As shown in the movie, more teams were added to the relay mid-run, and so Seppala ended up traveling a total of 261 miles (170 miles to pick up the serum and 91 miles with the serum)-still an enormous distance. In reality, the winds were in a “rare state of calm,” and Seppala had a crowd to cheer on the beginning of his journey to Nulato-halfway to Nome, but still a six-day journey encompassing a total of 630 miles. In the movie, Seppala sets out for Nenana in the midst of a blizzard. Seppala is initially unmoved, but after peeking into the windows of the town hospital and seeing children crying and coughing, he is convinced he must go, despite the misgivings of his wife. The other half of the meeting is not-so-subtle pressure on Seppala to ride to Nenana to pick up the serum. Maynard is all in favor of getting the diphtheria antitoxin flown in by airplane, weather notwithstanding. Half of the meeting is logistics: Welch explains that the serum they need for the diphtheria has been found at the Fairbanks Railroad Hospital (more than 500 miles away) and that it could be put on a train to Nenana (still 483 miles away). Mayor George Maynard (Christopher Heyerdahl), who is also the publisher of local newspaper the Nome Nugget, and the town doctor, Curtis Welch (Richard Dormer), gather the important-looking men of the town in a saloon. At the start of Togo, Seppala arrives in town after a run to find that a diphtheria outbreak has already claimed the lives of five children.
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