2023 Iron Dog - Day 4 Update
Weather conditions for racers along the Red Dog loop were about as good as you could hope for. Temperatures ranged between 4 above to 17 below zero with winds almost non-existent measured at just 2-9 knots between Koyuk and Noorvik.
The release from the Kotzebue’s mandatory hold & release puts the first five teams out on their actual split times but will not exceed 30 min apart with the remaining field departing in splits not to exceed 5 minutes apart. This minimizes volunteer exposure to weather conditions, and also artificially tightens the pack as they race an additional 439 miles toward Nome.
Regarding weather closer toward Nome along the western coast, racers can expect balmy temps up into the mid 20's, fairly light 10-20mph winds and some scattered flurries. That said, there is a weather advisory for the area stating a storm could be moving across the Bering Sea toward the race trail for the majority of Tuesday and Wednesday. Racers may get lucky, however, waiting most of that weather in Nome on a mandatory 24 hour rest and repair layover.
After scores of posts, comments, updates, and information regarding all of the issues that we compiled to include for the 10 teams that have scratched from this years race, the top half of the leaderboard has....literally nothing to report. I'm either not able to find anything, or its just not there. If its the latter, these guys are just running an incredibly clean race after 1,482 miles. Looking for information on Teams 7, 14, 39, 2, 23, and 49 turned up no additional juicy details for race fans. The only real information to glean is split times (they're all some semblance of...you guessed it...fast), fueling station photos, and well-wishers in the comments section. If you're a race team, I suppose this is exactly how you want things to be shaping up.
By the time of this reporting most of the field will be safely into the Nome garage where they will start their layover. If I were betting I'd be pretty certain that despite how clean these runs have seemed to the outside perspective, there is likely several instances of racers fighting an array of potential issues that they know they can rectify during their repair time in a warm garage where parts are available and they can even get a hand from a generous opposing team as well.
This race is a little north of halfway completed and the race back toward Big Lake is where some teams may decide to really turn up the heat and see if they can reel in these front-runners.
