Date: January 29, 2007 at 12:45 pm
Racers slog to mid-distance wins, look to Iditarod
KASILOF, Alaska, Jan. 29, 2007 – If this year’s midseason distance races shed any light on Iditarod performance - as they sometimes do - the Last Great Race may see strong performances from Martin Buser, Cim Smyth, Aliy Zirkle, Jeff King, Doug Swingley, Lance Mackey, Ken Anderson and Jason Barron.
None of those teams would come as a major surprise as a potential front-runner in any case, but since each has won at least one major 200- to 300-mile race in January, it’s a clear sign they have their dogs humming at a high level. The trick now, as Barron put it at the tail end of January, is keeping the tuned-up sled dogs at just the right pitch through February. The way his team looked in late January, he said he wished the Iditarod would start immediately, but he would have to wait until March 3.
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Date: January 17, 2007 at 10:44 am
Only Hours Left Before the Bidding Ends
Idita-Rider frenzy is just beginning as bidders from around the world are placing their bets on the ride of a lifetime in an Iditarod Sled. The Idita-Rider program is in its thirteenth year and since its inception it has grown in both size and popularity. Those lucky bidders who win a sled dog ride get an up close and personal view of world class canine athletes zipping along an 11 mile trek through Anchorage at the start of the race in Anchorage on March 3rd, 2007. Idita-Rider Auction Coordinator Deby Trosper says the bidding begins to heat up at about this time.
“With so little time left, Idita-Rider enthusiasts are at the stage where they begin placing their bids on teams and then begin to watch the activity online.” Said Trosper. Right now the activity is very heavy, and it can be a real motivator for a person who might be strategizing a last minute bid. For the bidders strategy becomes part of the fun.
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Date: January 16, 2007 at 10:47 am
Today, the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race bid farewell to Iditarod Artist Bill Devine.
Below are the thoughts of The Iditarod’s Official Photographer Jeff Schultz
Back in the day, if you met Joe Redington Sr., chances are you met Bill Devine also. If you knew anything about Iditarod, you knew Bill. Bill was one of Joe and Vi’s closest friends. Bill was one you could trust with anything — he had the best integrity you ever saw — and Joe Sr. knew that. Bill was entrusted to handle Joe’s estate; Bill was there when you needed him. Bill helped Joe, Vi and Dorothy Page put the Iditarod race together in the early years.
Bill was a commercial artist and he donated a lot of his talent to the Iditarod organization. He drew the official logo for the race, the dog head and “I” which is still used to this day. And he took and donated many photos of the race in the early years. Look back at the old “Iditarod Annuals” and you’ll see his name on many pictures as well as his photo in with the groups of organizers. He took the most famous photo of Joe Redington Sr. and his lead dog “Feets”. The photo was used in countless ads and articles and as the artist reference for the commemorative bronze statue of Joe Sr. now outside of Iditarod headquarters in Wasilla as well as the winner’s trophy given each year. During the 2006 banquet Bill was awarded the “Iditarod Trail Race Founders’ Award” for all he did over the years.
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Date: January 8, 2007 at 6:57 pm
KNIK, Alaska, Jan. 8, 2007 — It was a typically mixed bunch taking off from this historic village on a 200-mile sled dog race through Joe Redington Sr.’s backyard trails, and a typical amount of surprises. Loose dogs, cold temperatures and, yes, more than a few wrong turns made the Knik 200 another wild ride in 2007.
The outcome was predictable, but the way it occurred was not: Jeff King won his second Knik 200 in two years with a team that rolled through the night like a freight train for the first 100 miles to the warm, friendly Skwentna roadhouse. He eased off the gas on the way back to the start/finish line, only to be passed by another fast-moving team: Mine. My dogs were firing on all 12 cylinders the entire way and would have happily loped to the finish line in first place, had I not said “haw” at a “Y” in the trail with about a half mile to go.
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Date: January 5, 2007 at 4:39 pm
KASILOF, Alaska, Jan. 5, 2007 – Lois Harter, a cog in the Iditarod organization, escaped with a purse and two dogs from her burning home in Chugiak on Sunday night, leaving Harter with little besides her pajamas with one hectic month left before the start of Iditarod 35.
“I lost everything,” said Harter, who would normally be organizing banquet tickets and coordinating volunteers, among a variety of other duties in the enormously complex and virtually entirely volunteer race start. Harter also ghost-writes the popular Zuma’s Paw Prints, an online account of Iditarod news for children, from the perspective of Zuma, the Iditarod Trail Committee’s canine mascot.
Harter, who has a heart condition and diabetes, was focused on anything but Iditarod work on Monday, directing her energy toward finding temporary housing, clothes, medicine and the right kind of oxygen apparatus that she uses for therapy while sleeping.
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