Race Standings – Top 5 Mushers
| 1 | Aaron Burmeister Bib 63 | OUT OF Shaktoolik AT 03-16 03:48 |
| 2 | Dallas Seavey Bib 46 | OUT OF Shaktoolik AT 03-16 05:08 |
| 3 | Aliy Zirkle Bib 32 | OUT OF Shaktoolik AT 03-16 06:55 |
| 4 | Jessie Royer Bib 3 | OUT OF Shaktoolik AT 03-16 07:50 |
| 5 | Mitch Seavey Bib 18 | OUT OF Shaktoolik AT 03-16 09:17 |
Look at Jessie Royer! She's quietly sneaking her way up there, running a great race.
Here is a snippet of events from the weekend:
- The necropsy results from Lance Mackey's dog Wyatt showed no abnormalities that could identify the cause of death. They will do further testing to see if they can find out what happened. There is very little info out there about Wyatt's death still.
- Christine Roalofs scratched in Ruby on Friday evening, citing the best interest of her team as her reason.
- Gerald Sousa decided to scratch at the Galena checkpoint with 13 dogs in harness. He said it was in the best interest of his team.
- Rookie Philip Walters also scratched in Galena with 12 dogs in his team. He also chose to scratch in the best interest of his team.
- Ellen Halverson who was on track to win her 3rd Red Lantern award scratched in Galena on Friday. Ellen had 9 dogs in harness and chose to scratch from the race for the health and welfare of her remaining team members.
- Aaron Burmeister has been burning up the trail, leading the pack for much of the past two days. He scooped the Bristol Bay Native Corporation Fish First Award in Kaltag and the Wells Fargo Gold Coast Award for being first into Unalakleet. This award is a gold cup trophy & $3,500 in gold nuggets. The nuggets are local Nome gold nuggets from Anvil Creek and were purchased from longtime resident and gold miner, Jim Hanson.
- Dallas Seavey is running a very strong race. A video with him shows him looking fit and chipper and feeling sure he has the top spot sewn up if he sticks to his run/rest schedule and racing plan. He's not concerned that Aaron is in the lead at the moment.
- The Queen of Hearts, Aliy Zirkle, is staying strong and is happy with her team's performance. She's currently in 3rd place, but she says she's not really paying attention to what the other mushers are doing or the current standings. She's running her race plan and is happy with the way things are going.
- Martin Buser and Jeff King have both pulled back from their hard pushes to front, deciding to enjoy the race. Jeff's team is slowing down and he's giving them some extra rest.
- Lance Mackey is still holding his own. Currently, he is in 37th place, with his brother Jason right behind him in 38th place. Lance said he cut Jason loose and told him to go run his own race, so I'm not sure what it means that they are still right together.
- Weather remains very cold. with temperatures still around the 35-45 below zero range. It sounds like the weather is starting to take its toll on many mushers, with high winds and those cold, cold temperatures. After a week of being out in the elements, I imagine they are ready to be done with the outdoors. The Alaska Daily News has a great article (although I'm pretty sure DeeDee Jonrowe won't be thrilled with the picture they posted of her) about it being one of the coldest Iditarods ever. The weather forecast doesn't show much of a change in the next couple of day. I imagine there really isn't much of a difference when temperatures start getting that cold and you are out feeding dogs and taking care of 40-50 paws.
There’s a lot of strategy going on with the front runners right now. Just because Aaron made the coast first or just because Dallas Seavey blew through a checkpoint, doesn’t mean the race has been decided. What’s really important at this point in time is for the mushers to accurately assess what their dogs are capable of doing from here to Nome. There’s roughly 260 miles left of the 2015 Iditarod. Strategies are important.
Stay tuned for more updates later.
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