IditaProject Forum

Still worried about Norris. She's been camped at Tripod? for over 4 hours now, coming off her 8 at Kaltag. Also Eric Kelly has been in Unk nearly 12 hours?

We can worry and fret, and we all do and will. I want to see Lisbet finish, even if she is Red Lantern. We all also want them to finish safely, and we know Nordman is the High Holy Emperor. Agreeing with Nordman happens once or twice a decade, and I think I have no more love to give this early in the decade.

That's all.

Lisbet is going steady, she is mushing now. I watched her a bit out of Kaltag and according to GPS, it looks ok. Reitan has also been taking some long rests

But I think she has been slowly falling further behind the 3 now 4 musketeers. (Kelly was in Unk a long time and has gone out with Davis, which makes me wonder if he's having leader issues? Or maybe didn't want to tackle it alone.) I'm guessing Reitan will take off soon, which leaves Lisbet pretty far back and on her own. How long before they "suggest" she scratch?

Could be now, or 5 hours from now, or 24 hours from now, or not at all. We don't have the assigned responsibility of parsing the rule for the outcome most favorable to ITC in a particular circumstance.

"Rule 36
--
Competitiveness: A team may be withdrawn that is out of the competition and is not in a position to make a valid effort to compete. The Race Marshal
may consider, but is not limited to,weather, trail conditions and the overall pace of the Race when invoking this rule. A musher whose conduct, constitutes an unreasonable risk of harm to him/her, dogs or other persons may also be
withdrawn."

So, how is any Red Lantern in a position to make a valid effort to compete ? It's a slam dunk for the Race Marshall and any musher in the position has no recourse at all except to scratch.

Lets wait it out and send Lisbet warm encouragement to hike up the dogs and head out.

If the only consideration is the pace being set by the dogs, then typically they will allow folks who are maintaining a pace to get to Nome before the banquet to finish their race. Exceptions can be made based on the behavior of the musher - if the team starts to develop a run 6, rest 12 pattern (not a individual instance, but a pattern), they will be encouraged to scratch and for good reason: if either the dogs or the musher repeatedly NEED that much rest between runs, they ought not be out there. The other red flag for a team that is falling too far behind is if they come into a checkpoint and the trail ahead of them is clear through the next checkpoint (i.e., you come into Unalakleet and the rest of the field has already checked out of Shaktoolik). That's one reason folks running at the back of the pack tend to travel together - makes it harder to lean on a lone straggler to scratch.
Regardless of the diligence and the run-rest pattern, it becomes very difficult to keep supporting a team past the banquet. All of the checkpoints are staffed by volunteers and the vast majority of volunteers have an expectation of getting back to their lives by a certain time. Forcing them to stay past that commitment creates a serious threat of not having volunteers next year. The ITC has some ability for forcing folks to stay longer than they planned by simply not sending a plane to the checkpoint to pick them up, but I've been there when volunteers have staged a rebellion - paid locals to snow machine them to the nearest runway and bought their own ticket back to Anchorage. Not only do those volunteers not come back the next year, but the friends that they've made along the way give second thoughts to leaving themselves at the mercy of the ITC at some remote checkpoint the following year.
Lisbet has covered about 650-700 miles in 10 days, and has 4 days (more or less) to cover the remaining 270 miles to get to Nome before the banquet. Should be able to do it, but it will be very close - any kind of setback will likely result in a scratch.

Thanks Dr. Mike for the explanation. Hoping she keeps on truckin!!

Thanks LD-I am very appreciative of your insights!!!! Thank you!! It seems like there might also be concern for the trail getting blown in or hard to find, especially in windy conditions?? Is there a vet still in Unk if she would have issues?

Good analysis Leaddog. I’ve been wondering about Lisbet also and she does appear to be steadily falling back in isolation. I’ve generally thought that if a musher seems to be running with enough time cushion to reasonably make it to Nome before the banquet and the musher and the team exhibit competent performance, they ought to be given the benefit of the doubt. It is, however, a fine balance between ITC maintaining a race schedule to fit the logistics and personnel requirements of the race and individual mushers performances. A race Marshall’s job is not an enviable one in that regard.

This has not been a kind Iditarod. Too warm for the first half means dog's didn't find appetites until Ruby or later. Once dogs got back an appetite, they may already have been down body weight, energy and muscle mass. Hard to come back from that, and you won't bring your team back from that unless you slow way the heck down on the Yukon and feed, feed, feed. If you plan on going to Nome, you need the dogs back in fighting weight with energy reserves by Unalakleet.
It's too damn easy to be an armchair musher. We aren't on the sled and trying to manage all the things. We aren't the race marshal, trying to manage all the things.

But if Lisbet gets kicked, it will be another Sibe team getting the bum's rush. Nordman did this to Hank Debruin ( Winterdance Kennel), in 2010, in Nulato. Hank came back to the Iditarod in 2012, finished his business, and left to not come back. If Lisbet gets kicked, my opinion is that she'll just do the Quest instead to qualify her Sibe stock and kennel for dual dog champion status.

Don't clutch your pearls, Karen Ramstead ran her North Wapiti Siberians for the same reasons ( dual dog status) but she was also completely committed to the Iditarod as a testing ground for her breed. Finishing was all she needed. Immediately after she retired her team, she became a race judge.

Organizations ( especially 501c non-profits) get what they give. If Urbach doesn't quickly understand what he needs to do to correct the ITC course, he won't have a job.