Day 3 Update 3/5/13 at Noon

The mushers are heading in to Nikolai today, which is about 243 miles along the trail from Anchorage.  According to a post by Joe Reddington on the Iditraod.com site:

Aaron in at 8:11AM, Lance Mackey at 8:50 AM, and Aliy 9:02 AM.
There it is, that’s the summary for this morning.  We have three race leaders, notwithstanding Martin Buser resting 77 miles back in Rohn, and King, Seavey, Dallas Seavey, Jonrowe, Baker, et al on the trail to Nikolai
Now to the leaders.  Aaron and team came into Nikolai this morning trotting powerfully and quickly located to a parking spot on the high bank of the South Fork of the Kuskokwim River.  Trotting is the key word because he has purposefully not allowed his dogs to change gaits and lope since the race start.  Although the dogs will willingly lope, Aaron has not allowed them to shift gears.  Initially that meant he may not have had the fastest team, but now it seems that after two hundred miles on the trail, his team is emerging.  The power and efficiency of the trot is beginning to dominate.
Second in to the checkpoint was the Incredible Lance Mackey.  It appears that Lance is training his team on the run.  As he admitted in interviews at the checkpoint, he has struggled to overcome obstacles the last two years, including two disappointing Iditarods and a scratch in this year’s Yukon Quest.
Lance was moving in his normal fast staccato mode, laying out straw for the dogs and at the same time fielding questions from the media, “When did Aaron come in?” as you could tell he was putting the numbers together in his mind.

From the reports it sounds like dogs are running well, the weather is warm (18 degrees) and sunny, and a long and difficult run is behind them.  Each musher has a different strategy it seems, but general consensus is that Nikolai is a great place for them to stop and take a longer rest.  There is a nice place for them to get warm, dry out, get something to eat and take a nap.

Here is a picture of DeeDee Jonrowe coming into Nikolai with her team all decked out in DeeDee's signature pink booties.

Iditarod rookie Christine Roalofs curls up to take a nap with her dogs at the Iditarod checkpoint on Finger Lake on Monday, Mar. 4, 2013. Roalofs, a pediatric dentist in Anchorage, said she "only got one hour of rest " on her first night on the Iditarod trail. BILL ROTH — Anchorage Daily News

Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2013/03/05/2811668/2013-iditarod-day-2.html#wgt=rcntgal#storylink=cpy