Monica Zappa, Lisbet Norris and Marcelle Fressinea, all rookies, have arrived in Nome. The last musher to make the burled arch is asked to extinguish the Widow’s Lamp, an act that signifies all mushers are off the trial. The newly fallen snow slowed the trio of final mushers. Compared to the icy trail the coaches and athletes have travelled for the greatest part of the trail, the final 77 miles in from White Mountain were entirely different. Nobody was complaining about the snow but it did make the trail slow and made the run very long. There was a large crowd gathered along Front Street to celebrate with the trio of mushers who closed the books on Iditarod XLII.

Finishing in 47th place was Cumberland, Wisconsin native, Monica Zappa. Monica led the trio to the burled arch but she wasn’t the first of the group to depart the checkpoints. From the very first morning of the race at Skwentna it was clear that Monica had nearly everything but the kitchen sink in her sled bag. When in a checkpoint, it seemed that most everything in the sled bag came out and was spread out on the snow near where the team was parked. That’s all well and good but when it comes time to leave, everything has to go back in the sled bag. Long and short, Monica wasn’t the speediest or the best at packing everything back into the bag. It would take her longer than Lisbet or Marcelle to get out of a checkpoint but because Monica’s dogs ran faster, she’d soon catch and pass the other two. She’d get a half hour ahead by the time they made the next checkpoint and the process would repeat itself. Working as a handler for Bruce Linton wasn’t Monica’s first exposure to mushing. Her parents raced dogs and both have participated in the John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon in Northern Minnesota. Completing Iditarod is a compliment to her work over the past three years of raising and training a competitive team. Zappa holds degrees in meteorology and geography.  Monica has many hobbies – sewing, writing, photography, painting and walking with puppies. She earned the coveted finisher’s belt buckle with a time of 13 days, 4 hours and 8 minutes.

Lisbet Norris brought her team of registered AKC Siberian Huskies to the burled arch in 48th position, covering the one thousand mile trail with an average speed of 3.04 miles per hour. Leading the team for the whole length of the race was a little female named Ruby. Ruby was as cool, calm and collected coming down the middle of Front Street as she was on the rest of the Iditarod Trail. She managed the task as if she were a veteran of the race. The Norris team was predominately males except for Ruby in front and Lisbet on the runners. Lisbet enjoys the northern lifestyle. While attending college she studied in Norway and Baffin Island and worked as a musher and expedition guide.     She has a degree in Northern studies and history.  After college she trained and raced dogs in northern Norway. Lisbet has now returned to her roots at Alaskan Kennels, the oldest Siberian Husky kennel in the world. She is proud of her mushing heritage and will continue to work with the family business. Norris, Ruby and the rest of the majestic Siberians completed the race in 13 days, 4 hours and 41 minutes.

Marcelle Fressineau has earned the red lantern for her perseverance in Iditarod XLII. Fressineau followed Norris up the ramp off the Bering Sea then onto Front Street. Marcelle’s leaders were tight behind Norris as the two teams entered the chute. It was a beautiful sight to have eight handsome Siberians pulling a sled with a musher on the runners immediately followed by nine Alaska Huskies pulling a sled with a musher on the runners. Swiss born Marcelle resides near Whitehorse, Canada where she guides dog sled trips into the wilderness. She’s raised and trained all the dogs in her team and chose to race Iditarod for the challenge and adventure. Sharing the experience of a long distance race with her dogs is what she enjoys the most. A representative from the Wells Fargo Bank branch in Nome was on hand to present the Red Lantern trophy to Marcelle. Somebody much taller than Fressineau reached for the Window’s Lamp hanging on the cross piece of the burled arch. Marcelle extinguished the symbol of safety by turning the wick into the wick holder until the flame disappeared. She covered the course at 3.04 miles per hour recording an elapsed time of 13 days, 4 hours and 42 minutes. If my memory serves me correctly, Celeste Davis has held the best Red Lantern time of 13 days, 5 hours and 6 minutes since 2010. Seems to me that Marcelle holds the new Red Lantern record by 24 minutes.

As of 19:42:08 on March 15th, Iditarod XLII is in the record books. Musher Matt Failor said this about the race, “I’m glad I was here to experience this race. It’s a race that will go down in history. It’ll be a race to judge other races by. I’m extremely glad I was a part of it.”