Just got off the phone with Lou Packer again. He got word that Kathy fell through the ice outside of Rohn and got wet (remember temperatures out there are well below freezing). Her sled then got caught in a hole and it took her two hours to get free. She went back to the checkpoint to warm up, and they most likely asked her to leave once she did (as she was last and unfortunately they can only keep the checkpoint open for so long once everyone has gone).
They would take Kathy from Rohn and fly her and the team to McGrath to then go back into Anchorage. There is a good chance she would leave Rohn today as the weather conditions are good. From McGrath back to Anchorage is about 2 hours by plane. It could take Kathy anywhere from 1-5 days to get back home. Lou is trying to see if he can get her back sooner rather than later. Kathy is also with Zoya DeNure a racer who also scratched and is ill. Since Zoya is sick they may get her and Kathy back sooner… will continue updates as I know more…
Just got off the phone with Lou Packer a past racer, and good friend to Kathy who is at Iditarod headquarters in Anchorage, Alaska… Kathy has officially scratched the race. She made it right past Rohn… details to follow
Kathy is about to arrive in Rohn, she is about 10 minutes away!
Check out the Iditarod site for up to the minute status on Kathy here GPS tracking form Iditarod
Kathy arrived in Rainy Pass at 4:30am. She should be leaving shortly according to her schedule. She is currently in last standing, but NOT too far behind in terms of the back of the packers…
At 3:30pm on March 7th, 2010 Kathy left the Willow Alaska community center to embark on the last great race on earth… here is what we know so far…
The first check point on the trail is Yetna Station, which is 40 miles from Willow. Kathy was supposed to rest there, but she decided to press on to Skwetna. Kathy arrived at Skwetna at 12:40am and left around 9:00am to go on to Finger Lake. This morning she fell a bit behind because when she woke up she found someone had taken her boots by mistake and left their boots instead. So Kathy was off and running, but in someone else’s shoes.
Even though she had a bumpy start she is doing pretty well so far. Updates will continue every day!
I have been trying to upload this video for the last 36 hours. YouTube crashed twice about five minutes away from the final upload and then I lost the Internet connection here in Kathy’s house. However, I am finally able to launch this one day before the ceremonial start of Iditarod in Anchorage.
I commented on my twitter the Puffin Inn was either a flasback to the 50’s or a horror movie or both rolled into one. Now that it is daylight and not 1am, I think I was a bit rash in that comment. So here are some pics of the hotel. I have to say not bad for $50, continental breakfast and wifi!
Sorry for not updating as often. I was actually in Los Angeles the last several days taking meetings on different opportunities. I debated for awhile whether I should head back as I knew I would be leaving Kathy and unable to really focus on this project. However, due to the possibilities I had to go. I am back in Anchorage and about to search for electrolyte powder. A message from Kathy below. I have to check out of the Puffin Inn here in Anchorage, grab some breakfast and then the hunt for this powder that alludes me is on!
The dogs are just awesome. The final team members are: Pistol, GreyJack, Monica, Chinook, Xena, Vault, Relay, Douglas, Eric, Ruby, Bumble, Ursa, George and probably Fiat and/or Denali and Nome. Nome is one of my three original sled dogs; the blood work showed her as borderline in terms of her blood count so she will just be doing the ceremonial start and possibly two or three checkpoints. She and GreyJack are the oldest dogs on the team (age 8); the youngest dogs are Relay, Vault, and Douglas (son of Pistol) and they were born in the summer of 2008.
Schilling is not the dog with the cardiac arrehmyea; it is Chinook (just to make sure your website is accurate!). I had Pistol tested for parasites and she is o.k. Just a very hard keeper. Today, Fiat joined the kennel, fresh off the Yukon Quest. I got him from Dallas Seavey, who was 6th last year in Iditarod. He got the dog from Aaron Burmeister, who finished 7th in the Iditarod. The dog is named Fiat and he is bi-eyed (my first bi-eyed dog, one blue one brown eye). I realized today that I have no blue-eyed dogs going to Iditarod. Nutmeg, Sparkle, and Chilkoot are the only blue-eyed dogs in the kennel and they will not be going on Iditarod.
So, I will have at least three experienced males to start and possibly four (if Shilling looks o.k.). Harley and Merv aren’t sound enough to run (two injuries this year — first with Jeff and then a reinjury when in my kennel), George is so/so and has bad feet and came off the Don Bowers with a stiff shoulder, Chilkoot has never done more than 250 miles and has not raced this year and never has been flexible so is more prone to injury, and Tagish is a whiner and was injured this year so I don’t think I want to take him. That only left Eric and Douglas and Douglas is questionable for such a long race at such a young age.
Today we took a jaunt to Iditarod Headquarters in Wasilla to get blood work done on most of the dogs at the kennel. Even though Kathy is only taking 14 dogs she brought in 23 as she wanted to check out as many dogs as possible to see who the best contenders for the trail would be.
One dog needs to be retested as there were abnormalities in her heart, the dog is Schilling and I will be sure to post some video of her in the next couple days…
