Date: August 11, 2006 at 11:53 am
Jeff King wonders if he’s hit on another strategy to gain an edge.
KASILOF, Alaska — Ask Jeff King how his summer is going after winning the Iditarod and he might just say, “Swimmingly.”
The four-time champion from Denali Park, Alaska, is hardly resting on his laurels after out-racing his main rival in 2006, Doug Swingley of Lincoln, Mont., and 82 other dog teams.
Using a couple of boats with brand-new outboards, some rope, fishing buoys and some canine flotation vests, King has instituted a program of offseason exercise to keep his 30 top racing dogs in peak shape during the hottest time of year, when most sled dogs are losing muscle tone. It’s too hot to run them, so King’s dogs are swimming laps around Goose Lake, the scenic pond near his house.
Read More »
Date: August 7, 2006 at 3:06 pm
KASILOF, Alaska — With her husband and two children at her bedside at a Seattle cancer hospital, four-time Iditarod champion Susan Butcher - a battler with singular toughness and spirit - realized it was finally time to let go. She died at 3:25 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 5, in Seattle. She was 51.
Husband David Monson and daughters, Tekla and Chisana, left the hospital that evening, made their way aboard a ferry to Bainbridge Island, and sat in a quiet place by the water where their mother loved to go. Then they looked up at the stars.
“Tekla wore her mother’s necklace and Chisana wore her rings. We sat silently near the shore and looked up,” Monson wrote in a Web diary that he has kept since his wife went in for treatment. “The sky was an explosion of stars. I asked Chisana which one she thought was her mom. She sat on my lap and studied the sky for a long time. Finally she pointed and said, ‘I think that one. But don’t worry she is not alone.’”
Read More »
Date: August 2, 2006 at 12:17 pm
Setback: Butcher’s leukemia returns
KASILOF, Alaska — No sooner had the public learned that Susan Butcher was battling her body’s rejection of a recent bone marrow transplant than the news suddenly changed, but not necessarily for the better. She beat the marrow rejection, but doctors had to break the disheartening news that the transplant itself failed. The four-time Iditarod winner will need a second transplant if she is to beat leukemia.
Her husband, David Monson, has been keeping a Web diary, followed by thousands of race fans across the world. His July 29 entry must have been difficult to write. He said: “The news is very hard on us because it means that we have to go back and do everything we have done since December 5 over again, including having a 2nd transplant.”
Read More »
