Gallea scratches due to illness

 As of 4pm (AKST) this afternoon, Cindy Gallea's scratch was officially announced by the ITC. Citing illness not related to Covid as the reason for her feeling it was in the best interest of her team that she end her race in Skwentna. The 69 year old Iditarod veteran last ran in 2019 citing it as her final run, but adventure called and she wanted to give it another go in 2021 saying this was for sure her final Iditarod. Sadly her race ended before the 24 hour mark.

The Deep Root kennel, who partner often with Cindy and cite her as the inspiration for their own Iditarod run last year, posted a statement on Cindy's wellbeing following the official announcement:

"With sadness we wanted to let everyone know that Cindy scratched from the race. She developed severe vertigo and nausea to the point she is unable to stand, let alone drive a sled and manage the care of her 14 best friends.  In the 2014 Iditarod, she developed the same issue causing her to scratch from the race. The symptoms in 2014 lasted a number of days.  

She is resting at friends in Anchorage and dogs are doing great. She said dogs had an amazing 65 mile run.  

Damon will be flying up in the morning to help take care of our gal and dogs.  We pray her symptoms subside soon and her spirit mends quickly. 

I'll send out an update when we know more information soon."

Vertigo is not something to fool around with, and I can only imagine what it was like to deal with that while flying out on a little bush plane while also dealing with the incredible sadness of having to finish the race so early. Wishing Cindy all the best.

Gallea may be out of the Iditarod

 Iditarod fans noticed just under an hour ago that Cindy Gallea's tracker went from sitting in Skwentna to suddenly going 155mph towards Anchorage (the opposite direction of the other teams). We're still waiting on official word, but all experience suggests the musher scratched.

Gallea made headlines just days before the race when she and her team were denied entry into Canada to get to Alaska for the Last Great Race. After a lot of pleading that went no where with the Canadian Government (including, according to a social media post by a fellow musher/kennel, pleas directly from the Iditarod Trail Committee) Cindy resorted to shipping her team and gear via Alaska Airlines and followed a day later. Mushers in Alaska rallied and got her a dog truck and other needed equipment and met her and her team at the airport. 

Concern of added expenses coming in around $5,000 quickly made the rounds of social media and in less than 24 hours $8,000 had been donated to the team to get them to the starting line. Now it appears that their race is over just a day into the game. 

Will update when we get official word.