The city of Nome seems to be holding its breath today.
With temperatures climbing, the winds calm, and the skies sunny, the conditions seem almost perfect for an Iditarod finish, which will almost certainly happen today (Tuesday). Among local Alaskans and tourists alike, the question everyone in Nome seems to be asking is: when?
Just minutes ago, official Iditarod standings showed Lance Mackey – currently in first position – out of the Safety checkpoint, the last checkpoint before the finish line in Nome.
Mackey left Safety at 11:41am with 11 dogs. From there, most mushers make the run to Nome in about 2.5 to 3 hours (although a handful of mushers – notably Ramey and Cim Smyth – have done it faster).
With that estimate (2.5-3 hours to Nome), we might expect Lance Mackey to finish sometime between 2:15 and 3:00pm.
But of course, this is a race; anything can still happen – even on the final leg of the trail.
No matter what, KNOM will be there to cover the Iditarod 2010 championship finish. Listen to us on 96.1fm and 780 am, and check back with this blog. There’ll be more very soon.
