2011 Iditarod Standings, Day 4

2011 Iditarod Standings, Day 4 (March 9, 2011) - For me it's 9am on Wednesday, March 9th, and for the Iditarod mushers, they're on Day 4 of the race that started Sunday afternoon in Willow, Alaska. (Technically the Ceremonial Start to the race was Saturday in Anchorage, but I'm not counting that.)

The lead Iditarod mushers have passed through the checkpoint in Takotna, 370 miles from Willow, and then they're on the way to Ophir (25 miles) and then the town the race is named for: Iditarod (90 miles from Ophir).

While I have to get back to my usual day job, the mushers continue to race across Alaska, and at least here in Palmer, Alaska, we're still being bombarded by winds of up to 50 mph.

From what I've read, the racers sleep very little, maybe five hours at a stretch. That has to be hard. For me, anything less than seven or eight hours for a couple of days and I'm a zombie.

I also read that there was a wreck of sorts yesterday or the day before because one musher pulled over to let another musher pass, and when they did, one of the female dogs was apparently in heat; this drove the dogs crazy on the other team, they got all tangled up, then got loose, until another musher stopped to help get all the loose dogs back to the original mushing team. I'm sorry I don't remember the names of the racing teams involved, but I'll try to look them up later today.

Boy, it sure is nice and toasty warm in this apartment, and that eight hours of sleep last night on my warm, soft bed really felt great. :)