March 19, 2004 Where is Karen Now?

 

As of Friday, March 19th, 2004 - 6:00:04pm AST
Karen has FINISHED Iditarod 2004!!

Wearing Bib #58, she has finished as this year's top Siberian Husky
team and 58th place over all. Karen and the other Iditarod Finishers
have mushed a total of 1,112 miles over the Northern Route.

Karen has done very well with her team of purebred Siberians
despite a broken sled and has shaved two days off of her former personal
best finish in Iditarod 2001 of 14 Days 23 Hrs 53 Min 16 Sec. 

Karen's Iditarod 2004 Race Time Days Hours Minutes Seconds 12 8 0 4

Place	Musher	Checkpoint	Status:	Dogs
58	Karen Ramstead/58	Nome	FINISHED!	12

 

Click on the map for a larger version

Her average speed throughout the various checkpoints in the race:

Y	S	FL	RP	R	N	M	T	O	C	R	G	N	K	U	S	K	E	WM	S	N
11.3	9.6	4.8	7.9	9.3	6.4	7.1	7.3	12.9	3.4	9.2	6.1	7.3	7.0	5.1	5.3	6.3	5.8	6.4	6.4	5.5

Many fans watched webcams of the finish line in Nome at:
GCI Camera (http://208.138.130.117/netcam/nomecam.jpg when available) and Nome Nugget Inn (http://nomenuggetinn.com/images/webcam/iditarod.jpg)

March 18, 2004 Leaders into Nome

As many of the NorthWapiti Yahoo News Group anticipated Karen's arrival in Nome for the finish of the race, some wondered, "As we all watch the webcams, who will the leaders be?" (Grover & Kara was the first guess)...

Post Race - Karen's reply:

Grover, of course, was in lead. Kara didn't like the crowds at the Willow restart, so I opted to leave her back in swing and had Chester up front for the finish. Now Chester isn't always the most reliable dog in lead, he really doesn't listen much to me, so I did take a moment to stop and go up and whisper a threat in his ear before we came up over the sea wall and into Nome :) 

He was obviously listening well then, because he did a super job assisting Grover up Front Street and into the chute. Mark heard someone comment on what good leaders I had as they responded to my commands to position themselves to come directly under the arch! :)

Karen

Chester running right lead (with white shawl) and
Grover leading down the finish chute in Nome.
© Sunhusky

March 18, 2004 Dropped Dogs

I talked to Karen yesterday after she got into Koyuk. She said that she traveled through a storm most of the way there. This is the same section of trail that Libby Riddles ran through a storm to win the race in 1985, Karen's results weren't the same.

Karen was concerned that the repair job on her sled wasn't going to make it to Nome, and wanted to discuss options. The first dog she dropped yesterday was Camilla, the second was Olena, both are in Nome now. Draco is home now. (Post Race Note: Squeaky was also dropped during the race. See here for the reasons).

Well it looks like Shawn's record will be safe for another year (or two), Karen is now about 6 hours off her schedule and running out of room to make it up. She still has a good chance at second place held by Blake Freking, who ran an Anadyr team in 2000 in 12 days 6 hours and 50 minutes.  I don't think that Blake would be to upset if Karen snuck in there, he just finished winning the Beargrease with a team of Siberians.

I'm off to Nome.

Later,
Mark

March 17, 2004 Wake up Call

I got a morning wake up call from Karen, never a good thing. She broke her sled half way to Shaktoolik and limped in on one runner. Luckily, the checker in Shaktoolik is Karen's old buddy and Iditarod finisher Palmer Shagonik. He managed to help Karen fix her sled, he said that it wasn't damaged enough it replace, and there was nothing to replace it with anyway.

So because of her poor run over to Shaktoolik, Karen decided to stay there 8 hours. She told me that Wayne broke his sled on the way to Unalakleet, but was able to swap it out with one of the spare ones that someone else had sent there.

Karen had discussed dropping Camilla and Olena for various reasons that I didn't pay attention to, so it couldn't have been to serious. She only dropped one for now so I don't know who it is. I pretty sure that all dropped dogs from now on go to Nome, so I'll see who it is tomorrow.

I'm off to the prison to pick up Draco.

Later
Mark

March 16, 2004 Unalakleet Phone Call

Its noon in Alaska and I just got off of the phone with Karen. She is in very good spirits, her and all the dogs are doing fine. She dropped Draco in Galena because he chipped a toe nail and it cracked, but I haven't got my phone call yet.

Earlier in the race Karen lost her mushers vest that Cabela's gives out to all the mushers, she wasn't too concerned about the vest except for the fact that it had her calling card and money in it. Even the calling card was something that she could live with out, but with out the money she wouldn't be able to buy what she has been looking forward to for several years, pizza in Unalakleet. Well her vest was found and returned to her, and as we were talking she was waiting for her pizza. Last year she really didn't feel like eating when she was there.

She has received several parcels along the race from list members, including chocolates from her Mom. She hasn't received any Mush-o-grams yet.

She spread Orion's ashes along the river 21 miles south of Galena at sunset the other night. I picked Kobuk's ashes up at the vet clinic yesterday so we're even again.

Kara is still being the little superstar.

The trail is slowing down and Karen is a little behind schedule because of the warm weather, so she's going to have to pick things up a bit if she plans on getting to Nome in 12 days. She didn't sound like it bothered her one way or the other. Its kind of like getting a silver medal in the Olympics, its not what you were working for, but its still nice.

Later
Mark

March 15, 2004 Race Clock Details

In response to a question that was asked regarding how is time figured for each musher... The clock starts in Willow and doesn't stop until the nose of the lead dog crosses under the burled arch in Nome. ALL 40 hours of mandatory rest are counted in the total running time. The start differential is made up during the 24 hour layover. The only musher that has a 24 hour layover is the one with the highest bib number, this year its Ed Stielstra Bib #88. For Vern Halters (Bib #2), his 24 hour layover will be 26 hours 56 minutes. Karen's was exactly 25 hours.  All this is done so that the first musher to cross the finish line is the winner. I think that this puts the roll over time for each new day at 1:00 in the afternoon Alaska time, but something about that doesn't seem right. For some reason I thought that it was always done at noon. Karen and Hans Gatt at the restart in Willow. Hans is the winner of the last three Yukon Quests and the designer of Karen's sled chit chat.

March 14, 2004 Phone Conversations with Karen

I just got off the phone with Karen, she has been in Galena for a while, I had to tell her where she was. She sounded tired. She still has all 16 dogs and everyone is doing fine.

She says that it's hot outside and the trail didn't set up last night. She's thinking about adjusting her schedule so she can run more at night.

Later,
Mark

Hello again,

I talked to Karen at noon, she had gotten some rest and food, and sounded a lot more chipper. She said that it was sunny and hot outside so her and Doug decided to rest at the checkpoint instead of going out in the heat of the day. This will put her off her schedule, but she figures that she can make some of the time back at night or if it cools off during the day.

Karen bonding with one of the dogs in Ruby.
© Cool Dreams Racing Team
Our thanks for use of this photo.

One of the dogs required two stitches after pushing a team mate into a snowbank. It was Loki who got the stitches after Draco apparently got tired of looking at him, and did something about it. The hole was in his head, so it doesn't affect anything that he uses anyway, and it will heal before he goes in the show ring again.

Mark