March 12 Update

20 of our mushers are finished with the race, with the remainder spread out along the coast from Unalakleet to Safety.

The speed record prior to the 2014 race was held by John Baker in 2011 and was 8 days 18 hours 46 minutes and 39 seconds.  The top 4 finishers this year beat that record!  Isn’t that amazing?

Here is the current finishing line up:

Finished 1 Dallas Seavey 14 Nome 3/11 04:04:19 7 8d 13h 4m 19s 4.70 2 Aliy Zirkle 10 Nome 3/11 04:06:41 10 8d 13h 6m 41s 4.70 3 Mitch Seavey 6 Nome 3/11 07:39:40 11 8d 16h 39m 40s 4.62 4 Joar Leifseth Ulsom 47 Nome 3/11 10:01:01 9 8d 19h 1m 1s 4.57 5 Sonny Lindner 70 Nome 3/11 11:50:49 10 8d 20h 50m 49s 4.53 6 Martin Buser 36 Nome 3/11 15:58:58 12 9d 0h 58m 58s 4.44 7 Jessie Royer 27 Nome 3/11 19:03:25 10 9d 4h 3m 25s 4.38 8 Ray Redington Jr 51 Nome 3/11 19:11:10 10 9d 4h 11m 10s 4.38 9 Hans Gatt 58 Nome 3/11 19:40:25 11 9d 4h 40m 25s 4.37 10 Aaron Burmeister 23 Nome 3/11 20:46:14 7 9d 5h 46m 14s 4.35 11 Michael Williams, Jr. 7 Nome 3/12 02:50:02 8 9d 11h 50m 2s 4.23 12 Ken Anderson 65 Nome 3/12 05:27:08 10 9d 14h 27m 8s 4.18 13 Peter Kaiser 43 Nome 3/12 06:28:30 13 9d 15h 28m 30s 4.16 14 Richie Diehl 11 Nome 3/12 07:35:40 10 9d 16h 35m 40s 4.14 15 Matt Failor 57 Nome 3/12 07:42:30 11 9d 16h 42m 30s 4.14 16 Wade Marrs 67 Nome 3/12 08:27:35 8 9d 17h 27m 35s 4.13 17 Nathan Schroeder (r) 25 Nome 3/12 08:52:51 11 9d 17h 52m 51s 4.12 18 Abbie West (r) 69 Nome 3/12 08:58:25 8 9d 17h 58m 25s 4.12 19 John Baker 53 Nome 3/12 09:19:15 10 9d 18h 19m 15s 4.11 20 Michelle Phillips 15 Nome 3/12 09:55:00 12 9d 18h 55m 0s 4.10
Look at those rookie mushers finishing in the top 20 (Schroeder and West)!  Wow!  Considering the amount of talent and experience in the veteran mushers in this race that’s impressive. In other news: I found this great post on Aliy Zirkle’s snoozing team.  Her web site has been one of the best about keeping fans up to date on all the happenings throughout the race for both her and her husband Allen Moore, who is currently in Elim with his puppy team.  Allen just won the Yukon Quest a couple of weeks ago, which is another 1,000+ mile sled dog race. Here are some pictures of the happenings at the end of the race. If you haven’t seen it yet, here is a clip of the winner coming down the chute to that famous burled arch.  I’ve read that he was running in because he was trying to beat his dad to 3rd place. It’s understandable that the media wants to talk to the mushers as soon as they get off the trail, but they are so obviously tired that it is almost painful to watch them try and put coherent thoughts together.  Here is an interview with Aliy Zirkle about the end of her race. Now that the first musher is in to Nome, articles and commentary about the race is dribbling down to almost nothing.  I have to say I’m finding that kind of a let down.  The finished mushers are probably enjoying a nice long sleep and haven’t really had the opportunity to talk to the media yet.  So I don’t have many other tidbits to share today.  Someone asked me what it looked like when several musher were in to a checkpoint at the same time.  I found this great picture, but it doesn’t tell me where it was taken.  Someplace with snow!  And next to it are the mushers bags of food and other goodies that they send to all the checkpoints before the race:   As I find more info, I’ll forward it on to you and give you the final updates.  Don’t you love this shot of a sled dog?  Beautiful!