A view of the world from the eyes of a
human being...
Reporting in from the 2008 Iditarod in Anchorage, Alaska, where our
very own reporter calls home, we welcome Robin Rosay.
Iditarod Update #15
A quick note before bedtime - Jeff King decided to cut his rest short (2
hours, 20 minutes) and give chase. The GPS site shows Lance Mackey 10
miles closer to the next checkpoint, but only going 3 miles per hour. I
wonder if Lance thought Jeff would stay put? I wonder if Lance wished
he would have rested more? Maybe the dogs were perky and wanted to
run. Jeff is seven miles behind him, but going twice as fast.
By the way, Martin Buser was the first out of Koyuk as the third place
musher. Fourth, Hans Gatt; Fifth, Ramey Smyth; Sixth, Ken Anderson;
Seventh, Paul Gebhardt; Eighth, Mitch Seavey; Ninth, Kjetil Backen and
Tenth, Rick Swenson. I turned out to be right and wrong about the
rookie race. Right on William Kleedehn's part, but wrong on Rohn
Buser. Looks like Melissa Owens is in control at 24th place.
Late breaking news . . . Lance has left Elim after a 1 1/2 hour rest.
The next checkpoint of Golovin is only 28 miles away. The one after
that is 18 miles away. The latter checkpoint is the important one.
It's White Mountain where the mushers take their last mandatory 8 hour
rest before continuing the last 77 miles to Nome.
Woke up this morning to find Lance Mackey still in the lead with Jeff
King 57 minutes behind him. Both are at the White Mountain checkpoint
resting and rejuvenating on their final mandatory 8 hour layover before
the 55 miles to the Safety checkpoint and the last 22 miles of the race
to Nome.
Lance dropped another dog in Elim. Could have been one that was slowing
him down. And after eight hours of rest, both his team and Jeff King's
should shoot out of White Mountain like rockets. I don't expect King will
drop any dogs. No matter what happens at this point, history will be
made in the wee hours of Wednesday morning. If King wins, he will
become a) the second person in history to win the race five times, b)
the oldest person to win the race - a record he set in 2006 at 50 years
of age and c) the only person to finish the race with a full team of 16
dogs. If Mackey wins, he will have won each of the two 1000 mile sled
dog races back to back, two years in a row, chalking up four consecutive
Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Races and two consecutive Iditarod
Trail Sled Dog Races.
You see people dressed all sorts of ways in an Iditarod crowd. In this
photo, a young girl shows her love for the race, the mushers and the dogs.
Middle photo today is Gene Smith of Omak, Washington. While a number of
folks in Alaska live here in the summer and winter outside the state,
Gene does the opposite. He purchased a home in Knik, Alaska and spends
his winters up here. Gene is a rookie in this year's race and is
currently in 67th place.
Zack Steer, who with his wife runs the Sheep Mountain Lodge here in
Alaska, figuratively brings up the rear in today's posting. He's doing
much better than that in the race. Zack is currently in 15th place.
I'll try to write again after work. Depends on how late the winner gets
to Nome. Since we have an early morning paper, we try to get the latest
news in, but it will probably be the publisher's call whether we stick
around to update the front page if things get too late.
Robin
Sledding anyone?
(Photos courtesy of Robin Rosay.)
Who are these 2 teams from the Afterburners Flyball Club in Ottawa,
Ontario -- Formula 1 and Pit Crew? Find out here.
What is Flyball? Find out more about this interesting sport by clicking here.
A view of the world from the eyes of Robin Rosay continues on the
next page...
(Copyright,
2008. Used with permission from Robin Rosay.)
Keep an eye open for different topics of interest such as: profiles on
people and their dogs, to name but a few interesting topics...Also, have a look at what Rita Susanto and "Justin" have been up to these
days.
Why not be part of "out and about" and send in your canine
companion's accomplishments to us. To do so, please send us a brief description of how you
both did in the event(s) along with the location(s) you and your canine were both in to: NK Concepts - Dog Supply Training Specialist.
