Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Iditarod Sprint from Safety to Nome

The 22 mile race from Safety to Nome can be a relaxing leg of reflection for some, while others may choose a mind numbing, toe freezing sprint.  Passing a team on this leg can mean an extra 3k in the Iditarod paycheck. The Smyth brothers are famous for their fast times from Safety to Nome. Ramey has won "Fastest time Safety to Nome" award 6 times (95, 97, 01, 02, 03, 04) and his brother Cim once (96), although Cim has been the faster brother the last few years. The foot fashion of finishers is fun to observeanything from tennis shoes, duct taped mukluks to bunny boots may be spotted.  Given the various cluster of racers this  year, it is anticipated that there may be more than one foot race on Front Street in downtown Nome this year sprinting for those Burled Arches!

Below is a look at race times from Safety to Nome for some of the front runners over the past 3 years.

                     2008  2007  2006  avg

Lance Mackey         3:01  3:08  3:11  3:06

John Baker           2:40  2:44  2:58  2:47

Sebastian Schnuelle  2:48  2:33  2:43  2:41

Aaron Burmeister     3:15  2:54  3:40  3:16

Mitch Seavey         3:11  3:08  2:20  2:53

Dallas Seavey*             2:41  2:44  2:42

Cim Smyth            2:11  2:04  2:04  2:06

Jessie Royer         3:06  2:30  2:44  2:46

Ramey Smyth          3:04  2:30  3:04  2:52

*sample from his only 2 Iditarod runs to date: 2007 and 2005


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