NOME — Thursday was a day of meetings at the Iditarod finish line.
Mothers and met their sons, a husband met his wife and musher met musher in a race down Front Street.
First from the Interior under the burled arch Thursday was Thomas Lesatz, a 29-year-old born in Illinois and who now calls Two Rivers home. He arrived at 2:41 a.m. after 10 days, 11 hours and 41 minutes on the trail, good enough for 29th and the $2,100 that goes with the second-to-last paying position.
Lesatz was using his Iditarod campaign to raise awareness and funding for fighting neurofibromatosis, an inherited nervous disease that causes tumors to develop on the nerves of those who have the disease. Lesatz was diagnosed with the disorder at 5, but it hasn’t stopped his mushing, which began in 2000.
He was greeted by his parents, Dick and Kathy Lesatz, who arranged a junk food smorgasbord. “We had shakes and pizza piled up,” Dick said. “He was tired. We ate with him, then he crashed.”
Lesatz was preceded across the line by Bethel’s Peter Kaiser, a rookie who finished in 10 days, 11 hours and 13 minutes. The 22-year-old Kaiser works on a tug boat and ran the hometown Kuskokwim 300 race, among others, as a qualifier.
The wind picked up speed as the day went on, but temperatures remained comparatively mild, peaking at about 30 degrees amid clear sunshine.
The most dramatic meeting of the day took place about 12:30 p.m., as Unalakleet musher Middie Johnson and Willow’s Matt Hayashida traded the lead for 33rd position between Safety and the finish line before racing together down Front Street to the burled arch.
“He was just running me down the whole way,” Johnson said. "He started 15-20 minutes behind me ... it was fun. That’s the racing part of it, I guess.”
Both mushers finished outside the money, but that made the close finish no less dramatic.
KNOM-FM general manager and race spotter Ric Schmidt described the way the two traded the lead on the ice outside Nome: “(Middie) would get a bit tangled up, then he would stop, get them straightened out, and Matt would go by him. And I was thinking, ‘He had to stop a couple of times, that’s too bad. He had the lead by about a minute or two.’” And then Hayashida’s dogs got tangled up and they were so cordial. Middie pulled all the way over and around so he didn’t disturb anything, and I thought something could happen on Front Street.”
Despite the close finish, Hayashida wasn’t too disappointed. “I was just happy to be there,” he said. “It’s not like we’re racing for money or anything like that. I’m actually glad that he won. His message has so much more purpose than mine that I think it’s really great. I think he’s an inspiration to all the communities here and an inspiration to me, too. It was a pleasure traveling with him.”
Johnson’s goal during the race was to encourage Native youths to take up dog mushing as a way to teach responsibility. “I encourage younger guys to get involved with dog mushing; there’s a lot to learn from it,” he said.
Johnson also met a large number of fans rooting specifically for him. Nome resident Hannah Katongan was waving a pro-Middie sign at the finish line. “I grew up in Unalakleet, and he’s been a well-known person,” she said. “It’s been a long time since we’ve had a Unalakleet musher, so it’s been very exciting to have the mayor running.”
Iditarod finisher Sven Haltmann also was at the finish line, but just as a fan this time around. “I’m really good friends with Matt ... when I heard he was 2 miles out, we hustled out to congratulate him,” he said.
He wasn’t disappointed by Matt’s close finish either. “Both guys battling it out and hugging each other at the end. That’s what it’s all about: friendship instead of competition. It’s good to see.”
About two hours after the close finish, Allen Moore of Two Rivers crossed beneath the burled arch. He finished at 2:25 p.m., and his time of 10 days, 23 hours and 25 minutes put him in 35th place.
He was met at the finish line by wife Aliy Zirkle, who had finished the Iditarod 27 hours before.
“Allen, for a few years, he used to fly to Nome and twiddle his thumbs and watch as I ran down the trail,” she said. “He’s not good at watching. So we decided that, if possible, we could try to put a young team in. He would do a different strategy altogether. He would try to get as many to the finish line as possible so they could compete the next year. It’s really emotional, actually.”
Moore finished with 12 dogs and said before the race that it would be a “graduation exercise” for the team, which was mostly 2-year-olds and yearlings. When asked if they all passed that test, he had a one-word answer: “Definitely.”
“One of them, Beamer, he was a yearling last year and made it to the coast. I almost don’t consider him a 2-year-old,” Moore said. "He seems like an adult. They’re going to be great for next year.”
Some spectators wondered if having a husband and wife running simultaneously might cause problems. When asked on the trail, Zirkle joked that she wasn’t looking forward to seeing Moore while racing.
“He’s just a distraction,” she said. When asked about it at the finish line, Moore joked, “That’s my line!”
“I know she thinks of me when she hits a hard part of the trail. She tries to do some kind of telepathy, telling me to watch out. It’s hard to stay focused when you’re in the lead, but she does pretty well at it.”
Kotzebue musher and rookie Quinn Iten, 18, was the final Interior musher to cross the finish line Thursday. Iten, who will attend UAF this fall, finished 38th in 11 days, 5 hours and 23 minutes about 8:20 p.m.
With a tired expression on his face, he said, “Anyone who does (this) more than once is kinda crazy.”
Hahaha; I was thinking the exact same thing!