Race from Anchorage to Nome with the Alaska Public Radio Network
Lance Mackey rolled into Nome at around noon today to win his third consecutive Iditarod Trail Sled Dog race. Mackey joins Susan Butcher and Doug Swingley as the only mushers to win three races in a row.
Tim Bodony, KIYU – Galena
Download Audio (MP3)
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Lance Mackey will reach Nome today. Two teams that made it through the wind across Norton Bay yesterday morning will be next. Then it’ll be a while.
Download Audio (MP3)
Get a race update later today on APRN stations statewide on Alaska News Nightly.
Follow all our race updates on Twitter at twitter.com/iditarod.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Mushers were worried about the wind and cold as they left the Unalakleet checkpoint yesterday.
Annie Feidt, APRN – Anchorage
Download Audio (MP3)
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Lance Mackey is hours ahead of the rest of the field in this years Iditarod sled dog race. He left the Elim checkpoint at 11am this morning. His closest competitors, Sebastian Schnuelle and John Baker arrived at Elim two hours later. All of the mushers were battling low temperatures and fierce wind today. The leaders have usually reached the village of White Mountain by now, where there is a mandatory 8 hour layover. But Mackey isn’t expected into the checkpoint until sometime later this evening.
Lori Townsend, APRN – Anchorage
Download Audio (MP3)
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
It’s a time of challenge on the Iditarod. Wind and blowing snow on the coast, and in the hills, two dogs died in the drifts. Teams push their way along the coast of Norton Sound. Skies will be clear there today.
Download Audio (MP3)
Get a race update later today on APRN stations statewide on Alaska News Nightly.
Follow all our race updates on Twitter at twitter.com/iditarod.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
The leaders felt a swift drop in temperatures between Saturday night and Sunday morning as they pushed up the Yukon River to Kaltag.
Tim Bodony, KIYU – Galena
Download Audio (MP3)
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
The winner of last months Yukon Quest, Sebastian Schnuelle is well acclimated to the sleeplessness that comes with the sport.
Annie Feidt, APRN – Anchorage
Download Audio (MP3)
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Lance Mackey left Unalakleet late last night, as a crowd of fans from the town looked on.
Annie Fedit, APRN – Anchorage
Download Audio (MP3)
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Back on the Yukon, Aaron Burmeister officially named Lance Mackey “Superman” – and of course that really means super team in this race – as the leading canine athletes pull him out of Shaktoolik and across the ice of Norton Bay this morning hours head of anyone else. Mackey has clearly mastered this year’s Iditarod. APRN’s Annie Feidt was there when he reached the coast.
Get a race update later today on APRN stations statewide on Alaska News Nightly.
Follow all our race updates on Twitter at twitter.com/iditarod.
Download Audio (MP3)
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
You unlock this door with the key to his imagination. Beyond it is another dimension – a dimension of barking, a dimension of snow, a dimension of Gee and Haw, and thirteen hour runs. You’re moving into a vast northern land of aurora and substance, of things, ideas, and a 16 dog team with super canine powers. You’ve just crossed over into the Lance Mackey Zone.
Defending 2-time Iditarod champion Lance Mackey hinted beforehand that he had a surprise in store for the 2009 edition of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. We’ve become used to his incredible confidence in his chances despite long odds, yet his confidence this year seemed high even by that standard. We were able to gage the strength of his team in the past by watching him race and win the 1000 mile Yukon Quest race beforehand, which he admitted was a key tool in the training of his team, but there was to be no Quest for his team this year. Instead, there was some top secret regimen going on from his Fox Alaska kennel that even his mushing neighbors couldn’t decipher.
Early on, Mackey held his cards close to the vest, as if to not clue us in on the rarified air his super canine athletes must have been breathing. His run/rest schedule was similar to the other teams with the exception of 1 or 2 long runs enabling him to move toward the front from his late starting position. he took his required 24 hour layover in Takotna along with most of the other top teams, yet he was still speaking with a level of confidence that was high even for him. While other mushers spoke of trail concerns and sticking to conventional run/rest schedules, that didn’t seem to be a factor for him as his conversation revolved around the incredible performance of his team so far, yet the best was yet to come. Coming off the 24, Mackey reeled off a twelve and a half hour run into Iditarod, gave his team a six and a half hour rest, then worked in another 13 hour run into Anvik where he would declare his eight hour layover. In a day and a half of racing he had put five hours on his closest competitors who were still using six to seven hour runs between rests. You might say, he has entered into another dimension – the Lance Mackey Zone.