"At the risk of sounding smug, I really don't care if I'm fifth or 15th," King, a three-time race winner, told KNOM radio on Monday. "I'd be doing this differently if I was in a position ... to be one of the potential winners."
King was hanging onto eighth place Tuesday night in Elim, 123 miles from Nome.
Fiedler losing speed
Linwood Fiedler of Willow was running 13th Tuesday night and resigned to the fact that his team of nine dogs was losing speed. "There's nobody in this group that I'm going to catch," Fiedler said after arriving 12th in Unalakleet amid a large clump of mushers. That's a disappointment to the Willow musher, who finished eighth last year and devoted himself full time to training dogs.
Caldwell 8th to scratch
Harry Caldwell became the eighth musher to scratch from the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on Monday in Eagle Island, a remote checkpoint on the Yukon River. He had 11 dogs remaining in his team. Caldwell, a Wasilla musher who works at Providence Alaska Medical Center, has completed six Iditarods and placed as high as 25th. This was his first scratch. Caldwell had shipped a plastic bag of goodies including Butterfingers, Twix and Reese's Cups to each checkpoint to keep him fueled.
Anchorage Daily News
Anchorage, Alaska
Friday
March 19, 1999
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