Despite being passed at the last minute by competitor Dan Kaduce, Kotzebue musher Katherine Keith was in superb spirits upon arriving in Nome – in 32nd place – at 11:43am Thursday morning with her 8 dogs.
She was so happy, in fact, that she was literally dancing and jumping up and down under the Burled Arch, after sharing a joyful ride through the finish-line chute with her daughter, who ran out to greet Keith in the final moments before she finished her Iditarod race. (Don’t miss photos of Keith with her daughter in the gallery below.)
Amid the noisy hubbub of downtown Nome, spotter vehicle and Front Street reporters Dayneé Rosales and Zachariah Hughes brought the live finish to KNOM listeners with Ric Schmidt in the studio.
With Zach, Keith talked about some of the more challenging moments in the final legs of her run to Nome, including her need to take shelter in a trail cabin, alone with her dogs, amid extremely high winds along the Norton Sound coast. Now that she’s finished the Iditarod, Keith was also able to compare and contrast this race against another extreme sporting event with which she has experience: the Ironman triathlon.
“(There were) lots of exuberant moments” in her Iditarod race, she says, and “so many thrilling portions of the trail.”
Hear Katherine Keith (closely following behind musher Dan Kaduce) finish Iditarod 42, bringing to an end her first Last Great Race:
