Alaska News

Iditarod 2013 - Leaders make it to the coast

Mitch Seavey of Sterling seems to be running slightly faster than Nome's Aaron Burmeister, but both of them are now running long and risk being caught by the slightly-more-conservative teams on their heels.

Seavey and Burmeister ran almost 13 hours non-stop through the night in an effort to put distance between themselves and the chase pack of Aliy Zirkle of Two Rivers, Jake Berkowitz of Big Lake, Norwegian rookie Joar Ulsom -- plus the surging teams of four-time champion Jeff King of Denali Park and Ray Redington Jr. of Willow. Burmeister pulled his snow hook in Kaltag after just four hours rest following an immensely difficult run up the Yukon River, during which most mushers faced extreme overflow and snow-drifted trail. Seavey, who got an extra hour of rest in Kaltag over Burmeister, followed 30 minutes behind in a tight-knit group of mushers.

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