March 10: Halfway Point At Iditarod
The checkpoint closest to the middle of the race on odd-numbered years is the trail's namesake, the historic gold rush ghost town of Iditarod (meaning "far distant place").
Iditarod: Sørlie wins the Dorothy G. Page Halfway Award and US$ $4,000 in gold nuggets when he arrives at Iditarod on March 10 at 1:41 am.pdf While the Halfway Award is sometimes considered a jinx, Sørlie also won it before his victory in 2003. He was followed by Brooks an hour later, then Buser. Paul Gebhardt becomes the first musher to depart the midpoint at 5:59 pm. The top 10 stretched over 14 hours, and the top 30 over 24 hours.
Standings through the Interior can be deceptive because all mushers are required to take one mandatory 24-hour layover during the race, usually at Takotna, McGrath, or Iditarod. The differential in starting times is adjusted during this period, and most of the racers were on a level playing field after Iditarod.
Read more about this topic: 2005 Iditarod
Famous quotes containing the words march, halfway and/or point:
““Then you should say what you mean,” the March Hare went on.
“I do,” Alice hastily replied; “at least—at least I mean what I say—that’s the same thing, you know.” “Not the same thing a bit!” said the Hatter. “Why you might just as well say that ‘I see what I eat’ is the same thing as ‘I eat what I see’!””
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)
“I feel so useless. Here I am nearly halfway through life, and what have I done?... I have nothing to show for all my years.”
—Philip Dunne (1908–1992)
“I philosophize from the vantage point only of our own
provincial conceptual scheme and scientific epoch, true; but I know no better.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)