Jessica Klejka fends off surging Cain Carter
Jessica Klejka of Bethel survived a late surge by Lance Mackey’s step-son, Cain Carter, to win the 2008 Jr. Iditarod by a mere 2 seconds, or the length of a dog team.
“His dogs were next to my feet at the finish line,” said a breathless Klejka, 17, who crossed the finish line in Willow at 8:49:00 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 24, Alaska time. Carter was clocked in at 8:49:02 a.m. after 140 miles of racing.
“I was close, that’s for sure,” the 16-year-old said shortly after the race. “This was the funnest year I’ve had, and the best finish. I’ve finished 14th and 13th, and now second. I’m pretty happy with myself, and my dogs. All of them looked good, they’re all doing good.”
Mackey will be happy to hear that. Those dogs are supposed to be the core of Mackey’s Iditarod team when he takes off from the same location, Willow, in exactly a week. Carter said he relied on Zena and a two-year-old named Maple to run lead.
Klejka comes from a dog mushing family in Bethel, where her father is a surgeon at the city’s hospital. She entered the always tough Kuskokwim 300 this year, but was forced to scratch when wind and warm temperatures turned the river trail to a series of cold, slushy ponds about three feet deep. She said about the only similarities in these two races was warm temperatures.
A week of daytime temperatures well above freezing forced the race to be rerouted away from Knik Lake, which had open water on its surface, to Willow. It shortened the race by about 10 miles. Mushers reported good, fast trail as nighttime temperatures settled back into a more suitable range for the dogs.
Carter was the first musher to reach the halfway point of Yentna, but Klejka, who started 20th, posted a faster run time, which made her the first to leave for the 70-mile sprint back to Willow once they’d adjusted for the two-minute starting intervals. Klejka said she worried the whole time that someone might catch up to her, but when she looked back in a long stretch of the Susitna River and saw no dog team, she gained confidence that she might win. Then she had to stop and pack a tired dog and the team bogged down going up some hills just a few miles from the finish, and Carter came roaring up.
Carter was actually the fourth out of the gate on the way out of Yentna. He said he quickly caught and passed Wade Marrs but took a long time to reel in Quinn Iten. Once he caught sight of Klejka, he redoubled his efforts and the team accelerated. From there, it was an exhilarating sprint to the finish. The two mushers pumped their legs and whistled for their dogs to dig a little deeper.
Iten, son of Iditarod contender Ed Iten, was only three minutes behind the leaders to claim third. Marrs crossed the finish line at 9:05 a.m. in fourth. And Ava Linder, daughter of Yukon Quest winner and Iditarod racer, Sonny Lindner, was fifth at 9:21 a.m. (Complete standings can be found at www.jriditarod.com/racecurrent.php).