March 15, 2007

• The Race Is Not Over Yet

  The latest standings I’ve seen, 12:25 PM, shows 29 teams into Nome and 31 still on the trail.  The current Red Lantern is Donald Smidt in Eagle Island with his entire team of sixteen dogs.  Sigrid Ekran is Rookie of the Year at 21st place.  She and ten dogs made it to the finish in 10 days 13 hours 21 minutes 7 seconds.  For the first twenty years of the Iditarod, that would have been fast enough to win the race.  This year the top ten teams finished in less than ten days.

  This photo by Bob Hallinen of the Anchorage Daily News shows current Champion Lance Mackey with Zorro, who had to be dropped at White Mountain when he developed pneumonia.   There’s a strong bond between man and dog there.  Zorro is eight years old and is the father of seven out of the eight dogs who finished in Nome Tuesday.  Excited at winning the championship and the much-needed new truck that is part of the prize, Lance was nevertheless saddened and worried by Zorro’s illness.

  “It might sound silly, but I’d give up that new truck to keep Zorro alive. That’s how important he is to me.”

  Mile after mile, the 36-year-old Fairbanks musher kept telling some higher being in doggie heaven, “Please, just keep my dog alive, man.”

  “He’s the reason I’m here,” Mackey said. “My main boy, no doubt about it.”

  After crossing the Burled Arch in Nome, one of the first questions Mackey asked Iditarod officials was, “How’s Zorro?”

  Stu Nelson, head veterinarian for the Iditarod, says Zorro’s health is improving.  He has a good chance at recovering.  Mackey noticed Zorro’s heavy breathing at White Mountain and Mike Gascoigne, a volunteer veterinarian from Brisbane, Australia, made the diagnosis.  It was confirmed by blood tests.  Gascoigne sat up all night that night, monitoring Zorro’s condition.

  “To me, that guy deserves an award,” Mackey said. “He sat on that chair all night, falling asleep sometimes. He never left (Zorro). It made me feel good that these guys are very adamant about saving dogs’ lives.”

  When Mackey finished his first Iditarod in 2001, Zorro was his strongest dog. The only yearling (less than 2 years old) finisher, Mackey predicted Zorro would provide the bloodline for an eventual championship team.

  “He ain’t a leader, but he’s the main reason this team is what they are,” Mackey said. “Without him, I’m nothing. In 2001 … I told my brother (Rick Mackey), ‘He ate, he had a good attitude, his feet were perfect — he’s just an all-around dog.’ “

  With Zorro, Mackey built his kennel. The hard part was training the dogs to buy into his “eat more, rest less,” philosophy.   adn.com

  That article has more about Zorro and the two sons of his who are trying in typical canine fashion to displace him as alpha dog in their pack.  There’s also a picture_gallery of some of Lance’s dogs.
   
  When Lance passed through the Burled Arch on Front Street, his father Iditarod Champion Dick Mackey was 27,000 feet up, listening on a radio.  His flight had been delayed by mechanical problems.  When they finally got together just as Lance was starting on his first sit-down meal in days, Dick said, “It took me forever to get here.”  Lance replied, “Yeah, me too.”   adn.com.

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  …aand, here at home in the Valley, it is cold and windy as it has been for days.  A couple of weeks ago, we got a break from the harsh weather but it was back way too soon.  Doug and I need to make a trip to the spring for water soon, but we’re hoping our supply lasts long enough that we can do it when it’s not sub-zero out there and blowing a gale.

  The temp in here is barely above 50 F and the woodstove just keeps consuming firewood sometimes faster than we remember to check it.  One or the other of us has had to restart a fire from coals just about every day lately.  Yesterday morning when Doug went to sleep, the woodbox was full and we both thought there was enough to last me through the day.  I burned it all and had to wake him a little early last night to split some more and bring it in.

  The case of Igor Syndrome I’ve got now is the worst in a long time.  Are you familiar with Igor Syndrome?  That’s my family’s name for one of the manifestations of M.E., when the sensorimotor deficits cause me to shuffle along, dragging one leg as I try to walk.  If we couldn’t laugh at this crap, it would be a lot harder to take.  Remind me sometime to tell you about Burlington’s Disease.  You’ve probably had it.

  

  • 5:27 pm
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