Mission Accomplished !!!!!!

Liz completed the race on Monday, March 17th at 10:51am. It was a thrilling moment!! Peggy and I were at the Iditarod HQ and Peggy asked if they had a spotter out on the trail to let us know when she was 20 minutes out from the finish. They didn't have one out and it was 10:30am. We estimated she would be coming in around 11am. So one of the volunteers said "Lets get in the van and I'll drive out to the end of town!" We jumped in the van and drove 3 miles out and just then suddenly we saw Liz and team driving out on the ice of the Bering Sea. What a thrill!!! The volunteer, who had been a trail spotter for many past Iditarods, remarked that the team was really moving. When the team reached a point where the trail is parallel to the road, we drove along side and clocked the team at 12 mph. They were really truckin!!!! The volunteer dialed a number, handed me the phone and said when someone answers, tell them Liz is at the Roadhouse, get the checker to the finish line and get folks moving quickly as Liz would finish in 5 minutes.

She let us take a few pictures and then she said we had to get back to town fast!
So we zoomed into town. As we got near the Finish Line they sounded the siren which meant Liz was 5 minutes out. It gave us goose bumps. We jumped out of the van and situated ourselves under the burled arch to await the team's arrival. Just a few minutes later there they were proceeding down Front Street to the finish line. As the team approached people started cheering and they announced Liz's arrival time. I ran to the head of the team to ensure they stopped at the end of the chute and then hugged and kissed each dog. They looked terrific!!! Liz was jubliant and all smiles. After Liz, congratulated her dogs and checked in with the race officials, I finally got to go up and give her a big congratulatory hug. Then we took off the dogs booties and gave a few out as souvenirs to the school kids at the Finish Line. Tourists asked to pose for pictures with the dogs and Liz. Crimp was a real ham laying down amidst all the comotion--he needed a quick 40 winks! Finally, after many pictures and celebration, we moved the team to the dog yard and got them situated at a temporary site at the edge of the yard. We would have to wait later that afternoon to move them to the areas where we could attach them to lines where they could rest comfortably in dog crates filled with straw. This is where they would stay until flown back to Anchorage. I fed the dogs and then took Liz back to our host family's home where she could shower and rest. Then Richard, the husband of our host family, took me back to the dog yard on the four wheeler and he helped me assemble crates, move the dogs to their spots and spread straw for them. We got back to the house at 4:30pm and then went out to eat. Liz needed a meal in her. We had a huge pizza and returned to the house. Richard and I went back at 7pm to feed the dogs. Just as we finished (close to 8:30pm) the siren sounded the impending arrival of the last musher. We stopped at the Finish Line to watch her come in and extinguish the lantern and receive the Red Lantern trophy for last place. It was quite a moving moment and lots of folks had tears in their eyes. As the sun set over Nome, I thought about how fortunate I was to see the start of the race in Anchorage, and the official end of the race in Nome. What an amazing experience!

When I got back to the house at 9pm, Liz had already been sleeping a few hours and was out cold. At dinner she had talked a little bit about how satisfying and enjoyable her race experience had been. I'm sure she will be filling you in on this blog with her thoughts, experiences and impressions of participating in "The Last Great Race on Earth"!

I will also try and post some pictures soon of her and the team approaching Nome and the actual crossing of the finish line.

So long from Nome!
Elaine