Evening update from McGrath Day 5

Temp is 18 degrees in McGrath this evening. 

Scott Hoberg, the athlete who led the foot division for most of the race has finally run out of steam was passed by Dave Johnston and rookie Gavin Woody about 24 miles from McGrath. Chet, the first skier to finish this year, reported that they traveled together quite a bit and that they pushed from Puntilla to Nikolai, 135 miles, without rest or sleep.  After wondering up and down the trail, he ended up stopping to sleep. Defending champ and record holder, David Johnston, from Willow, Alaska, and rookie Gavin Woody, from Washington, passed him up and they are only 8 miles from the finish now. We expect them to finish tonight. 

We had another scratch today, Jason Boon.

New arrivals in McGrath tonight are rookie Steve Cannon and Tab Ballantine finishing in McGrath and RD Kyle Durand and Adam Erritzoe heading to Nome this year.

We are waiting for Troy Szcurkowski to arrive and for the first runners David and Gavin.

Jay Petervary and Phil Hofstetter, both thousand mile competitors were in Ophir 41 miles north of McGrath this evening.