Iditarod 36

Have you been hearing names like... Lance Mackey, Jeff King, Martin Buser, DeeDee Jonrowe ... and 92 others?

Maybe you've heard names like Kaltag, Shaktoolik, Unalakleet, White Mountain ... and of course, Nome.
We've been following what is known as The Last Great Race ... or The Iditarod!

In Room 8, each student drew the names of 3 different mushers. These were the ones they have tracked throughout the race. If one of their mushers 'scratched' (stopped the race for whatever reason), then they got to choose another musher. This year there were 96 mushers who started the race. We've learned to read and convert military time to our standard way of telling time and vice versa. We've been graphing the dogs of our mushers - watching as some of them 'dropped' dogs along the way. We've looked at strategies ... tried to figure out the why's of some of the data on the 'updates'.
When the mushers come down Front Street in Nome, someone comes out (the guy in the red jacket) to help guide the dogs and musher through the hundreds or thousands of people who are there to congratulate the mushers. ** Postscript...this is NOT Lance Mackey coming into Nome... it's Zack Steer and - can't remember who else. Here's Lance Mackey coming in:

Today, Lance Mackey (Kyle W's guy!) came in as the winner. Jeff King (Mae's guy) came in second. These two have been in a close race.
Every winner has their official photo taken with their lead dog. I'm not sure if this is Lance Mackey's official... because I thought he came in with 2 lead dogs. This is a 'bootie' worn by one of Robert Buntzen's dogs ... probably in 1996. A student I had that year went to Alaska after we had studied the Iditarod. He went to visit his aunt in Anchorage, who just happened to know Robert Buntzen. Michael, my student, met Robert, told him how we had studied the race, and a few weeks later, a package arrived filled with about 75 booties! You can see where his dog wore a hole in this one. While studying the Iditarod, we are also reading Woodsong, by Gary Paulsen. It is EXCELLENT...and sometimes I read little excerpts fromWinterdance. I call this book the 'adult version of Woodsong.' Gary Paulsen ran and finished the race - I think it was the 1995 Iditarod. Both of these books are of that race.

Ask your Room 8er about the race and their mushers, but you better be sitting down and be ready to listen. They will have a lot to tell you!