Thomas Waerner wasted no time crossing the finish line in Nome, winning the Iditarod Trail Dog Sled Race at 12:37 a.m. on March 18. Six hours later, Mitch Seavey’s team arrived at 6:16 a.m. Jessie Royer was next in line to Nome.
In all, there are 14 teams making their way into Nome from White Mountain Wednesday morning, including Pete Kaiser’s team. The Bethel musher left the White Mountain checkpoint at 3:17 a.m. He is running with nine dogs in position 14.
At about the same time that Kaiser was leaving White Mountain, Jessica Klejka was coming into Elim with 10 dogs in harness. The Iditarod tracker has her in position 25. This year's race did not go the way Kaiser had hoped.
“It’s almost funny how many things have gone wrong,” he said.
In an interview on the trail, Kaiser took time to talk about the run.
“Yeah, it’s been a kind of rollercoaster race. That’s all we’re thinking about right now,” he said.
KNOM Reporter Emily Hofstaedter's entire interview with Kaiser is below.