March 15, 2000

Hello:

The rollercoaster ride continues...

Karen made it in to Nulato last night after what she called "a very slow run". She is very tired and was raving on about how slow her dogs are. I tried to explain to her how she has sibes and everyone around her has Alaskans, then I told her to go have a sleep and I'd call her back. In the mean time I phoned ahead to Unalakleet and arranged to have Jamie Nelson give Karen call once she got in. About 4 hours later, I phoned Karen back to tell her about the phone call she was about to make. She was in much better spirits and had spent some time at the check point with Lynda Plettner who has run Iditarod 7 times before. Words of encouragement from a veteran are priceless.

Karen is now sporting a big shiner and a new nickname. I guess on her way into Nulato she fell asleep and fell off her sled landing on her face, when she woke up she had to get up and run after her team. Now her new name is "Karen Runs-instead".

Karen is now in Kaltag 802 miles into the race where she plans on spending a very long time before she makes the last long run of the race to Unalakleet.

That's all for now. Stay tuned.

Mark