Well Race Fans - the race is on!!! haha, like it hasn’t been.
So Martin made his way to Galena and is taking a break. Some people may be thinking he should have kept going and camped out on the Yukon since he just came off his 8 hour layover. Lesson learned from last year might be don’t rush down the Yukon. He has hot water and straw there and the dogs can rest in the comfort of some shelter, not exposed to the wind of the Yukon. Prudence at this point may pay dividends later.
An eyewitness report from Galena says things are going well. Martin appears not to be limping or having trouble walking around so the bruised ankle must be manageable. He was reported to have his pinky and ring finger of his left hand wrapped with a dog bootie. He did dislocate the pinky a week before the race and knew he would have to make some accommodations to that.
I hear Rohn is doing well out on the trail. He is traveling via plane with Tim Gossett. Tim is about Rohn’s age and is a good friend. Tim’s Mom, Lori, flew Iditarod trekkers for many, many years but lost a valiant battle to cancer in November. She is sorely missed but I’m sure she’s out there in spirit, especially with her plane and son on the trail. I have not heard from Rohn but sure hope he posts some photos.
Joe Runyan and Rohn crunched some numbers last night and you can find the details of that at
Keep the energy coming!!!! Jeff and Sonny, along with Aaron Burmiester still need to take their 8 hour layover somewhere on the Yukon. Sorlie is definitely moving fast. Just a note: Martin gives the dogs mini snack breaks all along the trail making it sort of a stop and go to some degree.
For the next few days, there will lots of changes in the leaders of the race due to the variety of places teams have decided to take their 24 hour layover.
Saturday and Sunday Start and Restart went quite smoothly. We had quite the tailgate party in Willow as folks stripped down to their t-shirts in the March heat. The team was raring to go and Martin was calm and cool. We've been glued to the Iditarod Insider GPS Tracker available at iditarod.com.
Martin has put a twist on his plan of beginning the race with a long run by taking a 4 hour rest in Rainy Pass. The next couple of days will definitely tell more of the story.
Elliot is sticking to his game plan of resting long, especially at the early checkpoints. He has 2 seasoned leaders in Quick and Flash and is teaching the camping routine to our 14 two year olds in his team.
Rohn got a chance to get a peek at the team entering Rohn. You could hear them, long before seeing then. They are a noisy bunch! He said they looked good!
This is the Farewell BROWN, formerly known as the Farewell Burn. Martin is midway through and on his way to Nikolai. I'm sure he'll have stories to tell after this run! This photo is from the Anchorage Daily News.
