March 11 AM Update

What a ride! I went to bed early last night, fully expecting to wake up this morning to a very happy, 5-time Iditarod champion in Jeff King.  Imagine my surprise when I found out he had scratched in Safety, the last checkpoint before Nome.  SCRATCHED!   The lead paragraph in one article I read was “The 2014 Iditarod is Jeff King's race to lose. The four-time champion has pulled out of White Mountain on his way down the home stretch to Nome. History shows that the hour lead King has may be too much for second-place racer Aliy Zirkle to overcome.”  The same article was saying Aliy was an hour behind Jeff with less than 200 miles to go.  Actually, this article has a lot of predictions in it that, while reasonable at the time, in hindsight appear laughably wrong.

And then to find out that Dallas Seavey had zipped in front of Aliy Zirkle by 2 minutes 22 seconds to take the win in a record winning finish of 8 days 14 hours 9 minutes and 19 seconds!  He shattered the old record set by John Baker in 2011 by more than 5 hours. Is it any wonder I love to follow this race?

Apparently this is the second closest finish in Iditarod history:

 So much happened overnight!  Here’s a quick overview from Joe Runyan, but you might want to read this article from the Alaska Daily News for more complete info.

A brief summary of events to describe the evening:  Jeff King and team were blown off the trail into a drift wood pile.  Pinned down by the wind and unable to continue for over an hour and half, King scratched.  Zirkle, who was an hour behind King on leaving White Mountain,  unknowingly passed King in the dark and arrived at the Safety checkpoint in first place.
We suspect that she decided to stay in the protection of Safety since wind was reported at 65 knots.
Meanwhile, Dallas bridged a distance of about 17 miles and was undoubtedly mindblown to discover that he had caught up to the race.  Having arrived at Safety it seems obvious that he had the leaders to take him through the wind .
He pushed through Safety checkpoint  for the 22 mile portage around Cape Nome to the finish.  Aliy departed the refuge of Safety and pursued.
And now, we have arrived at one of the most improbable finishes in Iditarod history.  Seavey and Zirkle are almost even, Seavey leading the way.
The rules state that No-Man’s land start at Fort Davis.  Once in No-Man’s land to the finish, a musher is not required to yield the trail to the following trail.  This is a big question as I view the Insider Tracker.
Having done the race 10 times I can tell you that I would have no idea  in the dark where Fort Davis marks the No- Man’s Zone.  Therefore, I wonder whether Dallas Seavey  is in  a predicament.  If he has not reached Ft Davis, then he must yield the trail.  If the two have passed Ft. Davis, then Dallas is within the rules to stay on the trail and not yield the way.
In this instance, Aliy must pass Seavey on the run, possibly directing leaders on the tundra off trail and make a powerful surge to pass Seavey.  This is, practically speaking, not very easy to do.

More info later!