Iditarod update (Better known as the Jeff Quite Possibly May Indeed Know His Shit Report)
Looks like Norwegian firefighter Robert Sorlie has been overtaken by Alaska Native Ramy Brooks along the Bering Sea coast. As I predicted several days ago.
The Anchorage Daily News says that "as the Flying Norwegian snoozed in the Bering Sea coast village of Koyuk on Tuesday, Ramy Brooks -- Alaska born and bred -- surged to the front of the fast-closing Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
And the plot thickened.
Brooks was taking a bold gamble in a bid for his first Iditarod victory.
"I gave up on him this morning," Brooks' grandfather, sprint-dog-racing legend Gareth Wright, said Tuesday night. "But now I think he can do it.
"We'll know by morning. He's got to beat the guy into White Mountain."
How far is Brooks ahead by?
Not by much, mind you. Race standings show that they left the village of Elim about two minutes apart at around 2 a.m. Alaska time. (That's 6 a.m. Florida time.)
There's only 123 miles left in the race, so rest will be at a premium now.
Assuming their dogs cooperate, I can foresee a scenerio something like this:
Sorlie and Brooks play tag along the coast until they get to White Mountain, second to the last checkpoint before hitting Nome some 77 miles away. At White Mountain, they're required to take an 8-hour rest. They'll likely do so in the same cabin, since there's only 209 people in the whole town.
After that rest, they hitch up the dogs and go balls-out for a sprint to Nome.
Once they hit Front Street (Nome's main drag) they sprint for the finish line under the burled arch.
It's happened before.
In 1978, Dick Mackey and Rick Swenson raced neck-and-neck for almost 800 miles, rarely losing sight of each other. With a few others, they jockeyed for position along the length of Alaska. At the end, they found themselves out in front of everyone else and proceeded to stage the most dramatic finish the race has ever seen.
As the Daily News wrote last year in their commemorative edition:
"By the time the two men reached the streets of Nome, they were virtually running side by side," Daily News reporter Doug O'Harra wrote. "One hundred yards out, they were even. By the time they entered the 50-yard chute, Mackey had a slight edge. Both men were running.
"Then Mackey's dogs trotted under the burled arch, the finish line." The dogs tangled. "His sled stopped just short of the finish line. Mackey collapsed.
"Swenson ... kept going and dragged his sled under the finish line. Though his leaders crossed second, Swenson himself crossed under the arch ahead of Mackey.
"Bedlam erupted."
The decision about who won the 1978 Iditarod is debated today whenever race fans gather. But the rules and race officials said it was the lead dog's nose, not the musher's behind, that determined the winner. They awarded Mackey the victory by one second.
Who knows if we'll see that kind of drama again.
Either way by this time tomorrow, there'll be a new winner.