Most people outside of Alaska are probably not aware of a major international winter sporting event involving hundreds of athletes and spanning over a week. No, we are not talking about the Winter Olympics. These athletes are among the most hearty in the world. During the 1,000+ mile race across the frozen tundra of Alaska, most of them sleep almost naked in the snow!
Did we mention that most of the athletes in this race are dogs? Of course we are talking about the 38th Annual Iditarod, a 1,049 mile dogsled race from Anchorage to Nome.
We had the opportunity to go to the Ceremonial Start of the 2010 Iditarod race. They trucked in tons of snow to make Anchorage's 4th Ave. sled-friendly. It was a blast watching these dogs. They just wanted to run, run, run! In fact, they had to have an additional sled in tow to prevent them from running too fast in this urban setting. 
There were 71 dog-teams and mushers at the beginning of the race. They started 2 minutes apart from each other to prevent a dog jam in Anchorage. Each of the teams started with 12 dogs for the first leg of the race (Anchorage to Willow). At Willow, where the re-start of the race occurs, they were allowed to add 4 more dogs for a total of 16.
Video we took from the Ceremonial Start
Here is a clip we found that will help you experience the sights and sounds of the Iditarod race: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er-KuI0Zi3s
Often by the time they reach Nome, they will have fewer dogs than this due to injury or dog fatigue.
This year's winner was Lance Mackey who finished the race in 8 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes and 9 seconds. Mackey made history by being the first dog musher to win four straight Iditarod races. He is also a survivor. In 2001 he beat throat cancer. Hugh Neff, a fellow musher said the following about Mackey, "He could take your dogs and beat his team with your dogs. That's how good of a musher he is."
Each musher has obstacles they have to overcome during the Iditarod. One of Mackey's issues was feeding his dogs. One dog typically consumes 10,000 - 14,000 calories per day during the Iditarod. Several of Mackey's food drop bags for the dogs contained red meat that had thawed out and spoiled. As a result Mackey was limited in what he could feed his dogs. Nevertheless, he persevered towards the finish! Near the end of the race, prior to reaching Nome, Mackey stopped (as is his tradition) to individually thank each of his beloved dogs.
IDITAROD TRAIL SONG!
Did you know that there is a song about the Iditarod sung by our wonderful state balladeer, Hobo JIm? Click on the link to hear the song and see footage of the 2008 Iditarod.
REFERENCES USED & LINKS TO RESEARCH THE IDITAROD:
How fun!! I've always wanted to see one of these events!!
ReplyDeletei'm so glad you got to do this! i love that we got to play with the dogs when we were there, but you're at the REAL EVENT!
ReplyDeleteWe feel like we were there with you.
ReplyDeleteWoof!