March 11, 2007
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Another Update
There’s enough going on with the Iditarod to justify another update, and even if there weren’t, I’d want to share some of the things that were in today’s Anchorage Daily News. For my race updates, cabelasiditarod.com gives me up-to-the-minute standings, refreshing automatically in the background while I’m doing other stuff here or playing solitaire. The color commentary comes from various sources including the newspaper’s website, mushers’ personal websites, the Alaska Public Radio Network, and the neighborhood grapevine.
Ed Iten (right, photo from ADN) is running his ninth Iditarod this year. His best finish was second place in 2005.
He’s doing pretty well this year, now out of Kaltag in sixth position with fifteen dogs.Considering his dogs struggled with diarrhea from Day 2 of the Iditarod all the way to his 24-hour stop in the ghost town of Iditarod, he’s pleased.“I saw my first turd today,” he said. “That’s a good sign.”
That was one of the musher quotes I just had to share with you. Lance Mackey has moved into second position since Martin Buser had to remove one of his leaders after he was injured in a dogfight. Lance said about what it takes to compete when the weather and trail are the way they’ve been this year:
“You have to keep a smart-ass attitude about it because it is miserable as hell, absolutely miserable,”Craig Medred is ADN’s outdoors columnist. This weeks column starts:How do you force a snake to slither forward?That’s the question I want answered by one of the various Humaniac organizations who annually launch an attack on the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in a bid for cheap publicity.
This year it’s the Pinheads Expressing Tired Assumptions — isn’t that what PETA stands for?
You’d have to think so by the group’s claim that “typically, dogs in the Iditarod are forced to run an average of 125 grueling miles per day with little rest.”
What always gets me is that word “forced.”
Obviously these people have never seen a sled dog lunging at its harness barking to go, even when the person in command wants it to stop.
It’s a good thing the dogs do that, too, because it’s hard to imagine how one would make this whole dog team thing work if they didn’t. If those lead dogs don’t go, the whole team folds up like a cheap accordion.
And since the lead dogs are out there 40 or 50 feet in front of the dog driver on the runners of the sled, exactly how would the latter “force” the former to go? Carry a big sack of rocks maybe, and wing a lead dog in the butt with one every time it refuses to go?
Then he goes on and says a lot more about dog training techniques.
King, Mackey, Buser and Gebhardt are all in Unalakleet now, with 12, 14, 12 and 11 dogs, respectively. The front 44 teams have all taken both of their mandatory layovers. Siirtola and Smidt are still in contention for the Red Lantern, and right now Sigrid Ekran in 18th position in Kaltag with 11 dogs is looking like the Rookie of the Year.
More tomorrow.
Comments (6)
PETA certainly don’t know those sled dogs…heck they are bred to pull that sled… they want to run… it is what they do…they are working dogs and they get cranky when they can’t run. They are happiest when they are pulling… darn those people best get their heads out of their butts! lol….
“it is miserable as hell, absolutely miserable,” …. Dang, there isn’t enough money nor love in the world to convince me that the Iditarod is worth doing!
I had a husky once… she’d have run all day & all night if I had let her. Sled or no…
PETA drives me nuts they are against anyone owning pets and actually work for BSL in a move to get rid of all dogs and cats……right now they are trying to steal show dogs out of Kentucky….practiceing at some of the smaller shows becasue there is a big show in Louisville in the next couple of weeks
GOOD LUCK ED ITEN, my oldest daughter Kristyn is following the Iditarod through school and that is her assigned person to keep up with. She is very intrigued by the race and wishes Mr. Iten the best of luck and a safe return.
@sknskm00 - Your daughter is lucky to have drawn Ed Iten. He has a real chance of winning. He had good dogs, and has won a number of other races, and finished well in the Iditarod several times.