PURSE IS GUARANTEED $100,000
Race will start March 26, 2008 at 10:00 am
On March 26th, 2008, Nome and the dog mushing world will celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the first major long distance sled dog race in the world. With the centennial re-run of the All Alaska Sweepstakes Race, a distance of 408 miles—we will once again experience the excitement of the early history of the gold rush era in Alaska.
http://www.allalaskasweepstakes.org/

 

Gentlemen, Start your engines........

OOPS! Wrong sport.

100K nice prize!

 

Gentlemen, mush your dogs!

 

Paul- Once Thought Of Training My Dogs To Pull A Sled- Gave Up -all They Would Do Is Race From Tree To Tree And Pee
CLAUDE

 

In todays world 400 miles does not seem very far. With cars, trains, and planes well it is only hours or possibly minutes. But to do this in a northern climate with a pack of dogs, is nothing less than super human. Please keep us informed Paul.
Just a side note if any one has seen the movie "Into the Wild" they will know how hard a northern existence is. If you have not seen this movie I suggest you do. The high latitude guys we are lucky to converse with are truly incredible. Paul, the fuel prices are taking a toll on my thoughts of visiting the North.

 

In the late 70's and 80's my sister was into sprint dog racing and knew a lot of Iditarod Mushers. She talked me into going out and working as a "dog catcher" at some check points. For me it was mostly party time but I got pretty serious when the teams were arriving and taking off because for the racers it was everything.

 

Mackey is ahead by a half hour with Brooks on his tail. Hope Brooks gets his put down hard, he was seen whipping his dogs with a trail marker on another race, the dog died but they couldn't prove he caused it. If Lance sees him out on the trail he might get his just dues. I know Lance is pretty mad about him beating a dog.

 

As of 5:45pm AKST - The first 10 mushers have arrived into the checkpoint of Timber; here are the standings for the checkpoint:

Jim Lanier - 16:05 - 13 Dogs
Lance Mackey - 16:11 - 13 Dogs
Ed Iten - 16:17
Ramy Brooks - 16:18 - 12 Dogs
Hugh Neff - 16:20 - 13 Dogs
Mitch Seavy - 16:29 - 10 Dogs
Aaron Nurmiester - 16:29 - 11 Dogs
Sonny Linder - 16:29 - 13 Dogs
Jeff King - 16:38 - 13 Dogs
Cim Smyth - 17:23 - 11 Dogs/1 in Bag
Unlike other races you can't drop dogs at check points, if you start with 13 dogs you have to finish with 13. This race is all about the dogs, with this rule it makes the mushers pick the strongest animals they have.
This trail is going to start getting tricky as once the teams pass Council, they will be heading even further north, but they will also start to be on trails that are very rarely used, even some of the most hardcore outdoor enthusiasts in the area don’t venture past death valley (after Telephone), even on snowmachine, and many local mushers don’t usually make it out to Council.

 

The current record holder is John Johnson "The Iron Man" 1910 with a time of 74 hours 14 minutes and 37 seconds.
King is around Cape Nome an his time so far is 21:58:00 03/28 with just miles to go....Mitch has a dog in the bag which dropps him from the money

http://www.allalaskasweepstakes.org/
Who gets it done could become an issue tonight......
Perhaps the most interesting twist in this race could unfold when the first musher across the line discovers he has been duped by race organizers.
http://alaskasweepstakesblog.com/

 

Mitch Seavey First in Nome
23:29:45

Jeff King Second
23:39:05

 

Sorry guy...a little tired and that part about being dropped is wrong....I read something wrong....Was a heck of a race

 

Last night on his way into the finish line, just minutes after leaving Safety.. 2008 Iditarod & Yukon Quest Champion, Lance Mackey was hit by a snow machine. The machine was traveling at a high rate of speed behind Lance.
More info here...http://alaskasweepstakesblog.com/?p=164#comments

 

Good race but (for me) the funniest thing this year was during the Iditarod when Martin Buser gave his GPS tracking device (which he didnt want) to the pilot who flew it to McGrath. "Look! He's going 130 mph the wrong way"

 

That was great....but felt sorry for the poor ION field tech, he had no idea what was up. He ran all linds of diagnostics on the system. The logistics of setting that system up was unreal, and a crazy dog driver had him pulling his hair out. Only in Alaska...
Lance says Zorro’s doc says breathing is good so just the cracked ribs without lung puncture. At 6:30 he is getting MRIs to check the spine.

 

Jeff Darling is in Gold Run and planning to leave tonight at 9:30
Carrie Miller was into Timber at 4:52 this evening and is enjoying a warm cup of tea with checkers and is headed to Topkot leaving Timer at 6:10 pm
Kristen Bey & Conner Thomas are heading for Council
Fred Napoka is into out of Safety at 8:14 March 30, 2008