Iditarod 41

I am completely and totally immersed in a race taking place thousands of miles away.  I wake up each morning and eagerly go to my ipad and read about the happenings of the night (day for them) before.  It's Iditarod time again.

The Iditarod is an approximately 1100 mile dog sled race over the snow covered and frozen landscape of Alaska.  The race itself was the dream child of a group of mushers (dog sledders) who wanted to keep the art of running dog teams alive.  They dreamed up the idea of a race commemorating the heroic 1925 dog sled run from Nenana to Nome to deliver diphtheria serum, which saved hundreds of lives.  This year is the 41st running of the Iditarod.

Why is it so fascinating?  Well, maybe because these mushers are braving nature on its own terms, no quarter given.  No one knows when they start the race, which usually takes about 11-12 days or two weeks, what Mother Nature will throw against them.  They may prepare for cold and face melting temperatures (like this year). They may endure blizzards and 40 below temperatures (like last year).  Or it may be a combination of both.  Also, it is truly a non-discriminatory test.  Those who run it may be men or women, old, middle or young.  They will most certainly be fit athletes but age, sex, and size won't matter as much as determination and strategy.  The race will go to the one who has the best dog team,  planned the best, developed the best plan of action, and is luckiest. 

At approximately the half way point in the race, the top runners are a prime example.  The leader at this moment, and it can change in a flash, is Lance Mackey, a four time winner at the age of 42.  In second place, is  Sonny Linder at 63, third is Jeff King at 57.  Jeff has also won the Iditarod four times.  Fourth place is Martin Buser, 55, who has won four times and finished 29 times.  Fifth is Jason Mackey, 41, Lance's brother.  Sixth, is Jim Lanier, 73.  Seventh is Aaron Burmeister, 36.  Mitch Seavy is eighth and is 53.  A point to note is that Dallas Seavy, Mitch's son won last year at age 24, and is currently in fifteenth position. 

Ally Zirkle, 43, was second in last years race and is currently in ninth position.  DeeDee Jonrowe, 59,  currently 14th, has placed in the top 10 finishers 15 times.  There are about 14 other women also competing.

It's nice to know sometimes being older is an advantage.  It's also good to know that the men and women can compete equally.

The race itself is well organized with checkpoints where the mushers and dogs can get rest and some food.  There are two mandatory 8 hour rests and one 24 hour.  Each musher has to carry: a sleeping bag, ax, snowshoes, ITC (Iditarod Trail Committee) promotional material, 8 booties per dog, a cooker to boil at least 3 gallons of water (for the dogs and dog food), a vet notebook that is checked at each checkpoint, fuel to heat the cooker, a cable to tie out the dogs, harness, and extra emergency dog food in addition to the regular food.  You may have noticed most of it is for the care and safety of the dogs.  The musher is supposed to take care of himself, however, with every ounce affecting speed and time, they pack light.

The dogs are the focus of extreme care.  Each musher must start with a maximum of 16 dogs and he has to finish with at least 6.  Along the trail if a dog becomes tired, ill, injured or just doesn't seem to be enjoying the run, he may be "dropped off" at one of the checkpoints to be returned to headquarters.  Veterinarians are at each checkpoint to monitor the dogs health and also to handle any problems that may develop.  They have also been called on to treat a few mushers over the years.

One of the most interesting rules concerns the problem of 'edible big game', (moose, caribou and buffalo), killed on the trail in defense of life or property (yours or the dogs). The musher must stop immediately and gut the animal.  He then has to report it at the next checkpoint so the meat can be claimed and processed.  To keep it fair, the following teams must help gut the animal when possible and no team may pass until the gutting is finished and the original musher has proceeded down the trail.  Waste not want not.

This is not an idle rule.  One Alaskan said that a moose is probably one of the most dangerous animals in Alaska.  They are irritable and unpredictable and BIG.  They will often use the trail made by the mushers since the walking is easier on the packed surface.  When a musher sees a moose in the trail he will stop and wait for the moose to decide to move on.  Most of the time they will leave the trail and wander off, but they have been known to decide to fight.  Several years ago, a musher had a moose wade into her dog team and begin to attack and kick her dogs.  She was able to shoot the moose but not before several of her dogs were injured. 

More to come as the Iditarod progresses.