Iditarod 2013 Poem

My first Iditarod poem of the year. (Hopefully not my only one. I'm having a hard time getting inspired this year)

Iditarod 2013

The snow is blowing in my Nebraska home

I’m cooped inside with a gimpy knee

But never fear – I’m not alone

The Iditabuds are here with me.

I sit and watch the lead change hands

It’s Martin—It’s Aliy—It’s Mitch this time

It’s so confusing for us fans

No pattern, no clue, no reason or rhyme

It makes an exciting last great race

When we don’t know what will happen next

Can we keep up this frenzied pace

Of following those marks on the GPS?

Review of "The Cruelest Miles" by Gay and Laney Salilsbury

In 1925 a diphtheria epidemic struck the town of Nome, Alaska. The serum that the town's only doctor had requested had not arrived on the fall ship that year, and so the lives of many of Nome's children were in danger. The only way to get the life-saving serum to Nome was by a relay of dogsleds. This describes the journey in vivid details. Though it's nonfiction (and historical), it reads like fiction. A good, satisfying read.

Major 2012 Sled Dog Races in Alaska - Mostly Mid-Distance and Long-Distance Dogsled Races

The following are the major sled dog races in Alaska.  Click on the name of each race to go to the website for the race.  See my previous post for a handy chart in pdf form that you can print out.


Sheep Mountain 150 - Dec. 17, 2011

Alaska Excursions 120 - Dec. 17, 2011

Gin Gin 200 -  Dec. 28, 2011

Knik 200  - Jan. 7, 2012

Copper Basin 300 - Jan. 14, 2012

Kuskokwim 300* - Jan. 20, 2012

Northern Lights 300 - Jan. 27, 2012

Don Bowers 200 - Jan. 27, 2012

Tustemena 200 - Jan. 28, 2012

Yukon Quest - Feb. 4, 2012

Fur Rendezvous - Feb. 24, 2012

Junior Iditarod - Feb. 25, 2012

Iditarod - Mar. 3, 2012

Percy DeWolfe  - Mar. 22, 2012

Kobuk 440 - Apr. 12, 2012

*Includes Bogus Creek

2012 Sled Dog Races - A Chart for Following the Races

It's almost time for Sled Dog Racing season!  The first two races start this weekend.  Following the races online adds so much excitement to the long winter days.  I've made a chart for following the major races in Alaska.  This is by no means an exhaustive list; but it includes most of the mid-distance races, the two distance races (Iditarod and Yukon Quest) and the Fur Rondy.  Simply follow this link and print out the pdf.  The chart includes the name of the race, the start date, the website (which you can click to follow) and another blank, which you may use how you wish.  You may use the blank to fill in your favorite musher, the winner, or whatever you wish to remember about the race.

Click here for the chart.

Happy race season!

Blank Verse Poetry: Iditarod 2011

I'm currently developing a poetry curriculum, and I decided to write a unit on blank verse. Blank verse (for those who don't know) is poetry that has meter (or rhythm) but no rhyme. The most common meter used for blank verse is the ubiquitous iambic pentameter. (If you don't know what that is, look it up or buy my curriculum when it comes out.)

Most of Shakespeare's plays were written in blank verse. I was pleased to discover that my favorite poet, Robert Frost, also wrote many of his poems in blank verse. I always thought they were in free verse, but that is not the case. A couple of my favorite poems--Mending Wall and Birches--are classic examples of blank verse. Some of the lines deviate from the meter a bit, but that is typical in blank verse. Whether the poet varied the lines on purpose to break up the monotony or just couldn't fit certain thoughts into the meter is still up for debate.

I decided to try writing some blank verse of my own.  Of course, I wrote about my favorite subject--the Iditarod. Here's my first attempt at blank verse. (Just a word of clarification: the two mushers discussed are named Lance Mackey and John Baker. I used the first name or last name depending on which fit the meter.)


Iditarod 2011

This year it seemed that Lance would win again.
The four-time champ was spoken of by all.
And at the mushers’ start on Willow Lake,
The Mackey fans were confident and proud.

But as the race progressed through ice and snow,
His sixteen dogs soon dwindled down to nine.
The other dogs were taken in a plane,
To meet their master when the race was done.

And as the “ninesters” plodded down the trail,
The fans were hoping desperately still
That through some magic that the champ possessed
The team would win and make them proud again.

But in the end a native man named John,
A quiet musher, humble and serene,
Inupiaq by tribe from Kotzebue,
Would win the Last Great Race in record time.

The native dancers at the finish line,
The drumbeats pounding out the victory march,
The cheering fans that crowded round the chute
Brought tears to people all around the world.

What of the Mackey fans that were so sure
Their favorite would win the race this year?
The all agreed that seeing Baker win
Was just as satisfying after all.

Books about the Iditarod and Dogsledding

Like many mushing fans, I love to read books about sled dog racing. My favorite shelf on my bookshelf is the one with my mushing books. Here are some more of my favorite Iditarod books:

Father of the Iditarod - The Joe Redington Story by Lew Freedman. To be a true fan, you need to know how the Great Race started. This is the story of Joe Redington, his move to Alaska, his mushing career, and his dream to start a race across Alaska. Learn the challenges he faced and what the early days of the race was like. And discover other adventures that Joe enjoyed, such as mushing up Mount McKinley.

Iditarod Classics and More Iditarod Classics, both by Lew Freedman. These two books give short snippets about individual mushers and the adventures they faced. If you’ve been a fan a long time, the books will bring back memories of past mushers. If you’re a new fan, they’ll introduce you to the fascinating history of the race.

Iditarod Dreams: A Year in the Life of Alaskan Sled Dog Racer DeeDee Jonroweby Lew Freedman and Dee Dee Jonrowe. Dee Dee Jonrowe is a perennial favorite. In this book, Dee Dee shares how she started racing and gives you a glimpse into a year of her life, including training, her participation in a European race called the Alpirod, and finishing with the 1994 Iditarod. This book is a bit outdated, but it still gives a fresh look into an inspiring woman.

Backstage Iditarodby June Price. This book is a must for all fans. If you’re planning on coming to the race start, it gives you a preview of what to expect. If you just wish you were coming to the race start, it gives you an opportunity to experience it vicariously. June Price is a die-hard fan herself, and she shares from her personal experience.

Iditarod Fact Book: A Complete Guide to the Last Great Race 2nd Editionedited by Tricia Brown. This book is more of a reference book, though die-hard fans will read it from cover to cover. It starts with a year-by-year history of the race through 2006, and proceeds to facts about the race today, the checkpoints, dogs and training, gear and mushing terms and unforgettable people. An excellent reference to keep next to your computer while following the race.

Cold Hands, Warm Heart: Alaskan Adventures of an Iditarod Championby Jeff King (with Joe Runyan). Although written in first person, this isn’t a biography per se. It’s a series of stand-alone chapters, little vignettes from the life of a musher. It’s well written and very enjoyable, even if you’re not a mushing fan. “Breath of Life” tells the story of a dog who was miraculously revived by a fellow musher during the Yukon Quest. “Chowhound” is about Peg, a dog with an amazing appetite who ate a highway flare. My favorite chapter, “The Colonel,” tells about a Halloween visit from Norm Vaughan.

Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way: Unconventional Sled Dog Secrets of an Alaskan Iditarod Champion, Vol. 1by Mitch Seavey. This is a training manual, of sorts, written for dog mushers. What makes this story appealing for fans is that we can hear Mitch’s voice in the writing. There’s no editor here. It’s purely Mitch, with his dry wit and blunt honesty. Parts may find you laughing out loud. And you’ll learn a lot about mushing too, which will make you a very savvy fan.

The Lance Mackey Storyby Lance Mackey (with Joe Runyan). No list of mushing books would be complete without the inspiring story of Lance Mackey, who overcame addiction, poverty and cancer to become one of the best mushers in the history of the race. It’s a very well-written read and one that you won’t be able to put down.

Graveyard of Dreams- Dashed Hopes and Shattered Aspirations Along Alaska's Iditarod Trail by Craig Medved. The Iditarod is not just about the winners or even the front runners. It’s about all the mushers who attempt this great adventure. Graveyard of Dreams tells the story of several back of the pack mushers in the 2010 Iditarod, including some who made it to Front Street and some who did not. Relive the tragic stories of those who had to scratch or were withdrawn, as well as those who managed to finish.

What about you? What are some of your favorite books about the Iditarod or mushing? Leave a comment and share your favorites.

Dawson Dolly Singing my Song

Remember my song "16 dogs"? A couple years ago, the girls and I rewrote the lyrics to Tennessee Ernie Ford's classic song, "16 Tons." We changed it to "16 Dogs." The topic? The Iditarod, of course. You can read the original version and listen to the girls singing here.

A few months ago I shared the lyrics with "Dawson Dolly," an Alaskan entertainer I met on Facebook. I encouraged her to sing the song wherever she wanted. Together we made history. She's a good friend of musher Hugh Neff. When he left the Dawson City Checkpoint. Dolly sent him off with my song. (She changed the lyrics a bit to fit with the Yukon Quest.) It was an instant YouTube phenomenon. Here it is:

Handy Chart for Following the Major Sled Dog Races in Alaska

Photo by Frank Kovlachek

It's not just about the Iditarod. Sled dog races occur nearly every weekend from December through early April in Alaska. I've created a chart to keep track of the major races. Feel free to print out the chart and use it to record the winners of the major races, such as the Kuskokwim 300, the Copper Basin 300, the Kobuk 440, the Yukon Quest, and of course, the Iditarod.

Click here for the chart.

For more about the races, read my article, Alaska Sled Dog Races: Sprint, Mid-Distance & Long-Distance Races.

Removing the Burled Arch from the Iditarod Finish Line in Nome, Alaska

It's a sad day for Iditarod fans when the Burled Arch in Nome, Alaska, comes down. It signals the end of a race for nearly another year. Through the wonders of the internet, we can watch this process. In spite of our sorrow, it's interesting watching the huge machines remove the snow and cart away the famous Burled Arch that marks the finish of "The Last Great Race on Earth."

This year, I captured a series of shots on the Nome Cam and asked my husband to record some sad music to go with it. I present a montage of Front Street in Nome Alaska starting the day after the Iditarod finish:

Poem: Those Darn Pink Shingles (Dedicated to the Nome Cam)

This year, through the wonders of the internet, Iditarod fans were able to access a camera on Front Street in Nome, Alaska, to watch the finishers of the race. Not only could we access it, but we could actually steer it. This caused much frustration at times, especially because if we steered it too far, all we saw were pink shingles on a building in Nome.

When a favorite musher was due to finish, the fans would gather in a chatroom to fellowship while we waited. But while we chatted and snacked, often we'd end up yelling at the computer because some incompetent camera operator (who sometimes was yours truly) would turn the camera to face "those darn pink shingles."

So in honor of those shingles, I wrote a poem:

Those Darn Pink Shingles

We’ve got the Nome cam, the gang’s all here,
With plenty of cookies, brownies and beer,
Tea and lemonade, pretzels and Pringles,
But all we can see are those darn pink shingles.

How can I see all the users in chat?
Just click the little man, can you see that?
I don’t have a man, does that mean I’m single?
Oh, no! Now the cam’s on those darn pink shingles.

Look under the arch, see the big mob.
Now gee the camera, that’s a good job.
A musher is coming, I’m starting to tingle.
Aargh! Move the cam off those darn pink shingles.

Look down the street. Is the dog team in sight?
I think I see them. All right! All right!
I can hear the dogs panting, can hear the tags jingle.
But now all I see are those darn pink shingles.

Who’s that leaning against the burled arch?
Is that Lance or Libby or Paul Gebhardt?
Look at the mushers and fans, how they mingle
But now all we see are those darn pink shingles.

A Poem for Pat Moon

Pat Moon has encouraged many people with his story. After riding as an Iditarider in 2006, he decided he would like to race in the Iditarod someday. This goal proved more difficult for Pat, since he had ulcerative colitis, and then was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma, a type of cancer. Still he pressed on, and this year he stood on Fourth Avenue in Anchorage, this time as a musher. Unfortunately, he had to scratch after running into a tree in the infamous Dalzell Gorge.

I always feel a sense of loss when a musher has to scratch, but I was especially sad when I heard about Pat's scratch. So I wrote a poem in his honor:

The Dream
by Marcia Claesson
Dedicated to Pat Moon

A dream took flight on a chilly day
For a young man crouched in a sled
That he would return as a musher one day
With a lead dog at the head.

The dream soared high in the next few years,
But the challenges did too.
Still the man pushed on through his doubts and fears
Till he stood on Fourth Avenue.

The dream that he kept through sickness and pain
Ended far too soon
In a tree-lined gorge with a rough terrain
‘Neath the cold Alaska moon.

But the dream lives on in the young man’s heart
Even with a different tune.
Though he may not stand ‘neath the burled arch,
He’s one tough Chicago Moon.

Iditarod Poem - The Dogs - A Parody on The Bells by Edgar Allen Poe

It's almost time for the Iditarod, and that means I suddenly get inspired to write epic poems about my obsession. Yesterday, after a friend wrote a parody of "The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe, I got inspired to do a parody of Poe's "The Bells." So I present my first full-length Iditarod poem of 2010:

The Dogs
See the start gate with the dogs,
Eager dogs,
With the fans decked out in parkas from their Lands End catalogs.
See the waiting sled dogs jump
And their wagging tails thump
On the icy Willow Lake.
You can tell they’re really pumped,
As their harnesses they shake.
How they tug, tug, tug,
While the musher gives a hug
To each friend and family member
With advice and dialogs.
Oh the dogs, dogs, dogs, dogs,
Dogs, dogs, dogs,
Oh, the barking and the yipping of the dogs.

See the happy, running dogs,
Racing dogs,
Bounding over ice and tundra,
Through the blizzards and the fogs,
And the cold Alaska night.
How they bark out their delight.
Oh, the lovely howling sound,
All in tune,
While the wind blows all around
To the moon,
And the rippling Northern Lights,
A breathtaking Arctic sight,
As they run, run, run,
You can tell they’re having fun,
While the musher poles and jogs.
Oh, the dogs, dogs, dogs, dogs,
Dogs, dogs, dogs,
Oh the running and the pulling of the dogs

See the fans who follow dogs,
Husky dogs,
While they doublecheck the tracker
And the many mushing blogs,
As they click, click, click,
Checking out their top ten picks,
And their eyelids start to droop
After chatting with the group.
There’s the Anchorage Daily News
And the awesome Mushing Loon,
Sled Dog Central and the Nome cam and Backstage Iditarod,
Iditarod Insider and of course Iditablog.
But the BSSD Forum is the best website of all.
Oh the dogs, dogs, dogs, dogs,
Dogs, dogs, dogs,
Oh the rooting and the cheering for the dogs.

See Nome city with the dogs,
Winning dogs,
As they start to run down Front Street while the musher gees and haws.
Ah, the cheering of the crowd
Makes the winning musher proud.
Hear them bark, bark, bark
Underneath the burled arch.
Panting tongues and icy noses.
They just ran across Alaska.
No one did it any faster.
So the happy musher poses,
As they wear the wreath of roses,
Giving love and fond affection to their dogs.
Oh, the dogs, dogs, dogs, dogs,
Dogs, dogs, dogs,
So amazing, so inspiring,
Oh the dogs.

Videos of Martin Buser's Lecture

If you want to see videos of Martin Buser's lecture, click here.

The videos are divided into 10-minute segments, and there are 11 in all. Martin is a very engaging and entertaining speaker, even if you're not into sled dog racing. And after listening to his presentation, I guarantee you WILL be a sled dog fan. Enjoy.

Meeting Martin Buser

Everyone should have the experience once in their lifetime of meeting someone famous they admire. For some it’s a rock star or politician. For me it’s Martin Buser, four time Iditarod-champion who holds the record for the fastest Iditarod at 8 days, 22 hours, 46 minutes and 2 seconds (but who’s counting?) I never dreamed that I’d ever get to meet him in person, even for a few minutes. After all, Alaska is a long ways away. But this week some other fans and I got to spend an entire evening with him in—of all places—Des Moines, Iowa.

Martin was in Des Moines as the keynote speaker for the Public Works Association Snow Removal Conference, and he needed to borrow some huskies to make a grand entrance. One of the Iditabuddies from the bssd forum let him use her huskies, and she also arranged a special fan gathering for the night before. My favorite Idita-hero only three hours away from me! That was a no-brainer. Although I’m not much of a traveler, this was an opportunity I wouldn’t miss for the world.

Part of the fun of a gathering like this is meeting other fans. The Idita-buddies are the best bunch of fans in the world. Right before the meeting I meet three other fans for supper: Cindy, fellow Martin Buser fanatic Diana, and Diana’s husband, Philip. We told the waitress we’d never met each other before, which must have seemed strange to her, since we were talking a mile a minute.

Finally the time we had been waiting for arrived. We walked into the small auditorium and saw Martin Buser “in the flesh.” He noticed our matching Buser Booster T-shirts right away (the best $20 I ever spent), and that got us talking. I thought I’d be starstruck, but he has a way of making everyone feel at home. He spoke for nearly two hours, but it seemed like a few minutes. Afterwards he stayed around and shot the breeze with us fans for a long time, tirelessly signing autographs and posing for pictures. The die-hards stayed until the end. We talked about Switzerland, writing, his family, and of course sled dog racing. His sense of humor was priceless. By the end of the evening, he felt like an old friend.

Truly an unforgettable experience! For more pics, see this link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=91109&id=629661480&l=8717040f6e
And if that wasn’t enough, my picture was even posted on Martin Buser’s blog: http://www.buserdog.com/2009_04_01_archive.html

Click here to return to the main blog page.

Audio of Iditarod Finishers Banquet

The power of the fans! It looked like there was no place to listen to the Iditarod finishers banquet this year, but one of my "Idita-buddies" named Sam, who lives in Unalakleet, Alaska, recorded the banquet from the radio, mailed me the tape, and my hubby made an mp3 recording and put it on-line. You can listen to it by left-clicking on the links. You can download it by right-clicking on the links and clicking on "Save Target as" or "Save Link as." Enjoy:

http://www.oakviewresources.com/misc/IditarodBanquetPart1.mp3
http://www.oakviewresources.com/misc/IditarodBanquetPart2.mp3

NOTE: If you use Explorer, it may take a while for the audio to load. Firefox usually loads faster.

Click here to return to the main blog page.

Sixteen Dogs

This year I didn't get inspired to write many poems or songs for the Iditarod. But I did write one song: "Sixteen Dogs," a parody on Tennessee Ernie Ford's "Sixteen Tons." We even made a family recording, featuring the two girls on vocals and myself on piano. Then my husband added bass guitar and percussion tracks, using the Cakewalk recording studio. Click on the link below to hear the song. If it doesn't work in Explorer, you may need to use Firefox. NOTE: It may talk a while to download the link. (You may also download the mp3, if you wish, by right clicking on the link and clicking on "Save target as" or "save link as.")


http://www.oakviewresources.com/misc/16Dogs.mp3

Here are the lyrics:

Sixteen DogsSome people say a dog is man’s best friend
Well, a husky is made to race to the end
Race to the end and relish the cold.
A back that’s strong and a heart of gold.

CHORUS: You run 16 dogs and what do you get?
A journey through paradise you’ll never forget.
St. Peter don’t you call me, I don’t want to go home.
Till I get to the arch on Front Street in Nome.

He was born one morning when the sun didn’t rise
And the Northern Lights shone high in the skies
He gathered the team and hitched up the sled
And into the darkness together they sped

He was born one morning, it was blizzarding snow
With ice on his lashes and a frostbitten toe
He was raised in the wilderness, far off the grid
He was mushing as a baby with a pint-sized sled.

So if you see ‘em coming you’d really better go‘
Cause a husky knows “hike” but he doesn’t know “whoa.”
The front paws are lightning and the back paws are steel,
And they’ll never stop running till the end of the trail.


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Making Dog Booties

I've joined the "Bootie Brigade." Sled dogs wear booties to protect their feet. But the booties wear out quickly, and a musher might use up to 2500 booties for the Iditarod. The Bootie Brigade is a group of volunteers who sews dog booties and donates them to specific mushers, who sign up in advance. My booties will be going to Kim Darst and Ramey Smyth. It's a labor of love--a way for fans to be involved. It's pretty cool to think that my booties will be going on the trail. A lot of friends have wondered just what these booties are like and how we make them. Here is a step-by-step report.

First we cut the Velcro and Velstretch and put them together. It really helps to have all your supplies at hand before you start sewing.

The booties are made out of Cordura, a special fabric I purchased from http://www.dogbooties.com/ Another volunteer sent me the pattern. I used a pinking shears for the top to keep the bootie from fraying (although it's not much of a concern, because the bootie will wear out before it frays).

Then I sew down the right side of the bootie.

Then I sew on the Velcro and Velstretch.

Last, I sew the left side of the bootie, always making sure the seam allowances are correct.

This is a completed bootie. The Velstretch (the white strip) wraps around the dog's leg and hooks on to the Velcro (The blue strip). The letter "M" stands for Medium.

I made 65 booties in all -- that's enough for one dog team, plus one.

Iditarod Fantasy Photos

I had some time on my hands one day, so at the suggestion of one of my Iditabuddies at the bssd forum, I decided to make some Iditarod Fantasy Photos. I used Printmaster, which is pretty easy to use. Come join me on my fantasy trip to the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race:

Here I am as an Iditarider on Dee Dee Jonrowe's sled. Dee Dee is one of my favorite mushers. Although she has never won the race, she has come in second place twice, and she always runs a competitive race. In everything she does, you can sense her kindness, the love for her dogs, her joyful spirit and her strong Christian faith. She participates in one of the toughest sports, but she's always a lady. A breast cancer survivor, she wears pink for breast cancer awareness.

Every year, people bid for the privilege of riding with a musher for the 11 miles of the race's ceremonial start in Anchorage. Bidding for the 2009 race starts December 1, and it will be interesting to see how high the bids go. However, even if I could afford it, I don't have a chance of being Dee Dee's Iditarider in 2009. That privilege has been purchased in advance of the auction for a "mere" $7500.

A quote from Dee Dee: "I don't want to live safe, I want to live full."

While on my fantasy trip, I met Martin Buser, another one of my favorite mushers. Originally from Switzerland, Martin decided to become a U.S. citizen on 9/11 because "this country is worth fighting for." Martin holds the record for the fastest Iditarod ever (8 days, 22 hours, 46 minutes and 2 seconds, "but who's counting?"), which he raced in 2002, right before being sworn in as a U.S. citizen under the burled arch at the finish line.

Like anyone who is successful, Martin works hard to achieve his goals, but he always keeps a good sense of humor. In 2008 he caused quite a stir when he gave his GPS unit to a pilot and fans wondered what was going on. One of my favorite photos of Martin is when he came into a checkpoint doing a Hula dance after a particularly frustrating run. He whistles and sings to his dogs to encourage them, and he even rigged a giant hamster wheel ("doggie wheel") to help his dogs exercise in the kennel. He and his wife named their sons Nikolai and Rohn, after two Iditarod checkpoints.

A favorite Martin quote: "If everywhere you go is your favorite place, you 're always happy to be there."

Well, I decided that cats can have fantasies too. Here are our two precious kitties, Misty and Moggle as lead dogs . . . er . . . lead cats in the Iditarod. Do you think that if I shook a treat can, like a carrot on a stick, that I could get my cats to run a thousand miles through the snow?

This last photo was created by Brian, an Idita-buddy from the forum. It's a picture of several Idita-buddies under the famed burled arch finish line with mushers Martin Buser, Melanie Gould, Dee Dee Jonrowe, and Lance Mackey (the reigning Iditarod champ). It does seem to be rather strange that the fans are dressed for nice weather, but the mushers (except for Martin) are dressed for an Alaska winter.

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Late Night Chat

I promise this is the last poem about dogsled racing (for the year, anyway). It's not really about dogsled racing, but about the obsessiveness and borderline insanity of the fans -- myself included. It's not a literary gem, but it tells a fun story. This time we were following the All Alaska Sweepstakes, a historic race that's run only once every 25 years. This year the purse was the largest ever: $100,000 winner-take all, and some big names were running. But the trail was isolated and reports were sketchy. A group of Iditabuddies decided to meet in the chat room to wait for the results. This poem tells the tale. (Don't worry. I'm not in the habit of chatting on the computer until the wee hours of the morning, but it's definitely something to experience once in your life):

Late Night with the Sweepstakes
(from the Central Time Zone point of view)

It’s 11 pm and we’re in chat
Wondering where the teams are at
There’s Heidi, Di and Fladog Fan
Who’s Scott Davis, do you know the man?
An unsigned out teacher, that’s my guess.
Just like Joe Runyan’s GPS.

It’s 12 a.m. and we’re in chat
Wondering where Jeff and Mitch are at
Tangles just went back to bed
Flowerpower and Libby are here instead.
What’s the latest from Josh’s blog?
How’s Lance doing without his lead dog?

It’s 1 a.m. and we’re in chat
Wondering where the leader's at
Sugar river and SC Race fan
Are sharing tales of the Breaker clan
Meeting a musher would be a treat
Meeting an idita-buddy would be sweet

It’s 2 a.m. and we’re in chat
Wondering where the winner’s at
Lower 48's here and Tangles is back
John even came to join the pack.
We’re sleep deprived and playing pranks
A report that Lance has joined the ranks.

It’s 2:30 a.m. and we’re still in chat
Wondering where the info’s at
There must be problems with the ham
Then we see two dog teams on the cam
Heidi says, “I’m calling Nome.”
We anxiously wait for her to phone.

It’s 3:00 a.m. and we’ve leaving chat
Now we know where the winner’s at.
Mitch Seavey has won the race
A worthy musher gets first place
The idita-buddies can go to bed
While visions of sled dogs dance in their heads.

Iditarod Musings

Some people have asked me why I’m so obsessed with the Iditarod. I’ve asked myself the same question. It would be so much easier to follow a sport that was more accessible, more popular. If I liked football, I could discuss the latest stats with the person ahead of me in the grocery store line. If I was interested in baseball, I might have a chance to meet a famous baseball player someday, or at least to attend a game. But I have to be addicted to a sport that no one knows anything about. I have only a handful of friends I can talk to about it, and I usually must content myself with on-line conversations with strangers. And because I don’t travel well, I probably will never have an opportunity to watch the race or meet a musher personally.

It’s not like anything else in the world. It’s about the relationship between a musher and a dog team. It requires perseverance, making the right decisions, balancing rest and running, and sometimes a bit of trickery. It takes place in one of the most desolate parts of the world, through beautiful, yet terrifying country. It’s joyful, peaceful, chaotic and horrible all on the same journey.

I believe that more than any other athlete, superstar or adventurer (with the possible exception of mountaineers who conquer Everest), mushers deserve our admiration. Sometimes I think they achieve the impossible. Each March, while I’m going through my life, shuttling the kids here and there, chatting on the phone, trying to make my writing deadlines, I often stop to think about what nearly a hundred people and 16 times as many dogs are doing more than three thousand miles away, and I can’t even imagine it. Are people really racing dog teams over a thousand miles through sub-zero weather?

This “Last Great Race on Earth” is about so much more than who crosses the finish line first. For any other sport there is a winner and there are losers. But there are no losers in the Iditarod. Simply finishing is an achievement beyond what I can imagine. And there are so many races within the race: making it in the top ten, the rookie of the year, the great mushers who are racing at all levels, down to the backwards “race” for the coveted Red Lantern award given to the last finisher, an honor which two mushers flipped a coin for one year. It’s about the personalities, the stories. Families carry on the tradition from generation to generation. Mushers overcome health problems, injuries and tragedy to complete their goal. It’s about history, nature, community and life itself. There are times when I laugh out loud and times when I cry, just reading and imagining what these people are going through.

And, although only a few local friends even know anything about the race, there is a camaraderie in the on-line forum. (See http://mushing.bssd.org/forum/index - my screen name is emwcee) Once the race is finished, I feel an incredible sense of loss, not only because the race is over, but because I will say good-bye to my on-line friends from all over the world who share this bizarre obsession.

If you want to follow the race next year, see www.iditarod.com