Race Is One of the Closest in Iditarod History  (Monday, March 15, 2004)
by Ultimate Iditarod's Jim Gallea

Mitch Seavey pulls into Unalakleet only a minute behind race leader Kjetil Backen

By all accounts, no one in the Bering Sea Coast village of Unalakleet was expecting that the first team into this fishing village of 800 people would actually be two teams.  Norwegian Kjetil Backen left the Yukon River checkpoint of Kaltag a couple hours ahead of Charlie Boulding, John Baker, and Mitch Seavey.  The local spectators in Unalakleet assumed that Backen would arrive with a similar lead, but when Backen arrived in Unalakleet just before noon yesterday, Mitch Seavey came charging into the checkpoint just one minute later.  Amazingly, after over 800 miles of racing, these two teams were still just a minute apart. 

Mitch Seavey

Apparently Backen took some time to rest his team on the 80-mile run across the Old Woman Portage from Kaltag to Unalakleet.  Seavey, on the other hand, made the entire run without rest despite the fact that up to a foot of snow fell on parts of the trail during the night.  Some may consider such a move to be a gamble, but I know that Mitch trained very aggressively this year, and he is running the race almost exactly the way he trained for it.  His dogs are all veterans of the Iditarod, and they are tough.

But the race is not just between Seavey and Backen.  Charlie Boulding and John Baker rested on the trail between Kaltag and Unalakleet.  As a result they arrived several hours behind Seavey and Backen, but their teams did not need to rest at Unalakleet, and they took the lead by passing through Unalakleet yesterday afternoon.  Jeff King, after making a last-minute change to his strategy at Nulato on the Yukon River, made a similar move at Unalakleet.  All three of these mushers are also in serious competition for this year's Iditarod championship.  As of late Sunday night, only 50 minutes separated King, Backen, Boulding, Baker, and Seavey as they departed Unalkleet.  No teams were reported into Shaktoolik, the next checkpoint 46 miles up the Bering Sea Coast from Unalakleet. 

Just behind these five, Martin Buser and Rick Swenson are into Unalakleet.  And behind Buser and Swenson, Ramy Brooks and Ramy Smyth are likely considering their options to make a move into the top pack. 

The big question at this point is one of strategy.  Have Backen, King, Seavey, Baker, and Boulding played their cards correctly?  How will these teams decide to run up the coast to Nome?  These mushers are so tired they can barely do simple math.  In a race this close, the winner will be determined by the team with the most energy and stamina at this point in the race.  Who has done the best job training, caring for, and managing the team this year?  It all comes down to these last 200 miles. 

Stay tuned, and check out www.iditarod.com for current race time statistics.