he’ll have to make sure nothing stops his run when he begins just after 9:30 this morning.
A little back in the pack, Zack Steer is posting some very fast times on the coast, moving up to the #4 slot. He’s likely to bypass Martin Buser and take third this year if he can maintain his pace. Buser, Steer, Jeff King and Ed Iten are all on their way to White Mountain this morning.