Rootin for Newton! Iditarod starts today!

[Nanook]

Nanook just letting you know I am reading the updates, thanks for keeping us informed.

Thank you Seemiyah for stopping by and commenting. I was not here much of the last couple of days until this morning as I ended up with another Winter related disaster of my own this weekend when my septic froze rendering my well and bathing and anything water related useless. It was a trying weekend and at one point on Sunday I whined on FB "I should be sitting here playing armchair Idiatrod Musher but instead I feel like I'm running the race". It was brutal, but I'm back!

Our guy is approaching Unalakleet!!! HEAR ME ROAR!!!

Kaltag to Unakleet is a 85 mile stretch of land and though I didn't confirm using Google Earth or any resources, I imagine this is a hilly terrain that leads to Unalakleet and the shore of the Bearing Sea.

Newton is moving at 7.5MPH and averaging 7.7 M (GPS info update was 7 minutes ago as I type).

At Unalakleet Newton will have reached 754 miles, with 221 left to go to reach Nome and he has 14 dogs still. As of 7 minutes ago Newton is on mile 708 so he has quite a few hours to reach the coast and Unalakleet. I'm going to wager a guess he will hopefully spend the night in Unalakleet and get some rest after the wicked weather day he just mushed on through in the last 24 hours before he heads the 40 miles along the bearing Sea coast to Shaktoolik.

I have some things to do before I can look around too much but if I find anything newsworthy I will be back later.

This sure has been a race for the books, the record finish time shattered on the worst course ever (because of the fact there is a lack of snow in so many areas but ice cover instead so the dogs are in control of pretty much everything unless the mushers have exceptionally trained dogs), the one who just yesterday was declared to "almost certainly be the winner unless something goes drastically wrong", well...it did and that was probably one of the hardest moments of Jeff King's mushing life to have to quit when in the winning position just 22 miles from Nome. I have heard Jeff speak at our Beargrease Banquet and he had many a interesting story, now he has another one. It is Jeff king who was 22 miles from being the winner who is in the Youtube vide I posted on Friday night.

That's all I got for now, I still haven't even been to Newtons FB page (was gone all day today), I just went straight to Iditarod insider site to check if he made it through the brutal weather of the last set of miles. Our MAN did it!!

Tonight's weather forecast for Unalakleet 7F above right now with a low tonight forecast to only be -4F and I see winds have slowed to 5-17 mph.

It's time to start planning that party! As soon as I can grasp the approximate set of hours where Newton will reach the finish line in Nome I'll post that so we can start planning our party and wait and watch! It was big fun last time.

As of this time I do not know whether the last of the finishers is going to be pay for view. Newton is is 46th place, they might just keep the camera's rolling after all the big names and most of the rest of the pack goes through. As far as I know it is a 9.95 ticket to watch the finish online but I'll see if that changes once the money winners finish. The first 30 finishers are guaranteed a piece of the purse but every musher does receive a check. I guess this would be the time to mention that on Newton's behalf the folks helping Newton are asking for donations. It is unclear whether Newton even has the funds to get the dogs he is using to Anchorage and himself. I will dig around into that in case anyone is wanting to donate.

[Nanook]

Newton is in Unalakleet enjoying pizza

Some of you may have seen this on FB that Newton has reached Unalakleet. I can rest tonight knowing Newton is enjoying a good pizza while his dogs have a rest. It will be interesting to see if he moves on at 7pm Alaska time, or just decides to make a run for it or both. I'd like to see him get a few hours rest at least. Oh, and he is down to 13 dogs, so somewhere along the way he dropped one in the last day.

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Link to story: https://www.facebook.com/MushinMonNewton

[Nanook]

Newton is 11 miles from Shaktoolik. From there he will have abut 200 miles to travel along the coast. Go Newton, you're almost there!

Photo credit Eppo Erkes, Newton outside Elim

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[Tuff Gong]

Following on FB I hope he completes the course!

[Nanook]

110 miles to go!!! Mush on Newton!

Newton has left Elim, and is now off the coast, and I hear there is better snow condition the rest of the way than the earlier mushers were blessed with over those hell winds the other night. At least they were to the benefit of some.

Newton is 110 miles from the finish line! I want him to Nome as much as anyone but I hope it isn't while I'm gone tomorrow for my one day of work a week, oh well, what can I do.

From what I've heard all the videos will be made free and public after the Red Lantern Finisher comes in. Red Lantern Award is given to the last musher off the trail. There is also a time limit so though you might be last that is by no means a reason to lollygag and the mushers will do the best to get there.

I am so Minnesota proud right now for our local 2 time Beargrease Champion and first time Iditarod musher Nathan Schroeder for coming in first among the Rookies and therefore winning Rookie of the year. That is very awesome, Nathan is a A1 guy, a family man who takes seriously good care of his dogs. My color went wonky on my camera after Beargrease start so my finish pics are all color whacked but this is a link to Nathan and his son an adorable picture that is too large to post here, it is on my public Beargrease album on FB where I brutalized my camera in whiteout conditions in a day the high was -5F. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=3&theater

Currently Newton is traveling 2mph with an ave speed of 7.6. This is down from the 4.6 mph he was traveling when I started this post so hopefully everything is Ok he's just going up a hill or something but he is on the move as far as I can tell.

If I remember last time Newton reached the finish line someone found a link to free video of the finish line, maybe it was Kia. It might be on this site, I saw it flash by in the chat yesterday but if you want to see Newton finish and not pay you might find a link on this site: http://www.travelalaska.com/Destinat...&utm_medium=ad

[Nanook]

I also noticed with some of Newton's fundraising efforts he has become independent of the Jamaica Dogsled Team and is doing this on his own. I've been wondering but hadn't heard anything concrete until now and I have not yet heard how this came about. He also lists an Alaska address and now what I don't know is if he is planning to live there since he is no longer with Chukka, or what his plans are. It will be interesting to see what happens after the race to Nome.

[Tuff Gong]

It will be interesting to see what happens after the race to Nome.

Will be...I thought he was fund raising for home?

[Nanook]

Good morning! Newton is in White Mountain resting at this hour. He has 80 miles and one checkpoint at safety before he reaches the finish line!

Tuff Gong, the fund raising I've seen is to get his dogs back to Anchorage and himself, but then I'm on my first cuppa coffee so I don't know anything for sure at this point, well, except for where Newton is now.

I'm off and running for the day, hopefully I'll be back in time to watch Newton cross the finish line! Today will be the day!

[Tuff Gong]

Good morning! Newton is in White Mountain resting at this hour. He has 80 miles and one checkpoint at safety before he reaches the finish line!

Tuff Gong, the fund raising I've seen is to get his dogs back to Anchorage and himself, but then I'm on my first cuppa coffee so I don't know anything for sure at this point, well, except for where Newton is now.

I'm off and running for the day, hopefully I'll be back in time to watch Newton cross the finish line! Today will be the day!

I thought he was also trying to get some Tablets forward to Jamaica.
Anyway it will be a great day when he crosses the line in Nome.

[Nanook]

Five more miles!!!

I just walked int he door, have video on, will try and do a screen capture, back later! he his at Mile 357!!!

[Nanook]

Finish!

Newton has crossed the finish line!!! CONGRATS NEWTON!!!



I'll see if I have anything good in screen shot otherwise will post links to pics of Fb page. Newton is being interviewed at the moment.

All of the videos are made public once the last finisher is in later this week but I will do my best to share what I can get from the Insider pages.

[Gen]

just got home and see this


Congrats Newton !!!!

[Nanook]

I'm waiting for the official pictures & I'll post a link. my screen capture is ish blurry and not worth it. In his post race interview Newton talked about how he thought he was gonna die for sure, he said it twice, and named both places. One was early on doing the gorge where he found the Mushin Mortician laying on the river with the broken leg. It was so nice to see Scott there in Nome waiting for Newton, standing there on his crutches. I watch the marathons all the time and only twice have I had tears in my eyes, and both times was Newton crossing Iditarod finish line.

They were playing Three Little Birds on the stereo as Newton came across the finish line. There was a nice intimate sized crowd there to greet him and I could hear much of the conversations between him and the people, so fun to hear him, he sounds happy and not even tired..

As soon as I find anything sharable on he Iditarod site to post I'll come with the report,.

Newtons placing and time stats:

Newton Marshall

Nome

3/14/ 16:05:52

13

12d 1h 5m 52s

(the 13 is for how many dogs he had at the finish)

43rd place out of 69 starting.

7 mushers still on the trail

19 scratched, many of them seasoned Iditarod finishers and also several former Champions. Some of the names on the scratched list, to see them there seems crazy, yet Newton, he did it!

I bet he is gonna sleep good once the dog care is accomplished and if I was him I'd probably want a good stiff drink or a beer & toast with my friends first!

[Nanook]

Well here is the screen print for now, I made it a small file hopefully small enough to post here.

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[Nanook]

Video

I'm gonna try this, not sure it will work. If it doesn't work tonight it will go public once the last musher comes in to Nome sometime tomorrow. It is beautiful. OK this video is from the insider so it might be blocked but here goes. I can't even test it to see if it works or not since I have a subscription and it will play for me so if it works will someone let me know please? Thanks!

http://iditarod.com/race/?vid=62473