The leaders having reached the Bering Sea and Lance Mackey, currently in first place, has reached Koyuk. The 2007 Iditarod is in the home stretch:
The 2007 Iditarod appears to be firmly in Lance Mackey’s hands as the race hits its home stretch. The son of 1978 champion, Dick, and brother of 1982 champion, Rick, posted the fastest time to Shaktoolik, dropped a dog and merrily bolted back onto the sea ice to Koyuk with a string of 13.
Every one of the other teams in the hunt pulled over. Martin Buser rested two and a half hours; Paul Gebhardt rested three and a half; Jeff King was still parked as I typed this. The bottom line is Mackey now has a nearly four-hour head start and most likely a dog team capable of easily gobbling up the non-stop run to Koyuk.
Why did the others let him go? I won’t have the answers for sure until I catch up with them later today, but the reasons probably boiled down to care of their dogs’ psyches. After an entire race running headlong into cold winds, some of these dogs are feeling it emotionally more than anything. That is the way it appeared last night back here at Unalakleet.
When it comes down to it, these four-time champions and one proven runner-up put their dogs ahead of trying to win.
There have been an extraordinary number of scratches this year: 20 so far, many of them very experienced mushers—testimony to the rough trail conditions this year.
I was sorry to hear that Karen Ramstead had scratched. She was the only musher racing purebred dogs (Siberian Huskies). There are no details as yet on her web site but the word is that one of her team members died.
