March 13, 2005

• No Shortage of Sidebars
  UPDATED
  
  
  Earlier this evening, Greyfox and I were sharing what we had heard,
  seen and read about the Iditarod.  I get most of my news from the web
  and public radio, and his comes from TV, newspapers and the people he
  talks to around Wasilla.  He said that this year’s race has “no
  shortage of sidebars.”

  There’s
  Dallas Seavey, here.  He turned 18 the day before the start of
  this year’s race, making him the youngest person ever to run the
  Iditarod.  He ran the Jr. Iditarod the weekend before the big race
  started, making him the only person ever to have run the Jr. Iditarod
  and Iditarod in the same year.

  He’s a high school athlete, too, a wrestler.  His wrestling coach
  wasn’t at all happy about his decision to run the Iditarod this
  year.  Dallas being out on the trail means he’s missing an
  important wrestling tournament.

  Dallas comes from a dog driving family.  His grandfather Dan ran
  the 1973 Iditarod (Iditarod #1).  Dallas’s father Mitch is the
  current reigning Iditarod champion, having won last year in his
  eleventh Iditarod.  This year, older brother Tyrell, who won the
  2001 Jr. Iditarod, is running the Iditarod, too.

  The latest update shows Mitch in fifth place with 13 dogs, Tyrell in
  20th place with 12 dogs, and Dallas, still with all 16 of his dogs, in
  64th place.  I think I heard somewhere that he’s running a puppy team.

  ---

  
  Lance Mackey comes from another Iditarod family.  His father Dick
  is a former Iditarod champion and his brother Rick has won both the
  Iditarod and the Yukon Quest.  Lance won this year’s Yukon Quest.

  As a kid, Lance bred and trained dogs and raced in Jr. Iditarod. 
  Then at age 18, he quit and worked on fishing boats for 13 years. 
  He came back to dog driving in 2001.

  He has had another important comeback, too.  Like Dee Dee Jonrowe and Charlie Boulding, Lance is a cancer survivor.

  In the latest standings, he’s out of Eagle Island in second place with
  12
  dogs.  The word from Roxy Brooks is that the leader, Robert Sorlie
  seems to be slowing down, so Lance might pick up a second big win this
  year.  He passed six other teams in the last few hours, coming up
  from ninth place, moving fast.

  ---

  Doug
  Swingley upset a lot of Alaskans when he became the first “Outsider” to
  win the Iditarod.  He has won it four times and won a lot of
  hearts since then.  He has contributed some innovations to the
  design of racing sleds.

  I love seeing him with his dogs.  Close, obviously affectionate
  bonds between dogs and their drivers are common.  What I see when
  I see Swingley with his dogs is an uncommonly close bond.  One of
  my all-time favorite Iditarod pictures shows him napping in a
  checkpoint, curled up on the ground with his arm around a dog. 
  This year, his wife Melanie Shirilla is out there, too, running and
  training their puppy team.

  Last year, Doug had to scratch after losing his goggles and getting a
  case of frostbite on his corneas.  This year, talking about the
  (legally) “blind” non-competitive, just here for the ride and the
  attention, Scdoris girl, he said, “She can see as well as I can.”

  He’s in seventh place now, averaging 4.944 MPH

  ---

  Nine-fingered
  Martin Buser had a mishap with his table saw a week before the start of
  this year’s race, and lost half of his right middle finger.  His
  surgeon wasn’t thrilled about his running the race, but that didn’t
  stop Marty.

  This guy — ya gotta love him.  During a big forest fire a decade
  or so ago, he noticed the fireboat just sitting there on Big Lake with
  no crew, so he and a few of his neighbors commandeered it and fought
  the fire.  I think someone suggested taking legal action against
  him for that, but if they did it was done kinda small and quiet. 
  The general consensus was you don’t bust somebody for being a hero.

  He’s from Switzerland, came here in 1979.  When he won the 2002
  Iditarod, he got more than a trophy at the end.  There was another
  little ceremony in Nome and he was presented with his US citizenship
  papers.

  I see him around more than most mushers, either shopping or at some
  personal appearances in the valley, usually with a dog or two. 
  This is another one who shares obvious mutual affection with his
  dogs.  They’re great, healthy-looking dogs, too.  Marty has
  gotten a lot of recognition for the quality of his kennel and the care
  and training he gives his dogs.

  He’s in third place, eleven dogs, averaging a little over 5 MPH.

  ---

  TRIVIA

  Answers:  #4, Takotna checkpoint is popular mostly for Jan Newton’s fresh homemade pies and all the steak you can eat.

  #5:  The knife that has gained popularity with many mushers is a
  “rescue” or “emergency” type.  It’s a folding knife with a belt
  clip or pouch, generally used by paramedics and rescue workers. 
  It has a hook and a sturdy serrated blade (used to cut seat belts to
  free people from wrecked cars), plus a heavy spike on one end, designed
  to break car windows.  Mushers use the serrated blade to free dogs
  from tangled harness lines and save them from injury.  The glass
  breaker can also be used to chip ice.

  This race could end soon, so let’s bring the trivia game to an end,
  too.  The last two questions will be about the old timers.

  Question #6
  Who is this man?  I want more than just his name.  Tell something about his place in history, and his significance to the Iditarod.

  Question #7 is about the Shishmaref Cannonball, Herbie Nayokpuk. 
  Herbie finished in fifth place in the first Iditarod (1973).  His
  best finish ever was second place in 1980.  In 1983, at age 53, he
  finished fourth despite having had open heart surgery five months
  earlier.

  He never won the race, but he won everyone’s respect.  He had beautiful dogs and kept them in prime condition.

  He ran 11 races in fifteen years, finishing in the top ten eight
  times.  Through that time, he learned some new tactics and got
  some new equipment, but when he was starting out, in those earliest years, what material were his sled runners made of?

  ---

  Race Update — Sunday midday

  Robert Sorlie of Norway left Kaltag about three hours ago after resting
  for five hours and dropping one dog.  This leaves him with twelve
  dogs.  An hour after Sorlie left, Ramy Brooks breezed through
  Kaltag, staying only six minutes.  He has thirteen dogs.

  Between 6:20 and 10:05 this morning ten more mushers checked into Kaltag.  They are, in order:
  Martin Buser
  Dee Dee Jonrowe
  Doug Swingley
  Mitch Seavey
  Bjornar Andersen
  Jeff King
  Lance Mackey
  Ed Iten
  John Baker
  Aliy Zirkle

  When the standings on iditarod.com were last updated, none of them had yet left Kaltag.

  There’s more than one race going on out there now.  Between Kaltag
  and Unalakeet, it’s a race for first place.    Back
  around Eagle Island, it’s a race for a finishing place “in the
  money.”   Between Ophir and Iditarod, where the trailing end
  of the pack is, there may even be some reverse competition for last
  place and the coveted Red Lantern Award.

  It is not unheard-of for three or four mushers at the tail of the pack
  to confer, conspire, negotiate or cast lots to decide who will finish
  last.  There’s no prize for next-to-last.  Right now, the
  next to last position is held by “blind” Rachael Scdoris, right behind
  her guide Paul Ellering.  One wonders which of them is holding the
  other back, and whether they might slow down and let the current Red
  Lantern, Sandy McKee, go by so Rachael will have something besides her
  book deal and global fame to show for this “race”.

  If you’ve been reading my updates, you probably can infer my attitude
  of indifference verging on contempt toward Rachael.  It’s nothing
  personal (not personal toward her, although of course it can only
  be personal from my perspective).  I’d feel the same way toward
  anyone who got out there and tried to turn a competitive event into a
  camping trip for her own selfish reasons.  The woman has displayed
  NPD (narcissistic personality disorder) from the moment she stepped
  into the spotlight.  Greyfox, who has good cause to recognize NPD
  when he sees it, was radiating disgust last night as he reported seeing
  her raise her parka and lower her pants to display a banana-shaped
  bruise to the TV cameras.   Bananas.  How appropriate!

  Infra dig, Rachael!  But, of course, when have you ever displayed any
  dignity, eh?  Dignified behavior doesn’t attract attention, does
  it?  I can’t help seeing the parallels at this moment in time
  between Scdoris and Michael Jackson.

  ---

  Another
  quiet little sidebar I neglected to mention last night:  Charlie
  Boulding, the “duct-tape musher” who raced last year fresh from
  chemotherapy for colon cancer, scratched yesterday. 

  From Finger Lake to Shageluk he dropped a dog at almost every
  checkpoint.  Finally, down to nine dogs at Anvik, he quit. 
  He had already quit, in a way.  This year at the pre-race musher’s
  banquet he announced that this will be his final Iditarod.

  He’s bought a boat.  He and Robin and their new baby plan to cruise the Caribbean.

  Bon voyage, Charlie.  Stay warm. 

  We will miss you.
  
  

  • 4:07 pm
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