March 7, 2016

Rough night for some mushers. JAN STEVES scratched due to a crash. I believe she did get hurt but no report yet. MARTIN KOENIG scratched but no reason given.
DALLAS SEAVEY not feeling so good with the flu but pumping on.
HUGH NEFF in 1st at the moment with NICHOLAS PETIT and then DALLAS SEAVEY following.

If you have 86 teams, all leaving at a different time, the way they make up the time to even it out is at the 24 hour layover ( Mandatory).  If the time from #1 to #85 is 2 hours then the #1 will stay on the 24 hour layover for an extra 2 hours. After that time, it all evens out and then its a more balanced race.

So far all the teams seem to be taking it rather easy for the start. Conserving energy I suppose.
I want to picture a map of the route but for a 72 year old its difficult to remember how I did that last year. Now I don't have all the "helpers" here to remedy that. I'm on my own!!! Have to work that out.

There was one point where two of the mushers went way off the trail--LARRY DAUGHERTY-an Oncologist and on his "vacation" and PAT BEAL. Think one followed the other, although CINDY GALEY followed them as well and quickly decided she was off trail. These two went way out of the way for miles and not until they got to the Yetna River did they realize their mistake. This really shouldn't be. There are 12,000 Iditarod 2016 markers on the trail, so distinctly marked. The rule SHOULD be go 10 minutes, about 1/4 of a mile, and if it seems to be wrong reevaluate. This seemed to be an OLD Iditarod trail but certainly not marked with the 2016 markers. Bad mushers!!!Losing lots of time and energy.
The mushers are reporting good conditions on the trails. That's good news.
LAURA WRIGHT  is the 2016 Teacher On The Trail. Its a long arduous process to be chosen--takes about a year. She begins the race as an Iditarider at the ceremonial start. Then she flies on the Iditarod Air Force plane to the different checkpoints and reports to her classrooms who have been studying the Iditarod this past year. She has class followers from all over the world, over 100,000 viewers. During the year she has lesson plans related to the Iditarod and refers to those during the race. The teachers have global skype and can also check out her posts. She skypes at every checkpoint.
LAURA is An Ambassador for the race. She is from Austin, Tx (hey Henry,Andrew, Natalie and Noelle)
and has been a teacher for 20 years. Hearing a few of her interviews, she has wonderful presence and is well spoken.