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Cabela's 2007 Race Coverage

King begins to gather speed by Jon Little NIKOLAI, Alaska, 4:30 p.m., March 6, 2007 — The reigning Iditarod champion was half mystified, half satisfied, very relieved and all business Jeff King works on his sled after arriving in Nikolai. Purchase this photo by Jon Little. as he tended his dogs and made minor repairs to his sled on the sunny banks of the Kuskokwim River. One thing was certain: Jeff King still had 16 dogs under the hood and posted one of the fastest run times over the Farewell Burn. One of his competitors, Ed Iten of Kotzebue, nodded King's way and said the 2006 champion appeared to be accelerating at this point. (Iten had a nice team here and was very satisfied with his own race as well. At 20 below and breezy, and bouncing over rough tundra, it was just like home.) First, the mystified part. King was blown away that so many teams were several hours ahead of him, saying he was running as fast as he felt was safe for the dogs at this point, under these conditions. "They're going faster and taking less rest," was his summation of the competition, namely Martin Buser and Lance Mackey. (Buser also has been posting significantly faster run times than anyone else. He has a commanding lead.) Refusing to go too fast, King said he's treating the trail "as if it were daggers, not a gift," meaning he was keeping his pace measured and making sure his dogs were OK rather than risk going too fast. King's satisfaction was with his team. "They ate like pigs," he declared, noting that good eaters are generally not his strong suit. His team has eaten well all the way up the trail so far, he said. That only bodes well for him as he works to make his way to the front of the race in the days to come. He said he was on precisely the pace he wanted to be at this point, if not for a detour up at Rainy Pass that messed up many a dog team last night. Robert Sørlie removes booties from his dogs after arriving at Nikolai. Purchase this photo by Jon Little. His relief? That came a day ago when he passed through the same rough section of trail that ended the race for Doug Swingley and DeeDee Jonrowe – a tilted icy glaciation that sent other sleds skittering full speed into a stand of trees. He had a "bad spill" there, tipping and crashing, but the team stopped when he was only inches from a big tree. King broke his brush bow, which he spent about a half hour working to shore up before taking a siesta at Nikolai. "It's not a structural issue," he said. While King worked on his sled, the 2005 champion, Robert Sørlie, pulled in. After he had cared for his dogs, a smiling Sørlie was asked how the race was going. He pulled a laminated sheet of paper out of his sled bag and said it was his schedule, and he indicated he was right on that schedule. Sørlie had to pack into Nikolai a dog named "Axle," one of his biggest dogs. He said Axle refused to run somewhere through the Burn and preferred riding in the basket, which is where the dog was when he pulled in. No doubt, Axle would be staying behind here. Otherwise, there were a lot of good-looking teams all pulling in here within minutes of each other at roughly 1 to 2 p.m. Among them was Mitch Seavey, whose dogs looked great, even if he had some sled issues. The aluminum bracket holding his seat together was tearing in a couple of places. Iten was very satisfied and had a full string of 16. John Baker was on cruise control, very smooth. And in the mix this year was Jim Lanier, whose team of all-white dogs was particularly happy, showing no outward signs of annoyance after a 10-hour jog over from Rohn.