Last night at the annual Musher's Banquet in Nome, Trent received the "Most Improved Musher Award" for the musher who moves up the most places relative to the finish the previous year.  Trent moved up to 25th place this year from a 49th place finish a year ago.   Picture of Trent receiving his award below.   If he moves up another 24 places next year, he'll win Most Improved and come in 1st!

Remember that Trent also led the race at the halfway point by being first in the checkpoint at the ghost town of Iditarod.  Trent also received that award last night.  I watched the video from the Iditarod Insider of the award presentation and Trent's receiving the award. 

Trent said "This is really cool, I never thought this would happen.  I was kinda in the right place at the right time to make it first to Iditarod.  I need to thank all my students, my wife who has put up with all this the past six years, and all my sponsors back in the Wood River Valley.  I'd never be where I'm at at right now in this race without them. I thought I'd do it once and now I'm on #5, it's pretty incredible.  Thank you Alaska and thanks for all the fun I've had the past five years."

For anyone who signed up for the Iditarod Insider, please check out the videos of Trent accepting these awards on the Iditarod.com site.

Trent pulled in to Nome this morning.   he finished the great race in 25th place.  He made the 77 mile trip from White Mountain in 9 hr 54 min at 7.77 mph.  His overall time for the race was slighly over 10 1/2 days.   His best previous finish was 48th place and and 12 1/2 days.  It was a great race and a great year for Trent. 

 

 

Trent nailed it.  He even led the race on two occasions and was first musher to the halfway point.

 

Snapshot from the Iditarod Insider video of Trent crossing the burled arch at the finish in Nome this morning.   We'll post a gallery of pictures from the race later.

 

Trent pulled in to White Mountain sometime around 6:00 this morning in 27th place.   The standings are not updated on the Iditarod website to know the time for sure, but on the GPS tracker he is in White Mountain.   This checkpoint is a mandatory 8 hour rest point for the teams and then it is 77 miles on to Nome and the finish.

I suspect Trent will leave late afternoon today well rested and get in to Nome sometime Thursday morning.   The team had 7 dogs checking out of Elim heading to White Mountain.   Trent has slowed his pace and increased his rest times since the Yukon, it appears.   He discusses this with the Iditarod Insider team in the article below.

It still looks good for a top 30 finish for Trent which was his goal heading in to the race, and he's had a great campaign.  He led the race after the Skwenta checkpoint, and was first to the halfway checkpoint at the ghost town of Iditarod.   Trent is likely considered a serious musher by all of the Iditarod competitors now, and has always been considered a friend.   We wish him luck on the trail in to Nome!

Trent just finished the run accross open water on the Norton sound from Shaktoolik to Koyuk.   He left shortly after midnight and arrived at Koyuk at 6:38 this morning covering the 42 miles in 6hr 33m at a pace of 7.33 mph.   Trent checked in to Koyuk in 24th place.   Trent sits about 150 miles from the finish at Nome at this point.  He'll probably reach White Mountain and the mandatory 8 hour rest there at some point today and then the final 77 miles in to Nome should have him at the finish at some point on Wednesday.   Also a picture of a team crossing the open water of the Norton Sound.

 

This is the stretch of open ocean travel made famous by Leonhard Seppala in the serum run in 1925 to save the children of Nome from a diptheria epidemic.   The dog sled relay of the serum from Fairbanks to Nome is the inspiration for today's Iditarod.   Seppala took the over sea route coming from Nome to meet the serum and on his return to save time over land travel.   Read the "Cruelest Miles" by Gay Salisbury sometime for an incredible accounting of the epidemic and the heroic efforts of the dog teams that saved the town of Nome.   A picture of Leonhard and his lead dog Togo is below.   There is also a slightly more detailed map to get a feel for the "shortcut" from Shaktoolik to Koyuk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry, the blooger took his 24 hour rest stop yesterday.   When we left Trent last, he as checking out of Iditarod after being the first in the race to the halfway point and then completing his mandatory 24 hour rest.   He left Iditarod at 7:30 AM on the 11th after his rest.   The leaders who had taken their 24 hour rest at Takotna had long passed through and Trent hit the trail in 24th place. 

 

In the past 48 hours Trent has made 1) the 65 mile run from Iditarod to Shageluk in 6 hr 28m at 10.05 mph where he rested for 6 hours; 2) the 43 mile run from Shageluk to Graying (checking through Anvik at the start of the Yukon) in 5 hr 41 min averaging 7.6 mph where he rested for 5-1/2 hours; 3) the 60 mile run from Grayling to Eagle Island in 7 hr 5 min at 8.47 mph.   

 

Trent was back on the Yukon at 10:30 last night to head up the final leg of the Yukon to Kaltag.  Looking on the GPS tracker just now, he is 14 miles from Kaltag and running 23rd in the field.   Trent will surely rest after the grueling leg and prepare for the 75 mile journey to Unalakleet and the Norton Sound.  At that point is is 236 miles to Nome starting with the crossing of the Sound over water.   Trent's times are good and the experience of the past 4 Iditarods will take him home from here.   A top 25 finish is very possible and a top 20 finish is possible if enough things work in Trent's favor.

 

Trail map below.   Also find a nice shot of Trent pulling in to Iditarod the other night with a well frosted beard (screen scrape from Iditarod Insider video)

 

 

 

 

After his 24 hour rest in Iditarod, Trent is back on the trail.   Probably don't have to remind you that he pulled in to Iditarod Thursday morning at ~5:45 in 1st place, won $3,000 in gold nuggets and upset the "old guard" in claiming the prize.  He left Iditarod the morning in 27th place and has moved up to 24th place on the trail.  The weather is colder heading in to the Yukon and the trail is supposed to be getting softer.   If Trent and the team run as strong in the next 5 days as they did in the past 5 days, all of us are in for a treat.  Below is a picture of Trent accepting the gold nuggets from his award for leading the race at the halfway point.  Grabbed a screen shot from the video on the Iditarod Insider website.

Also below is a gallery of photos from the Willow start on Sunday, that Bob Vogel from Anchorage email'd to us today.  Enjoy them, thanks Bob!

I wish we had a picture of Trent right now in the ghost town of Iditarod.  He's probably sleeping in the sun, camping with the dogs, and enjoying what he's done.  He should be, he's the talk of the race.

 

Here area a couple of links to articles today, two from Iditarod.com and one from the Boise TV Station KTVB-7

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trent has had an amazing past 24 hours in the race.  He pulled out of McGrath yesterday morning and cruised the 18 miles to the Takotna checkpoint in 1 hr 49 m averaging 9.91 mph.   Most of the mushers and the race elite had stopped at Takotna for their 24 hour rest.   Trent checked right through Takotna and headed out the trail in 4th place.  He made the quick 25 mile run to Ophir in 2 hr 26 m at 10.27 mph and just missed catching the leader, checking in to Ophir in 2nd place in the race right at noon yesterday. 

Trent had talked about taking his 24 rest in Ophir, even before he left Ketchum.  There is a video of Trent and the dogs at the Ophir checkpoint up on the Iditarod site from yesterday afternoon.   The weather looked perfect, blue skies and 20 degrees.  Trent was in great spirits.   I think he and the dogs took a 5 hour rest and decided they could go on.   And go on they did.   The ghost town of Iditarod mark the halfway point of the race.   One of the sponsors, GCI, offers $3,000 in gold coins for the first musher to reach the halfway point.   I think Trent considered the opportunity and the team's disposition and decided to take a run at it.   Only 3 mushers checked out of Ophir for the 90 mile journey to Iditarod.  Trent left at 5:42 last night and pulled in to Iditarod in 1st place at 5:29 this morning.   Including his rest along the way, he averaged 7.64 mph.   Trent has shown that he has one of the fastest and strongest teams in the field.   In a few hours the real leaders will go through the Iditarod checkpoint, but for the moment Trent is the leader in the race!

 

Another good day for Trent yesterday.   Yesterday at 5:48 AM he headed out of the Rohn checkpoint in 37th place.  Ran the 130 miles between Rohn and McGrath with one stop on the trail and going through the checkpoint in Nikolai arriving in McGrath at 1:15AM this morning.   The final 54 mile run from Nikolai to McGrath was done in 5 hours, 11 minutes at an average speed of 10.42 miles.  Trent was in 24th place as he checked in to McGrath and sits in 37th place at the moment as many mushers who came in to McGrath last night after Trent choose to continue on. 

Couple of interesting items

* Trent's 10.42 mph trip from from Nikolai to McGrath was as fast as anyone in the field, including front runners Martin Buser and Lance Mackay.   Trent's team can go fast on the run cycles. 

* The weather has been "balmy" and sunny.  Bright blue skies and 20's in the day and 0's and below at night have been ideal conditions for travel.   This is supposed to be the case for the next few days in the Central Range area.   Will the Yukon be as kind?

* It looks like everyone is positioning and taking their 24 hour mandatory rest.   The top 20 teams all arrived in Takotna between 10:00 last night and 2:00 this morning.   Takotna is a quick 18 miles from McGrath.  I just now see  on Iditarod Insider GPS Tracker, that Trent has pulled out of McGrath so he must not plan on taking his 24 hour rest at this point.  He will likely zoom through Taktona and probably be high on the leader board for the next day while the top teams are on 24 hour rest.   Maybe he goes all the way to Iditarod in the next day to take his 24 hour rest?