March 18, 2003
YOUR IDITAROD UPDATE FOR TODAY
Hey, Russ Bybee how's it feel to be the last man in Alaska mushing dogs at the moment?
That's right, Bybee is the odd's-on favorite to take the Red Lantern in the Iditarod.
Yesterday's laggard, Ellen Halverson, quit the race in Shaktoolik with 11 dogs still running, sort of.
Bybee is likely to finish the race, considering he's at the second to last checkpoint White Mountain, and has only 77 miles to go.
But if Bybee can't finish, Ben Stamm, who is already in Nome, would take the prize as the last musher to finish.
Here's a list of the previous dubious winners.
Here's how Dogsled.com (I am not making this up) explains the tradition:
In the early pioneering years of Alaska, dog teams were used to carry freight and mail between the Anchorage, Seward and the interior. Along the way, roadhouses were set up as rest stops and shelter. The mushers made their way across the Alaska wilderness in all types of weather. To help them, a kerosene lamp was hung outside each roadhouse as a beacon. These lamps helped the mushers find the roadhouses, and served as a notice that a musher was out somewhere on the trail. The lamp was left to burn until the musher was safely at his intended destination.
In 1986, to address and continue the tradition, Chevron USA hung a Red Lantern on the burl arch in Nome. The lantern is lit at the beginning of the race every year, and it burns brightly until the last musher crosses the finish line. The last musher across the finish line puts out the lamp, officially signifying that the Iditarod Sled Dog Race has come to a close. This practice has identified the last musher in the race as the Red Lantern musher.
It's also customary for the Iditarod winner to stay in Nome long enough to greet the final musher at the line.
The Red Lantern is kind of like Alaska's version of Motel 6: They'll leave the light on for you.
Just to show you how weird things get, this Anchorage Daily News story details the finish of the final musher in the 2002 race, David Straub:
Nome -- Star-crossed musher David Straub finally finished his first Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on Sunday. And like the race's winner, Martin Buser, he did it in record time.
Straub, a 41-year-old carpenter who lives in Willow, finished last in style, becoming the fastest last-place finisher in the race's 30-year history. He earned the annual Red Lantern award by being the final musher -- 55th overall -- to arrive in Nome. Straub completed the 1,100-mile race in 14 days, 5 hours, 38 minutes, 12 seconds. Straub beat Brad Pozarnsky's previous mark of 14:05:42:04 by just under four minutes.
Straub apparently had enough. He didn't enter this year's race.
Gotta love a race that congratulates the loser for losing in record time.
Beautiful.