Trent Herbst, running in his fifth Iditarod, was the first to reach the town of Iditarod in the 2011 running of race, reaching the abandoned gold mining town at 5:29 a.m. local time. Within seven hours, another seven teams had joined him, including heavyweights Martin Buser and Lance Mackey. The town of Iditarod, the 11th checkpoint on the trail, also marks the halfway point, and as a reward for reaching that point first, Herbst was rewarded with $3,000.
Iditarod 2011: Martin Buser Maintains Lead With Hugh Neff, Lance Mackey Closing
Although Herbst is technically atop the musher standings currently, he still has yet to take his mandatory 24-hour layover, something most of the top mushers have already done. As such, it’s Martin Buser who is the race’s real leader, followed by Hugh Neff, and then Lance Mackey, the defending champion seeking his fifth-straight Iditarod win.
Martin Buser still leads the Iditarod, but Hugh Neff of Tok sliced the Big Lake musher’s lead from 90 minutes to 45 on the run from Ophir to Iditarod.
Buser drove a 14-dog team into the abandoned mining town this morning at 10:41. Neff arrived at 11:26, and third-place Lance Mackey is expected soon.
A four-time champion who last won in 2002, Buser held a 90-minute lead over Neff when he left Ophir shortly after midnight at 12:15. Neff was 90 minutes back, leaving at 1:45 a.m.
Although Mackey is in third, he's still not feeling optimistic about his chances -- or his dogs.
Lance Mackey from Takotna from Kyle Hopkins on Vimeo.
Just more head games from Mackey? I suppose we won’t know for sure until Nome.
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Zoya DeNure was never going to seriously compete in the 2011 Iditarod, and she certainly won’t now, having scratched in Rainy Pass. But her reason why is truly remarkable, and in many ways signifies the bond between musher and dog.
A member of DeNure’s team, Miller, an eight-year old, suddenly collapsed in the harness Monday night.
DeNure couldn’t find a pulse and didn’t get a response when she performed mouth-to-snout resuscitation on the dog. She thought Miller was dead. She put the animal in her sled basket and backtracked to the previous checkpoint at Rainy Pass, her heart in her throat and tears streaming down her face.
“My whole body was trembling,” DeNure said. “I felt like it was my fault. I felt like the worst person in the world. I hated myself because I put him on the trail.”
As DeNure mushed back to Rainy Pass, her team seemed to sense her urgency.
“Our team speed was really good anyway but it felt like they knew we had to get back to Rainy Pass. They flew. They didn’t even hesitate. It was like, ‘Yep, Mom, we know.’ They knew there was an emergency. They hurried.”
The full story from Beth Bragg in the Anchorage Daily News is worth your time (don’t worry, it’s a happy ending).
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