It's been a busy day on Front Street in Nome. Teams have come in two and three at a time since Tuesday afternoon. Stories from each musher shared over loudspeakers as they were checked in. Well known names mixed with new. Some surprises, some expected.
Dan Kaduce, the fourty place finisher, made it to Nome with a full team of fourteen dogs. This is not common for top teams and the only other time someone in the top five managed a finish with a full team was Jessie Royer in 2017 when she finished fifth with all sixteen dogs. Dan credited luck, but the argument could be made that Kaduce is an excellent dog musher who did everything right by his team. He should be at the top of the list of nominees for the Humanitarian award.
Peter Kaiser, the fifth place finisher traveled the Iditarod with Dick Wilmarth's ashes. Wilmarth was the first ever Iditarod Champion in 1973. Kaiser was asked to carry some of the legend's ashes to Nome and he obliged. Wilmarth was from the Kotzebue area of Alaska, and Kaiser was a very deserving of the honor.
Chad Stoddard was a somewhat surprising seventh place finisher running Dallas Seavey's B-team. The musher ran a team split 50/50 between veteran dogs and "puppies". Chad benefitted not only from a really great line of sled dogs, but also from a wind storm that clustered the 3rd-15th places in Shaktoolik. Chad was one of the last of those teams to reach the Sound, but also one of the first to go out into it (right on schedule). It helped sling shot him into a top ten placement. He may end up winning most improved musher jumping 16 places from last year's 23rd.
Aaron Burmeister ran a master class in mushing in this race and managed eighth after running in third for most of the race (dang ground storm on the sea ice). Burmeister announced after last year's Iditarod that this race was going to be his last. This year he's added "for a while" to the end of that statement. He's been running a very emotional last leg of the race as he meets with fans and friends at each checkpoint. He loves this race, and it shows. That the crowd in Nome chanted "one more year" as he spoke shows just how important he is to everyone.
Mille Porsild and Michelle Phillips spent a long time in a shelter cabin outside of Koyuk. Before that Porsild dealt for a ridiculous amounts of miles with a very broken and unrepairable sled until Mitch Seavey offered his to her in Unalakleet. In her post race Q&A Mille said she wouldn't be at the finish without Mitch's help, but that she also believed he was secretly trying to kill her. Apparently Mitch's sled had a steep learning curve (sounds like a mushing version of a Batmobile?) Mille sounds very happy to have managed fourteenth place.
Mitch Seavey came in happy and chatty in sixteenth place. He wasn't sure (and this blogger isn't either) but he thinks he's the only musher in the field that was also at the first one. Granted he didn't run it, but he was there to see his dad run the first one. He helped Dan train that first Seavey Iditarod team and was immediately hooked on the spirit of Iditarod. Mitch was running an advanced puppy team of sorts and after having a difficult first leg decided to take it easy and make sure his team was preserved for next year. He stated in Nome that "I found out this year that as much as I love racing, and I love running the Iditarod, I just love mushing dogs even more." Mitch also answered a question about what he thinks about being here at the 50th after being at the first, "I think it means we're getting really old."
Hanna Lyrek locked in her Rookie of the Year status with her nineteenth finish. She came in just ahead of Paige Drobny who rounds out the top twenty. Drobny conceded a competitive race back in Ruby, and met up with Hanna around Shaktoolik. Hanna confided in Paige that she was afraid to run across the sea ice in the wind thinking she could get blown out to sea. Paige offered to run with the rookie and then they continued all the way into Nome.
These are just some of the stories already coming out of Iditarod 50. More will no doubt come as mushers catch up on sleep and come back to the land of fast internet. We're about halfway through the race. Many more will be headed in late tonight and tomorrow. Our current red lantern is almost into Unalakleet. Keep watching those trackers, more stories are about to be made and shared.
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