Two weeks and counting...

For five months, no make that 13 years, I have been dreaming of the day when I would run my first Iditarod. Dreaming of the dogs I would have… the feeling of pulling away from the starting line in Anchorage… the feeling of pulling into Nome after 1000+ miles. In reality, I couldn’t begin to say how many times I have thought about the day I would get to the starting line.
Now it’s starting to hit me Barry Bonds hits baseballs. In less than two weeks it will be upon me. Two weeks from now I will be on the trail on my way to Nome. The next two weeks, I wish I could say, will go fast, but they won’t. With each passing day, the next will only go by slower. Am I nervous? You bet, but believe it or not, it’s a calm nervousness. I am nervous, but more excited than anything. I am ready for this, mentally and physically.
I brought my dogs out for their last long run before the race this past week; I brought them out for an overnight run on the Denali Highway. They looked great and I think they are ready for what’s to come, although they have absolutely no idea of what’s to come. They will be ready for new trails to run on, that’s for sure.
A big project this past week was packing everything into bags that are sent out to 20 or so checkpoints along the trail (see picture). Everything I and my 16 dogs will need in the two weeks we will be on the trail will be in those bags. Dog food, booties, snacks, personal meals, snacks, clothes, dog jackets, dog blankets, spare sled parts, and the list goes on. In all, I sent 1500 pounds out on the trail. At 40 cents per pound, it ends up being quite the hefty bill, but it’s one area where you do not want to hold back. If you don’t have what you need on the trail, you are out of luck.
The next two weeks will be filled with taking the dogs on short 20 mile runs, vet checks for all the dogs, banquets, meetings, banquets, and more meetings and finally the race start on March 3rd in Anchorage. Set your watches, folks. The time we have been waiting for is almost here.

Winter: Gone and Come

I would have never thought that I could run dogs in shorts and t-shirt in January in Alaska, but such was the case last week. There was a record heat wave across the state: it down right rained in spots, it got to 59 degrees in Palmer, and we hit close to 50 degrees three days in a row. Ok, so maybe shorts and t-shirts would be a bit extreme, but it sure was darn warm.
Although this type of warming trend can never come at a good time during the winter (at least according to mushers), it especially didn’t come at a good time for Iditarod mushers throughout the state. We were all busy preparing our food drops for the race, which are due this coming week. This means that thousands of pounds of raw meat meant to be fed to hungry dogs running a thousand miles across the state of Alaska thawed to dripping mounds of thawed beef, chicken, beaver, fish, and whatever else type of meat you can dream up. Luckily the warming trend was relatively short-lived and the meat stayed cool enough to prevent it from becoming spoiled.
Needless to say, the warm weather had adverse effects on our training trails. I think we would be better off skating down the trails than running the dogs in front of our sleds. There is still snow (rather ice now) covering the trails, but unless you are craving for a death wish, 7 is about the maximum number of dogs that can be run safely. Even that number is a little hairy.
Luckily, the Denali Highway avoided much of the warm weather and is in excellent shape. I have made two trips out to camp in the past week and will be making another trip tomorrow. The run is 52 miles out to camp, making it a 104 mile round trip. This is a pretty long run for the dogs, and with the race fast approaching, we will soon be finished with runs this long and will taper them off until the race.