Lance
Mackey and Jeff King have left White Mountain after taking their final
8-hour rest. They are less than 77 miles from Nome and are 1 hour
apart. If they come in within 1 hour, 4 minutes apart from one
another, it will be one of the top 10 closest finishes in history.
It
appears that Jeff King has the stronger team, but he has not been able
to catch the 2007 champion. Jeff needs to make up more than 1 hour in
the final 77 miles to capture his fifth title. Lance will not be easy
to catch and wants his second title. He also won the Yukon Quest this
year, his fourth straight, and winning the Iditarod again would be
unprecedented.
Mitch is
in a group with 8 other mushers who will be trying to place as high up
in the top 10 as possible. The higher the finish, the higher the payout
will be.
We plan
to be in our stations at the finish line about 2:00 a.m., an hour or
two before the winner arrives. This assures us that we will have our
good locations. We will stay and capture the top 5 finishers, including
Mitch. It will be below zero, so we will need all our heavy gear and a
great attitude!
A
snowmachine, going 40 mph, ran over an Iditarod team on the trail,
killing one dog and seriously injuring another. The musher said she
could have been killed as well. Another small plane from the Iditarod
Air Force crashed today, seriously injuring 3 people.
We tried to track down the reindeer in
the pickup earlier today but were not successful. We will keep trying
and hopefully will film this awesome sight – only in Nome.
I will
call the J. J. Keller office when the winner arrives and when Mitch is
finished. The website will be updated ASAP, and we will issue an
immediate K-line report for J. J. Keller associates.
