Two days away from the finish line, the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race has become a contest among the four leaders to see who can best slow the steady drain of tired dogs from their teams.
The four - three champions and a regular threat to become one - were on the trail this morning along the Bering Sea coast, about 200 miles from the end as the race completes its eighth day.Dee Dee Jonrowe of Willow, who has never won the 1,151-mile endurance test, was the first out of the Unalakleet checkpoint Sunday, at 4:44 p.m. local time.
She was followed by defending champ Doug Swingley of Simms, Mont., two minutes later. Two-time winner Martin Buser of Big Lake and Jeff King of Denali left at 4:52 p.m., headed for the Shaktoolik checkpoint 40 miles away and then Koyuk 58 miles further north.
From there the leaders turn west for the 123-mile dash to Nome.
"This is going to be a good race. It's not going to be one that anyone's going to walk away with," said King, who won the Anchorage-to-Nome race in 1993.
From the 16-dog teams that left the chute at the Wasilla restart March 3, Jonrowe, Swingley and Buser were down to nine. King had 10.
Buser has dropped some dogs who tired out or were injured going over usually rough parts of the trail
"The middle section was really, really wicked, really challenging for the dogs to get footing," he told KNOM radio.
"We hurt some dogs because we couldn't slow them down enough. My young guys are so fast they knocked some of the older ones out of the team."
Mushers, keenly aware that a dog team is only as fast as its slowest member, tend to shed dogs as they reach the fast, wind-packed trail along the coast.
Jonrowe's team was fighting diarrhea, a condition race veterinarians say can come from the stress of running or spoiled food.
"I've been fighting with it all night," she said Sunday.
King, Buser, Swingley and Jonrowe have been exchanging the top spot for 500 miles.
Tim Osmar is the only other musher close enough to the front four to pose a threat. But he was at least five hours behind them and down to nine dogs at the Unalakleet checkpoint late Sunday.
Two more mushers scratched Sunday, bringing to seven the number who have left the race. Jack Berry of Homer and Stan Zuray of Tanana both quit at Ruby. Fifty-three mushers still are on the trail.
Berry's team had refused to run and another musher, Bill Cotter of Nenana, had accused him of beating his dogs when they lay down. Race officials later cleared Berry of the abuse charge, which would have disqualified him.
Zuray told officials he wasn't progressing quickly enough.
The teams are competing for $50,000 in first-place money from the $300,000 purse.