W is for Wade Marrs: An Iditarod Finish

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Date: March 15, 2017 12:48 am

The Iditarod Alphabet 2017
W is for Wade Marrs

Wade Marrs is a musher from Knik, AK, but today resides in Willow, AK.  His kennel is Stump Jumpin’ Kennel and is home to over 50 dogs.  Wade began mushing at a young age, and ran his first Iditarod in 2009.  He has two top ten finishes under his belt.  Wade had three other teams train with his kennel this year.  Andrew Nolan, 17 years old, won the Jr. Iditarod and Hannah Mahoney, also 17, received the Jr. Iditarod Red Lantern Award.  Jimmy Lebling is a rookie in the Iditarod this year and is excited to be part of the Stump Jumpin’ team.

W is for Wade Marrs

What a day!

The first four teams are into Nome, and Mitch Seavey has set two new Iditarod records.  He finished in 8 days, 3 hours, 40 minutes, and 13 seconds, which beats the previous record of 8 days, 11 hours, 20 minutes, and 16 seconds held by Mitch’s son Dallas.  Mitch is also the oldest musher to win the Iditarod at age 57.  Dallas Seavey and Nic Petit had a close finish, with Dallas coming in only 3 minutes ahead of Nic.  Joar has also finished, and that was the first finish I was able to see!  It was so much fun, and despite Joar finishing late tonight, he still had a crowd cheering him on.  By morning Jessie Royer and Wade Mars will have crossed the finish line, and then a whole slew of mushers will be following them. 

I wasn’t able to be at the finish line when Mitch came in (his dogs were just too fast), but I did spend the day in White Mountain, which was a blast!  Each musher is required to stay in White Mountain for 8 hours before they can finish the journey to Nome.  The checkpoint was filled with volunteers, pilots, and a few kids.  Many of the mushers were excited to reach White Mountain and get a little snooze in before the last 77 miles of the race.  Once their eight hour rest is complete they sprint to the finish line where hundreds of fans are waiting to greet them under the burled arch. 

More to come on Iditarod finishers tomorrow!

Math Problems:  How many minutes was Mitch on the trail this year?  Seconds?  How many miles is Nome from where you live?  How many feet?