Patience
8:00 a.m.
March 07, 2006

by Tyrell Seavey

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            “Pull, pull me away, won’t you pull me away tonight.  We won’t get lost though we’re covered in frost, now I’m sick of this song and this night.  They never said a word they just walked out and got on the trail and they pulled, they pulled clean out of sight.” Another day, another mutilated classic… sorry Mr. Seger. 

            The trail between Rohn and Nikolai is long and monotonous not only for the mushers but also for us race fans.  Since many of the racers camp on this 75-mile stretch their times can run well up into the 14-hour range as they traverse the dark side of the moon.  As these front teams bounce all over the stats like a bunch of ping-pong balls in a dryer it is often hard to tell who is in front but at this stage there are two distinct groups… those who camped in Rohn and those who did not.  I realize that is not a real profound statement but the Rohn split adds a ton of confusion as to who is in front.  You can break down the race by Rohn IN times and get a pretty good idea of the order that the mushers will come into Nikolai because if a team does not rest in Rohn then they will be resting out in the “Burn.”  Take Lance Mackey for example, he is currently in 20th place sitting in Rohn but since he will leave well-rested and likely go straight to Nikolai I predict he will arrive in the top five after leapfrogging all of the camped teams. 

            This stretch of trail was really a blast for me last year because I passed about 30 teams parked in Rohn which left me in 5th place when I stopped at the Post River Glacier.  The funny thing was that I had no idea what place I was in until Ray Redington Jr. pulled up and camped next to me.  He said, “I bet your mom is going nuts right now.”  “Why’s that?” I asked.  “Well, I left Rohn in 6th, which puts you in 5th,” he said, “and since there won’t be any updates until Nikolai the stats are going to show us in the top for about 20 hours.”  Ray and I were still pretty wound up from the excitement of the start so rather than sleeping we sat around and did what mushers do best… talked about dogs.  As we discussed different strategies and approaches to the race the teams who had been camped in Rohn began to blow by us and by the time I was ready to bootie up my team I had dropped back into the high 30’s.  Regardless, my few hours of untold celebrity kept me smiling all the way to Nikolai. 

            This year’s race has been running a bit slow due to snow and trail conditions so I do not foresee the teams breaking the speed record but it will be interesting to see the effects of these slower times on the teams later in the race.  The biggest effect that is already becoming apparent is team size.  The average team in the front right now is comparable to what it was in Takotna last year meaning that people have been dropping more dogs early in this race. 

            You know what we need to get us through to Nikolai?  A montage.   I recommend cranking the Bob Seger and putting on your boogying shoes… but that’s just me.  I did dig out my race MP3 player and cranked up the classic rock to ease the pain of not being out there racing, but as I told a friend who asked if I was missing the Iditarod, “being this far away from the race is rough... the only worse thing I can think of is actually being on the race.”  And yes, in the words of Chuck Berry, I like that old time rock’n’roll.