Adventure equals excitement for Sebastian Schnuelle of Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada.  For those of you new to following the Iditarod, Sebastian finished second in 2009, completing the race in 10 days 5 hours 5 minutes, finishing with 13 dogs.  He has started and finished the Iditarod every year since 2005 improving his standing every year.

I asked Sebastian how he thought sled dog racing has changed since he became involved in 1998.  He said, “When I first started racing I really did not know what I was in for.  I knew so little that I did not even know how little I knew.  That was back in 1998, when I first attempted running the Copper Basin 300 trying to qualify for the Yukon Quest.  I had a pretty rough start in racing and saw it more as a big adventure and not as racing.  So I do not really know what went on racing wise when I started.  For myself over the last 5 years I have learned to pace myself, train and run slower.  Distance racing is all about patience.”

Sebastian has started the Yukon Quest 6 times.  In 1999 he scratched.  Then he finished the race in the top 10 each time in 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007.  In 2009 he was the first place finisher.  He set a new Yukon Quest record of 9 days 23 hours and 20 minutes.

It’s hard to believe that Sebastian used to wear a suit and tie to work.  He likes being out in the bush and has no close neighbors so the dogs can be loose when he walks them.  There is no running water or power in his cabin, which also keeps him in shape doing the necessary chores such as hauling water, chopping wood, and taking care of the dogs.  Other than that, he is not much of a fan of workouts. When training and racing, Sebastian said that he sometimes uses a ski pole behind the sled, but generally tries to help as little as possible.  He said, “I try to not run or pedal to help the dogs.  That is why I run dogs and not marathons.”

With all the work at the kennel, Sebastian doesn’t work a “regular” job.  The dogs are his job whether they are racing or working at tour operations.  The dogs exercise year round, on a glacier during the summer where they give sled rides to tourists and during the winter they are running on longer expedition type trips.  This helps to keep them in shape.

Currently there are 50 dogs in the kennel, of which 24 are trained for racing.   Four of those race dogs belong to Jon Little and one belongs to Richie Beattie.   Two handlers assist with the daily work and training.  Sebastian’s days are full.  He is up and going by 6 a.m.   By 7:30 a.m. the dogs are ready to go for training.  When the weather is warm he starts earlier.  The team is back at the kennel around noon.  The dogs get to rest while Sebastian takes care of lunch and emails.  The afternoon work is generally maintenance.  When the weather is cooler he runs a second team in the evening.  He trains his dogs to run slow and steady.  This keeps the dogs happy and healthy.  The dogs are definitely a 7 day a week job.  Sebastian said, “Once it gets closer to race time I will have a few more helping hands arriving to help with the organizing.”

Sebastian also enjoys training mushers for racing.  Other mushers have also used his dogs to race the Quest 300, Copper Basin 300, Yukon Quest and the Iditarod.  He said, “2 years ago Rudi Niggemeier came in 43rd in the Iditarod with a team of mine.  Last year Mark Sleightholme came in 11th in the Yukon Quest.”  Sebastian is planning to run two 300 milers before the Iditarod.  He would like to finish the season with the Kobuk 440.

“I thrive on challenge,” said Sebastian.  There is a line from the 2009 Iditarod DVD that says “these are people who squeeze pleasure out of misery.”  As he thrives on the uncertainty, Sebastian loves it when the going gets tough.  He said, “Last year I enjoyed myself the whole way, both in the Quest and Iditarod.  Although I did get worried on the long 15 hour run from Unalakleet to Koyuk going through that wind, I remember camping on the Yukon River close to the Kandik Cabin and thinking to myself-too bad that this trip is already over in 2 days.”

Here’s wishing Sab a season of challenges and adventures.  Please visit his websites at:  www.bluekennels.de or www.sebastianschnuelle.com

* Joy Davis is an educator in Indiana.  The Educational Journalists are teachers working with Iditarod’s Education Department to bring the stories behind the scenes to race fans of all ages.

(Photos submitted by Sebastian.)

If you are planning to be at the start of the 2010 Iditarod, consider placing a bid to be an Idita-Rider.  Learn more!

Using a multiple intelligence and multisensory approach to teaching, Cathy has been integrating the theme of the race into her school’s curriculum, reaching students in preschool through 12^th grade through a variety of curriculum and summer school projects. Throughout the next year, Cathy will be creating curriculum that is aligned to both content and cultural standards and placing it on http://www.iditarod.com/. During the 2009 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, Cathy, an educator for twenty nine years, will be flying the trail with the Iditarod Air Force and sharing her observations and lesson ideas via the Internet on the website.

The Iditarod Teacher on The Trail^TM program began in 1999 with an inspirational idea and has grown into a nationally acclaimed and globally followed adventure learning project. With the support of Target® this program is able to reach out to children around the United States and the world, bringing “The Last Great Race on Earth” a little closer to their imaginations in a real-time, research based, adventure learning project while impacting academic success for students.

The Iditarod Trail Committee is proud to welcome Cathy to this very elite group of educators from around the country. Cathy will be sharing a preview of her Target® 2009 Iditarod Teacher on the Trail curriculum at the Summer Camp for Educators to be held in Wasilla, Alaska, June 22 – 28.

Age: 4.5
Sex: male
Weight: 62 pounds
Breed : Alaskan husky, parents are Long Island and Kira
General bloodlines: Buser dog, form the “Finding Nemo” litter, Dori & Nemo siblings
Where does the dog run? Leads
Race experience: ‘07 KUSKO winning team, JR Iditarod champ, Goose Bay 120 2nd place, 2008 Kusko 5th place, Cantwell Classic.
What makes this dog special?
“Big boy, has a fast-flying trot, hairiest dog on the team.”
– Martin Buser

ANCHORAGE — Two mushers showed a little spark, each threatening to win the 2008 Iditarod, as they stood at the podium and drew their starting positions Thursday night at Sullivan Arena.

One was defending champion Lance Mackey, who told the audience, and especially the mushers seated there, that if anyone thinks for a moment that his dogs are tired from their recent tough win in the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest, they better think again. He’s got a surprise for them. His team is ready. Mackey will start with bib number 6.

Five spots behind him, wearing bib 11, will be one of the teams Mackey passed last year on his way to his story-book victory: Jeff King. King fired back from the podium, making sure first that Mackey was in the room to listen. He told the crowd that during the 2007 race, at the key turning point in Unalakleet, Mackey had strode past him, saying simply, “Are you scared now?”

Thursday night in the Sullivan arena, King replied, “I don’t give up that easily, Lance,” and he pulled out a small iPod with tiny speakers, leaned the stage microphone down, and filled the arena with so-familiar trumpet intro to the theme from “Rocky.” King, a four time champion, compared himself to the underdog New York Giants and said sometimes past champions come back to win.

 

It was all in good fun, but those moments show the desire to win runs deep among the top competitors. Only one of them will ultimately succeed, obviously. But looking down the list of entrants, its just as obvious that any one of 10 to 15 teams may wind up hugging their garland-covered leaders under the burled arch in Nome.

Who will do it? You want me to guess? I failed last year. I thought Mackey, Paul Gebhardt and Zack Steer would be in the top 10 or top 20, but they finished first, second and third. I had Martin Buser and King pegged as sure winners, and they finished fourth and fifth. Does close count?

I figure the winner in 2008 will be among these teams: Mackey, Gebhardt, King, Buser, Kjetil Backen, Mitch Seavey, Ed Iten and John Baker. That’s where I’d lay my odds. Other teams have a chance to pull an upset, but I think Mackey is unique in being able to roar to the front the way he did last year. Look for Steer, Ken Anderson, Ramey Smyth and Cim Smyth to possibly have a magic run and pull off another seemingly impossible upset. Another name to throw into the mix is DeeDee Jonrowe, who had an impressive team last year but broke her hand on the way to Rainy Pass. She hasn’t raced this winter and I haven’t talked to her yet, so she’s an unknown to me.

But, boy, that sure leaves a field of deep, deep talent both among dogs and the humans who pilot them from the back of the sled. Who among these will have a magic run and surge into the top 5: Jessie Royer, Matt Hayashida, Aaron Burmeister, Aliy Zirkle, Jessica Hendricks, Sigrid Ekran, Hans Gatt, Jason Barron, Ray Redington, Jr., Ryan Redington, Rick Swenson, Louis Nelson, Sr., or Ed Stielstra?

Teams that some people might overlook, but could push well into the top 20, include Jason Mackey, William Hanes, Rick Casillo and Jon Korta. Mackey has been working with his brother, Lance, for a decade since they both moved to the Kenai Peninsula. Jason still lives there while Lance moved north to Fox, outside Fairbanks. He’s been working hard all winter to field a strong team, and, being a Mackey, he has the skills. William Hanes finished 20th two years ago and is gifted at managing his small kennel and running his own race. Korta was among a group of talented mushers who got delayed last year at Rainy Pass by a powerful storm. He was a rookie, and the experience should serve him well — if he can get his team past his home town of Galena on the Yukon River. Casillo is another veteran who has been frustrated by circumstances; he got delayed by the same storm last year and is motivated to have a good race.

Toss in Sylvia Willis for good measure. She showed a lot of toughness last year. Also watch Rick Larson and Sebastian Schnuelle.

Rookie of the year
Keep an eye also on Rohn Buser, Melissa Owens, Molly Yazwinski, William Kleedehn and Sven Haltmann. One of these should be rookie of the year. Some fans see the name Kleedehn, roll their eyes and say, “There’s your top rookie.” After all, Kleedehn has 11 Yukon Quests and his dogs don’t know how to run slow. But he’s also running a young team this year and may be more motivated to keep the team large and happy, being patient this year with the idea of racing in 2009. Kleedehn is a smart dog man.

Owens, a junior Iditarod winner, is as tough and steady as they come. She, like Rohn Buser, received her literal baptism into long-distance racing in this year’s sopping wet Kuskokwim 300. Haltmann is a former handler for Martin Buser who’s built his own racing kennel over the last couple of years. He’s been incredibly patient and you get the sense that he has yet to put the pedal to the metal in a race. Yazwinski seems to have all the elements — raised on a dairy farm, a veterinary career in her future and an accomplished distance runner in college. She’s running some outstanding dogs from the kennel of mushing legend Susan Butcher, and she’s done very well in early season races.

I wouldn’t want to have any one of those four teams on my tail. I think it may turn into a match between Buser and Yazwinski for rookie of the year honors. But who knows. Maybe Laura Daugereau from Washington state will pass them all. Honorable mention goes to Zoya Denure, but she’s had an up-and-down season — scorching the trail in the GinGin 200 but having some setbacks in later races.

Now comes the fun part — we get to watch the race unfold over the next two weeks. So sit back, grab a snack and enjoy the show.

Yazwinski, Linton claim Cabela’s Outfitter awards
The 2008 Iditarod had its first awards Thursday, well before the dogs hit the trail. Cabela’s drew two names for its coveted Outfitter Award, which grants a $1,000 gift certificate for a rookie and a veteran. Molly Yazwinski of Fairbanks won the rookie award and Bruce Linton of Kasilof, signed up for his second Iditarod, won the veteran’s award. (Linton, a diabetic, said he would be testing a new insulin pump during the race that should be able to respond to his insulin needs on the fly.)

Age: 3
Sex: male
Weight: 60
Breed: Alaskan husky
General bloodlines: unknown
Where does the dog run? Lead, team or wheel.
Race experience: Gin Gin 200, Sheep Mountain 150, Chatanika 200, Copper Basin 300, Klondike 300, Taiga 300 and Yukon Quest 07
What makes this dog special?
“Hunter is a rescue dog from the Fairbanks Animal Shelter. He’s been running in the main team since he first went into harness at our kennel 2 years ago. Hunter had behavioral issues that made him a tough candidate for likely adoption. We had to work with Hunter for several months, and with time and patience, he’s come around strong. Still, he likes to be the boss at times keeping me on my toes. Hunter is always there for the team either leading us down the trail or contributing from the back in team or wheel. He takes his food seriously and soaks up all the attention one is willing to give… from the thought of booties and ointments to massage and belly rubs. I think Hunter likes to race because he’s up for all these things, day after day after day. Hunter has finished all his races thus far… saying … ‘see you in Nome’ ”
– Zoya Denure

ANCHORAGE — Never before in the history of long distance sled dog racing have so many competitive mushers been packed into one room. There were 96 of them assembled for the day-long, pre-race musher meeting on Thursday, and the room buzzed with energy — some of it rookie nerves, but mostly just plain excitement to race on the part of the veterans.

All the potential front-runners said some version of the same theme: I can’t wait to get on the trail because this is the best team I’ve run in years.

It’s a standard line, and they all mean it; and for most of them, it’s actually true. The race each year fields a deeper pool of canine talent and the mushers come more prepared than ever.

 

Mitch Seavey, the 2004 champion, said he’s rarely been this excited to get the hoopla behind him and just be on the trail with his dogs. It’s a good bunch, tested and proven in a decisive win in the water-logged Kuskokwim 300 sled dog race. Look for Seavey to be strong this year.

He wasn’t alone in having that sparkle in his eye.

Other mushers looking to move to the front early (and they’re not surprises) are Ramey Smyth, Ray Redington and John Baker. Baker did relay to me that his number one handler, 10th place 2007 finisher Tollef Monson, had to bow out this year to help take care of his family. Baker still has a second-string team of dogs in the race, piloted by Ben Gerard of France.

Some, such as fan favorite Louis Nelson of Kotzebue, may have extra motivation to race more aggressively. Nelson, 65, said this will be his last Iditarod — not because he’s feeling his age, though. He said he’s spent too much time with the dogs and at camp instead of being at home with his wife. He wants to pass the baton to one of his sons, Robert, 39. Robert Nelson is a rookie this year. They’ll be joined on the trail by Darin, 38. I asked Darin who’s going to finish first between them and he didn’t hesitate, pointing at his father. He also shook his head and said he warned Louis not to announce his retirement since he’s bound to feel the pull to return.

Kjetil Backen, returning to represent Team Norway after a strong third place showing in 2004, said he’s got a very solid unit with dogs he raced all winter supplemented with a few from two-time champion Robert Sorlie and one from Bjornar Andersen. Pointing out the vagaries of the trail and the mysterious and sometimes elusive camaraderie of the dogs and driver, Backen said he would know by Nikolai if he had a team capable of winning. Then, he said, the work would really being. He’d still have to race another 700 miles against other teams that are also peaking.

The musher meeting is loaded with chores and routines that seldom change over the years. Mushers autograph the mail caches that they’ll carry to Nome. They pick up gear from sponsors such as Cabela’s, Wells Fargo, Anchorage Chrysler and GCI. Then begins a series of discussions, closed to the public, about the trail ahead, race rules, veterinary care and general logistics. It’s a chance for the race officials and mushers to talk back and forth and iron out details before the Iditarod gets under way.

Next up is the musher’s banquet Thursday night, where they will pick starting positions. Friday is a down day — nothing is scheduled — which gives everyone one day to make last-minute preparations before Saturday’s 10 a.m. ceremonial start in Anchorage and Sunday’s 2 p.m. restart in Willow.

One driver needing some serious last-minute help was Joe Garnie of Teller, Alaska. Garnie is a trail tough veteran known for his excellent dogs. Something went wrong with his food drops, which got delivered to the wrong location. Meat in the drop bags melted and spoiled. So he was scrambling Thursday to get more meat and ship it out to checkpoints.

Schandelmeier pumped about Denure’s race
Zoya Denure has a team of 16 dogs without a significant weak link, said her husband, John Schandelmeier. Denure, herself, is now fully recovered after a bad fall on Paxson Lake (near the couple’s home) during the Copper Basin 300 sled dog race. She’d suffered a bad concussion, but they were so busy getting her ready for the Iditarod that neither one realized how bad it was, Schandelmeier said.

Denure completed the Klondike 300, got her food drops done and was part way through the Tustumena 200 at the tail end of January when she got ill on the trail and had to scratch. Doctors later told her she needed time off from training to recover, which she took, and she’s back on track. While Denure rested, Schandelmeier kept the dog team trained up. He said he took them on a non-stop 80-miler recently and the team was fast and enthusiastic. Now it’s up to Denure — and most of the other rookies — to learn what it’s like to race dogs farther than 300 miles. Few have, beyond William Kleedehn, who’s got 11 Yukon Quests to his credit.

That’s when Max Lowe was informed that he had been selected as the 2008 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race Honorary Musher.

“I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t speak. I remember barely being able to say thank you. What I experienced in that moment was disbelief… I was stunned, and I am so very humbled to be selected as the 2008 Honorary Musher.” added Max.

Flash back twenty one years; it’s Valentines Day (1986) in Chicago Illinois. Max Lowe told his wife Marcia that he had been offered an opportunity to open and manage a brand new hotel on the banks of Lake Hood in beautiful Spenard. For Max it meant the adventure of a lifetime. It also meant a huge leap for Marcia, and their young children. They were heading “North to Alaska” to start a new life and start up a brand new hotel, the Clarion.

According to Max, it didn’t take very long at all before the Iditarod trail Committee approached him about sponsoring the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race as the “Official Hotel and the Anchorage Race Headquarters.

“I have to tell you, 1986 was a shaky time in Alaska. The Clarion was the first new hotel built in Anchorage in nine years. The economy was in the dumps. And I was working 24-7 to try to get the new hotel open by the fall. I distinctly remember thinking, no matter what, being a part of “The Last Great Race on Earth” would be a great way for the Clarion to become a part of the community.” said Max.

In March of 1987, Max and the Iditarod began their journey together on The Iditarod Trail. He joked about how the “Official Hotel” quickly embarked on the longest catering route in the world. They flew into Anvik and set up their mobile kitchen. Over the course of the next 20 years, through the transitions from the Clarion to the Regal Alaska and finally to the Millennium Alaska Hotel, Max and his crew covered thousands of trail miles. They found a way to produce fabulous cuisine under some very interesting situations.

“One year Chef Al and I packed up what we thought was everything and headed up the trail to Ruby. When we arrived I quickly noticed that we forgot one of the main ingredients for “First to the Yukon” dinner; shrimp. We started looking around Ruby, and there wasn’t a single shrimp to be found. We got the word out that we needed shrimp pronto and the next thing I knew, the wheels were in motion.” Max recalled.

The way Max tells the story word spread down the trail, and an F-15 headed for Galena Air Base Alaska wound up with a little extra cargo (the shrimp). From there, former USA Network producer, Peter Henning and Pilot Tony Oney air lifted the precious cargo across the Yukon River to Ruby just ahead of the first musher’s arrival.

“It was just meant to be I guess. It amazes me how unbelievable this community called “The Iditarod” is. The Iditarod is about dogs and people and how much they truly care for each other. The race itself has weathered the test of time. And I believe it’s because of the resolve that this community called Iditarod will continue to endure. It will continue to touch the hearts and souls of future generations just like it touched my heart… my wife Marcia’s heart and our children’s hearts. It will continue to grow” said Max.

One of Max’s favorite memories about the Iditarod was the year five-time Iditarod Champion Rick Swenson’s team arrived in Nome after battling a huge snow storm on the Norton Sound. Swenson signed a photo depicting an image of his arrival on Front Street and gave it to Max. On the photo Rick personalized the following; “Never Turn Back.”

“For me that pretty much sums up this wonderful journey I’ve had with The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race over the last twenty one years. No matter what you encounter, you can find a way to make it happen. There are so many wonderful friends that I have made because of the Iditarod; great friends from Anvik and Ruby, and all the volunteers who have traveled from the corners of the Earth just to connect with the Iditarod. I’ve had the opportunity to be their host while they visited our hotel. I’ve had the opportunity to be a part of transforming The Millennium Alaskan each year from a fantastic tourism destination to the Official Headquarters of The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. And now I’m a part of Iditarod tradition. You know, it just doesn’t get better than that!”

 

For those choosing to travel to Willow in their personal vehicles, please note that there will be a $10.00 charge per vehicle for parking. Free round trip shuttle service to Willow will be available as follows;

North from Wasilla to Willow Lake – continuously from 11 am – 1:00 pm from the following locations:

- Wasilla High School

• - Wasilla Multi Sports Complex
• - Houston High School

South from Talkeetna Sunshine Station, two buses will be leaving, one at 11:00 and one at 12:00 noon.

The Iditarod Trail Committee, the Alaska Department of Transportation and the Alaska State Troopers strongly recommend that race fans use the shuttle service due to anticipated heavy traffic on the day of the restart. Additionally, drop off or parking for the handicapped will be available at the Willow Community Center.

The Willow Community Center will be open to the public for the convenience of all race fans. Shuttle service back to pick up sites will begin at 3:00 and will continue until 6 pm. Please dress warmly and enjoy the day responsibly.

The good news and bad news for 96 mushers getting ready to vault out of Willow Sunday morning behind 16 powerful and enthusiastic huskies is that the Iditarod trail appears to be about “normal.” There’s plenty of snow where there usually is, and not much — perhaps none — where the going is typically barren.

The news is a far cry from last year, when dogs and drivers bounced over frozen dirt and grassy tussocks for miles and miles, in areas where they usually ride on smooth, white trail.

“I think we’re sitting pretty good,” said Mark Nordman, Iditarod’s race marshal.

 

From the first few miles on the Susitna River to the last stretch in the Topkok Hills near Nome, word trickling back from trail breakers is generally positive, Nordman said.

Here’s a rough rundown: Mushers can expect hard, fast trail on the first day, based on what Junior Iditarod mushers report. That race went to Yentna. Teams will hit some deep snow as soon as they leave Skwentna on the way to Finger Lake, into the heart of the Alaska Range. Finger Lake had 50 inches of snow in a four-day period recently.

The trail should be decent up through the first difficult stretch — the infamous Happy River steps. Drivers need not worry about a nasty glaciated sidehill that wiped out sleds and broke bones in at least three mushers last year. “That’s not there; it never happened this year,” Nordman said of the glare ice. That has got to be a huge relief, but it doesn’t eliminate the always tricky tight turns and sudden, steep drops that are part and parcel of the Iditarod race trail through the steps. On the bright side, deep snow makes a soft landing when a musher tips a sled. If they hang on, they can easily right themselves and cruise on, brushing snow from their face.

Nordman did not have the complete picture when we talked about a week before the race start; trail breakers on snowmobiles from various villages were still carving their way through some of the more remote sections over the 1,000-mile course. Nobody had ventured through Rainy Pass yet, but he said it appeared avalanche danger was minimal there.

Snow is in its usual short supply at Rohn, at the northern base of the Alaska Range. That means mushers will have their usual struggles for the next 20 miles over bare dirt, glare ice, rocks and a famously frustrating uphill trail over glaciated ice. It’s all just part of traveling through that part of the country on the back side of the Alaska Range, which sees little snow until the trail gets closer to Nikolai.

Nordman forwarded an e-mail to mushers from a trail breaker, which goes into detail about the challenges he had running from Rohn to Nikolai. Here’s a sample, describing the trail near that uphill glacier and beyond: “…crossing the Post River there was running water about 12 inches deep. Back up into the woods to the left side again it is dirt trail, frozen and icy with a rut climbing the hill. I next went over the hill and encountered the ‘glacier,’ which looks like it could be real nasty if pulling a loaded sled. I was on a 500 Skandic with no sled and full-throttled it all the way up the glacier and made it okay. It is ice from side to side looking like a lava flow! Same as many years previous.”

He continues: “The next leg before Egypt Mountain was then stretches of bare ground with rocks, dirt and grass eaten down by bison, with ice. The buffalo wallows are a twisting set of little black dirt mounds with glare ice patches. (my italics for emphasis).”

Of all the difficulties he described, those “little black dirt mounds” could be the trickiest, especially when combined with glare ice. A team at full throttle over glare ice can catch one of those harmless-looking mounds and flip violently. But, those obstacles are always there, and everyone always makes it through.

As veteran mushers often say, if you can make it to Nikolai in one piece, you should finish the race. The trail after Nikolai should be a welcome relief with plenty of snow the rest of the way. Snow is a couple of feet deep from Ophir to Poorman, an old gold camp; and Poorman to Ruby River is “really good,” Nordman said. The Yukon River apparently is in good shape as well. He’s been told there’s three to four feet of snow by Nulato.

Kaltag to Unalakleet, the long portage from Yukon River to the Bering Sea Coast, was reportedly excellent, based on word from mushers participating in a local race recently. It took those racers little over nine hours to make the run; that’s a good run time.

Despite a recent spate of warm weather, above freezing, the coast still seems to have acceptable travel conditions, Nordman said. And Iditarod board members from Nome have said the snow is excellent in that region this year.

If the race shapes up under these conditions, it could be considered “normal,” but conditions can change rapidly with snow storms, Chinook winds and rain or bitter cold. As always, mushers racing to win the Iditarod, or simply for the satisfaction of earning a brass belt buckle, will be competing not just against each other, but against the vagaries of the trail.

“His dogs were next to my feet at the finish line,” said a breathless Klejka, 17, who crossed the finish line in Willow at 8:49:00 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 24, Alaska time. Carter was clocked in at 8:49:02 a.m. after 140 miles of racing.

 

“I was close, that’s for sure,” the 16-year-old said shortly after the race. “This was the funnest year I’ve had, and the best finish. I’ve finished 14th and 13th, and now second. I’m pretty happy with myself, and my dogs. All of them looked good, they’re all doing good.”

Mackey will be happy to hear that. Those dogs are supposed to be the core of Mackey’s Iditarod team when he takes off from the same location, Willow, in exactly a week. Carter said he relied on Zena and a two-year-old named Maple to run lead.

Klejka comes from a dog mushing family in Bethel, where her father is a surgeon at the city’s hospital. She entered the always tough Kuskokwim 300 this year, but was forced to scratch when wind and warm temperatures turned the river trail to a series of cold, slushy ponds about three feet deep. She said about the only similarities in these two races was warm temperatures.

A week of daytime temperatures well above freezing forced the race to be rerouted away from Knik Lake, which had open water on its surface, to Willow. It shortened the race by about 10 miles. Mushers reported good, fast trail as nighttime temperatures settled back into a more suitable range for the dogs.

Carter was the first musher to reach the halfway point of Yentna, but Klejka, who started 20th, posted a faster run time, which made her the first to leave for the 70-mile sprint back to Willow once they’d adjusted for the two-minute starting intervals. Klejka said she worried the whole time that someone might catch up to her, but when she looked back in a long stretch of the Susitna River and saw no dog team, she gained confidence that she might win. Then she had to stop and pack a tired dog and the team bogged down going up some hills just a few miles from the finish, and Carter came roaring up.

Carter was actually the fourth out of the gate on the way out of Yentna. He said he quickly caught and passed Wade Marrs but took a long time to reel in Quinn Iten. Once he caught sight of Klejka, he redoubled his efforts and the team accelerated. From there, it was an exhilarating sprint to the finish. The two mushers pumped their legs and whistled for their dogs to dig a little deeper.

Iten, son of Iditarod contender Ed Iten, was only three minutes behind the leaders to claim third. Marrs crossed the finish line at 9:05 a.m. in fourth. And Ava Linder, daughter of Yukon Quest winner and Iditarod racer, Sonny Lindner, was fifth at 9:21 a.m. (Complete standings can be found at www.jriditarod.com/racecurrent.php).

“I’m retired,” the four-time Iditarod champion said by phone from his home in Lincoln, Mont., on Thursday, Feb. 21. “I’m living the life of Riley. I’m done. Melanie (Shirilla) and I are into stage racing. We’re still raising Iditarod dogs, but we don’t have any plans on going back.”

Shirilla recently won the tough Wyoming Stage Stop, a race that covers more than 300 miles but more closely follows the format of the Tour de France than the Iditarod. Stage races have a different leg, say 50 miles or 80 miles, each day; mushers and dogs rest for the night, then run a different leg the next day. With the Iditarod, mushers decide when and where they rest, day and night; it’s their call.

Swingley, 54, said his body told him it was time for a change. “I’m just too old to compete at the level I want to compete at,” he said. “It’s an awesome group of dogs, and I don’t have the ability to keep up with them anymore without getting hurt.”

That’s precisely what happened last year on the way up to Rainy Pass checkpoint, although Swingley wasn’t the only musher — young or old — hurt by rough trail conditions at that spot. A narrow trail was covered with ice that angled downhill into trees. Swingley and several other mushers found themselves sliding sideways at top speed into those trees. Others were banged up, but Swingley broke some ribs and was in a great deal of pain by the time he reached Puntilla Lake, where he scratched.

He’s been banged up before. He broke a rib in a previous race, going on to win while keeping the painful injury largely secret from his competitors. And in 2004, Swingley was forced to scratch when his corneas were frosted by cold, windy weather in the Dalzell Gorge, severely blurring his vision.

Swingley first won the Iditarod in 1995, then managed an incredible three-peat in 1999 through 2001. From 1992 through 2001, he always finished within the top 10. His legendary leaders Elmer, Stormy and Peppy became studs for countless other kennels. Along the way, he became known for speaking his mind, having an unquenchable swagger and a sharp sense of humor, which occasionally rubs a few people the wrong way but endears him to many.

Plenty of other mushers have retired in recent years, only to come storming back to sign up once again. Bill Cotter is one. But you get the sense that Swingley’s heart is taking him in a new direction.

Besides keeping a reduced kennel of 35 superior stage-racing sled dogs, Swingley and Shirilla are turning their focus and animal skills toward endurance horse racing. They’re trying to get a horse qualified for the 2010 world championships. “It’s a lot of work,” he said. Instead of being in Alaska in March, the couple will be in New Mexico and Arizona riding horses for 100 miles at a stretch.

The United States is a weak competitor in world distance horse riding competition, Swingley pointed out. “Maybe they need a big-mouthed, ex dog musher.”

Anderson got within four minutes of Mackey as the two wound their way down the Yukon River into Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, in the wee hours Wednesday. But catching up that late in a marathon race usually can’t be sustained, and Anderson’s dogs slowed down just a hair at the end. Mackey finished at 1:23 a.m., 15 minutes ahead of Anderson.

 

Both dog teams looked great coming into the finish, said Gwen Holdmann, Anderson’s wife. That’s something both mushers should be proud of. They have lots to make them smile, actually. Mackey’s string of victories is remarkable, and his dogs proved once again that they can run some long distances and still maintain good speed. He also finished with a string of 11 dogs, dropping off only three at checkpoints along the way.

He did it in 10 days, 12 hours and 14 minutes.

Mackey sounded happy, and relieved. “I had some issues this time,” Mackey said. “it was challenging. I had great competition pushing me along, and I found myself having to make decisions that hopefully didn’t back fire,” such as not stopping at McCabe as planned because Anderson had pushed on without taking a break there. The pair went 14 to 16 hours without stopping at that point.

He said he had a sore neck from looking back over his shoulder the last 100 miles, knowing that Anderson, who is known for finishing fast, was hunting him down. Towards the end, Mackey even turned around on the runners and faced backwards just to relieve his aching neck. He also took time to enjoy the moonlit night and warm 30-degree temperatures, occasionally whistling to his dogs to keep up the pace.

“All in all I think it was a great race,” he said, “good for spectators, good for myself to have to really be on my toes and make some smart decisions. The whole thing was good. I was really impressed with the dogs and how they stood up; their enthusiasm, stamina and endurance. They’re a pleasure to drive, real low maintenance.”

And they’re all some very familiar faces to anyone following Mackey’s remarkable run of victories in the last three or four years. Yes, nine-year-old Zorro was in there, and he finished. In fact, 10 of the 11 finishers were Mackey’s core group who are with him in every big race. They were Hobo and Rev in lead at the end; and there was Hansom and Larry, Foster, Boycuz, Rapper, Dread, Battel and Lippy. Of the group, only one was a two-year-old newcomer.

Anderson also has to feel good about managing such a strong finish despite being a rookie. It’s notable that his dogs had never run this race before, and that’s a huge disadvantage. They never knew what was coming around the corner or when the whole race was going to end. Mackey’s team had been here before. Dogs that have run a race remember exactly where the finish line is. They have incredible recall for trails, better than humans, in my opinion.

Anderson was running around Whitehorse on Wednesday, but I got hold of his wife on her cell phone, and she said they were both thrilled that he had done so well, and that he’d run a race that Holdmann had run twice and loves. Then her thoughts turned to the immediate future — the Iditarod. “I’m a little nervous about getting ready for Iditarod,” she said. Anderson has just a week to rest up before heading into pre-race Iditarod meetings. And then, there’s the dogs. These Quest dogs are supposed to run Iditarod as well. “We have a little different dogs than Lance,” she said. “They’re not quite as exuberant and happy go lucky. I asked him if he told them that they’re going on the Iditarod, but I guess he hasn’t broke that to them yet,” she said, laughing.

The big question for Mackey now is which dogs are going to be at the starting line in Anchorage. He said he wasn’t absolutely sure — “I always make up my mind at the last minute,” he said — but that the core Iditarod team will likely be some smaller dogs he left at home; most of them will be run by his step-son, Cain, in the Junior Iditarod starting Saturday, Feb. 23.

Mackey’s Quest dogs were bigger, suited to the heavy loads and hills. They were 13 males and one 60-pound female (Lippy).

He has two fresh leaders at home, and some tested veterans, and may fill in some holes with some of his Quest team, he said, then dropping this gem: “Ultimately, I want to take my best team on the (All Alaska) Sweepstakes.” That’s the $100,000, winner-take-all race in Nome that starts at the end of March, after Iditarod. “I still want to do well in the Iditarod, but I won’t be disappointed if I don’t win, but I will be targeting the Sweepstakes. It’s been my goal all year.”

Hmmm. When Lance Mackey has a goal, he has an incredible track record of making good on it.

Meanwhile, there was still teams on the trail fighting for position in the 25th annual Yukon Quest. David Dalton had almost a half-hour lead over Michelle Phillips for third place as the pair took off Wednesday morning from Braeburn for the final 100-mile push to the finish line. Brent Sass appeared to have a lock on fifth place. It took Mackey 11 and a half hours to make that run.

It’s down to the wire for Lance Mackey and Ken Anderson in the 2008 Yukon Quest International.

Once the big news “blackout” between Dawson City and Pelly Crossing was over, word began leaking out about lost trail and the obvious duel between reigning three-time champion Mackey and Anderson in the suddenly sweltering 2008 Yukon Quest.

The Quest web site began posting word that Mackey had missed a critical turn way back at King Solomon’s Dome, which is the first hurdle mushers faced leaving Dawson City. That misstep cost him several hours. Word is, he lost more than three hours.

Anderson told checkers at Pelly Crossing that Mackey made up the difference by camping four and a half hours, compared to Anderson’s seven hours, on the long run down to Scroggie Creek, about 100 miles from Dawson.

I’m sure Mackey’s gaffe will be fleshed out as reporters descend on the two front-runners who finally pulled up to rest their dogs at Carmacks, just 177 miles from the finish in Whitehorse, Yukon Territories.

The two leaders had arrived at Carmacks at virtually the same time, 10:40 a.m. Yukon time, and were parked as I wrote this. (No, there is no official news blackout leaving Dawson, but it is so remote that everybody just has to wait for news until mushers arrive in Pelly Crossing.)

That night-long run across the Yukon will be Mackey and Anderson’s big push. Given the relatively short distance to the finish, there’s no more room for leaving the other guy behind, short of one of the two pulling out after a three-hour break to position himself for a win. That would be doubtful, but not inconceivable, after traveling roughly 14 hours from Stepping Stone in Mackey’s case, or a little longer than than from somewhere before Stepping Stone for Anderson.

Their timing is still very smart. They ran through the “cool” of the night and allowed their dogs to nap in the hottest part of the day. Temperatures were hovering right around freezing, which is hot for sled dogs, all through the night. The same system affecting the Quest has warmed upSouthcentral Alaska, which is suddenly posting temperatures in the mid-30s. (It is forecast to last out the week, then cool off just a little, hopefully in time for the start of the Iditarod.)

Last year, Mackey was able to back off in the second half of the Quest and cruise to a win, which allowed him the option of taking most of the same dogs in the Iditarod. Has Anderson forced Mackey to race harder than he would like this time around, and has that reduced the chance of Mackey running the same dogs in Iditarod? The same question goes for Anderson, who wanted to run the Quest as a bit of a tune-up for the Iditarod.

Mackey has said he has an Iditarod team ready in the wings, and he has been pumped about how well his handlers back home were keeping those charges fit and focused.

Meanwhile, the race for first boils down to a simple and relatively flat 77-mile run to Braeburn, where all mushers must take a mandatory eight-hour rest. From there, they run 100 miles straight to the finish in Whitehorse. There will be no camping on the trail for these two. They’ll run straight to Braeburn, and then make the 100-mile push to the finish over well-established and probably easy trail.

In the hunt for third place, it’s still between three teams. But Michelle Phillips appears to be rising to the front of that pack, which includes David Dalton and Brent Sass.

There isn’t a musher on the Iditarod trail that weekend who doesn’t think at least one of his or her dogs is something special, or who doesn’t have some kind of friendship with one of those canines in harness, charging up the trail.

Throughout this year’s Iditarod, I hope to post a few quick profiles of some of those dogs, selected from a mixed bunch of dog teams, from front runners to the back of the pack.

Seeing images of these dogs may burst bubbles for a few fans, those who imagine that all sled dogs look as magnificent as Karen Ramstead’s AKC-registered Siberian huskies. I hate to break it to those fans, but most racing huskies don’t look like Hollywood stereotypes. Most look like the skinny, flop-eared mongrels (by kennel club standards) that they are; or what lovers of these dogs have coined, “Alaskan huskies.” Do not misunderstand, Alaskan huskies are not pet dogs commandeered off the street. The breed has been developed over the last 100 years by racing mushers from all over the northern hemisphere, although the heart of the work was centered in Alaska. Much like a Chesapeake retriever will cheerfully dive into a lake for hours on end, these huskies love to run.

The first profile is one of Ed Stielstra’s dogs, named “Starman.” (Click here to see it.) Look for these profiles to run periodically during the 2008 Iditarod.

For more information about the class and for directions, please contact Deby Trosper at 907.352.2212 or 907.232.9090.

By day four of the 2008 Yukon Quest, it appeared that Lance Mackey was once again in the driver’s seat, a position he’s become increasingly comfortable with since he first won the race as a rookie in 2005. He’s won the last three. Just looking at the numbers of dogs, Mackey is having a good race and his runs are classic Lance Mackey: Long, steady with good speed, and he’s taken one or two shorter breaks than the competition.

There is one exception: Ken Anderson. Mackey’s neighbor from Fox, Alaska, is hanging right in there, though he’s down to 11 dogs. The pair pulled out together from Eagle, a remote community on the Yukon River, at just after 7 a.m. Alaska time on Wednesday, Feb. 13.

 

The two are making long, but not too long, runs and sometimes taking diminished rests – Anderson took four hours at Central and four hours again at Slaven’s cabin – creating a one-two punch that most teams can’t match. Those run-rest schedules have been expertly crafted by each musher to position their team to take best advantage of the time of day. It’s long been known that dog teams travel best between 6 a.m. and noon, and again between 6 p.m. and midnight — dawn and dusk; it’s a predatory instinct. Take a look at the times of day Mackey and Anderson are moving. None of the other teams seem to be in sync with that natural pattern.

The next 150 miles between checkpoints has one initial challenge; American Summit. They ran immediately uphill out of town, following a snow-covered road for several miles that would lead them up and over the summit, a wind-blown, largely treeless knob that can be pretty tricky at times. The wind sculpts snow up there, creating nasty sidehills. From there, they descend back down hill until they once again wind up on rivers. They’ll be in Fortymile country until hooking back into the Yukon River into the halfway point of Dawson City.

The four to five hour gap opened between Mackey and Anderson and the next pack of mushers out of Eagle – Brent Sass, Michelle Phillips, Hugh Neff and David Dalton – is considerable but not insurmountable.

Anderson was docked for a two-hour penalty for not signing out of the Chena Hot Springs checkpoint (three others also failed to sign out), but he got lucky. There’s a mandatory four-hour rest at Eagle, but he and Mackey stayed seven hours anyway, which more than covered Anderson’s two-hour penalty. It had taken them 19 to 20 hours to travel the 100 miles from Slaven’s cabin to Eagle, which means they’d done a couple of six-hour runs and taken a relatively long rest along the way.

Anderson has said he’s keeping his mind set on Iditarod, hoping to run many of these same dogs in that race, a tactic Mackey has perfected over the last few years. Mackey pulled off the unimaginable, winning the Quest and Iditarod back to back last year.

It will be interesting to see how the pair respond to each other on the way to Dawson, and beyond. Will they run together for a while before racing to the finish? Or will one of them go for a major run, hoping to pull away?

Kaduce sacrifices time to care for sick dog

Meanwhile, the early rabbit, Dan Kaduce, had problems that set him back drastically. If he’d left on schedule, he would have showed up in Eagle three to five hours behind Mackey and Anderson, by 6 a.m. Feb. 13 Alaska time at the latest. As it was, he got there by 5 p.m. According to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Kaduce had to turn around two hours after leaving Slaven’s cabin because he had a seriously ill dog.

Ten miles down the trail from Slaven’s, a four-year-old dog in his team vomited, twice, and appeared to have ulcers. He turned back so he could get the dog back to a veterinarian staffed at Slaven’s. Vets there later said Kaduce’s dog would be fine. Kaduce wisely sacrificed eight hours to the leaders in order to care for his dog. He left Slaven’s for the second time at 2:20 p.m. Feb. 12 with a string of 10 dogs.

Before the 2008 Yukon Quest started, mushers were speculating about which team was going to challenge three-time defending champ, Lance Mackey. Dan Kaduce was among those mentioned as a contender, along with Brent Sass, Hugh Neff and Ken Anderson. By day one of the Quest, Kaduce obviously was the first to make a move, by running almost nine hours straight from the starting line in Fairbanks to Chena Hot Springs.

In the press, Kaduce has said he was surprised nobody else tried running long right off the bat, considering mushers were faced with a 10- to 15-hour rest break once they got to Chena anyway. The long rest is the result of a last-minute detour: Racers loaded their dogs into trucks and bypassed the Rosebud section of trail – a long string of treeless ridges largely windblown of snow and riddled with sharp rocks.

Unlike Kaduce, the others opted for short snack breaks, breaking the roughly 90-mile run to Chena into two chunks.

The bottom line is that Kaduce held a two-hour lead arriving at Circle over Mackey and Sass. That lead is hardly insurmountable as teams enter the third day of what will likely be an 11-day race. Mackey and Anderson leapfrogged ahead of him by leaving Circle City at 1 p.m. Alaska time. But this has been a good start for Kaduce.

Going long early is usually a big gamble, and one that rarely pays off. But this was a unique situation. The conventional wisdom (and it is wisdom) is to start with shorter runs and get the dogs into a pattern before launching into eight-, 10- or 12-hour jogs by the race’s mid-point. But Kaduce is just the guy to take that gamble on day one. He’s long had a fast and seasoned dog team and has built a program that has been recognized by other mushers even if he’s not yet known well by the public.

Kaduce realized that his team would have a nice break after the long initial run. Given that he arrived at Circle, some 200 miles into the race, with all 14 dogs in harness, is evidence that Kaduce didn’t hurt his chances to win. (I’m home at in Kasilof, Alaska, simply watching the updates and news stories from a distance. So I don’t have on-the-trail insight into what’s going on. I did talk to one veteran musher from Two Rivers who said both Kaduce and Mackey looked great on the first day.)

With notorious Eagle Summit behind them, teams will depart from Circle City on the first of three long stretches of 150 to 200 miles, broken up by the checkpoints of Eagle and Dawson City. The next leg is a flat one, along the broad Yukon River to Eagle. Temperatures, which started out in the 40-below range, have moderated to minus 10 or so – very comfortable for dogs and drivers. Keep in mind as you watch the race unfold on the update page, that this (just like the Iditarod) is a chess match played out in numbingly cold temperatures by players operating on minimal sleep. A miss-step early can be costly later, in terms of a dog team slowing down and getting passed.

Other Athlete inductees include Carlos Boozer, Utah Jazz forward and National Basketball Association All Star, Trajan Langdon, the first Alaskan to play in the NBA and Mark Schlereth, three-time Super Bowl champion.

Joe Redington Sr., the “Father” of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race from Anchorage to Nome. Redington was widely regarded for his role in establishing and promoting the race, which went on to become Alaska’s premier sporting event. Redington competed in the race 17 times, finishing as high as fifth place. He died in 1999.

Rick Swenson, sometimes known as the “King of the Iditarod”, he won the race an unprecedented five-times and is the only person to win the race in three different decades. Swenson has completed the race 29 times, finishing in the top-ten in all but five.

Other Class of 2008 Inductees Include;

Carlos Boozer, who played at Duke University. The former Juneau-Douglas High star is now one of the elite power forwards in the NBA with the Utah Jazz. Boozer helped lead Duke to a National Championship in 2001 and earned an Olympic Bronze Medal with Team USA in the 2004. Boozer was named an NBA All-Star in 2007.

Trajan Langdon, the East High basketball star who played at Duke University before a short career in the NBA. Langdon was a three-time Alaska high school athlete of the year before going on to an All-American career at Duke University. Known as “the Alaskan Assassin” for his shooting prowess, he set the team record for three pointers. Langdon was drafted in the NBA lottery by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1999 and still plays professionally overseas.

Mark Schlereth, a Service High grad who went on to win three Super Bowl rings as a Pro Bowl offensive lineman, first with the Washington Redskins, then with the Denver Broncos. Widely regarded for his durability, Schlereth started 140 out of 156 games in his 12-year career despite undergoing 20 knee surgeries. Schlereth is now one of ESPN’s most prominent football analysts.

The Great Alaska Shootout, originally called the Seawolf Classic, received top honors in the event category. The college basketball tournament in Anchorage features colleges from all over the United States and annually brings national attention to Alaska.

The moment selected was Tommy Moe’s 1994 Olympic gold medal in the downhill. Moe’s dramatic victory stunned the world and made him an instant national celebrity. Tommy Moe was inducted into the charter class of the Hall of Fame as an individual.

“The Class of 2008 is an impressive list,” said Harlow Robinson, President of the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame. “We are proud to welcome them into the Hall!”

The public is welcome to attend the induction ceremony for the class on February 19, 2008 at the ConocoPhillips atrium in Anchorage. ConocoPhillips is a major sponsor of this event.

Other athletes receiving votes (in alphabetical order): Big Bob Aiken, Red Boucher, Audun Endestad, Rosey Fletcher, Doug Herron, Nicole Johnston, Reggie Joule, Nina Kemppel, Wally Leask, Hilary Lindh, Buck Nystrom, Brad Precosky, Reilly Richey, Libby Riddles, Vern Tejas, Norman Vaughan, Bradford Washburn.

Other events receiving votes (in random order): Midnight Sun baseball game, World Eskimo-Indian Olympics, Yukon Quest, Mount Marathon, Gold Medal basketball tournament, Special Olympics, Alaska Woman’s Run, Arctic Winter Games.

Other moments receiving votes (in random order): Susan Butcher’s first of three straight Iditarod victories; Hilary Lindh’s Olympic silver medal in the downhill run; Les Anderson’s world-record king salmon catch; the 1978 Iditarod photo finish between Dick Mackey and Rick Swenson; Scott Gomez brings the Stanley Cup to Anchorage; Monroe Catholic beats East Anchorage to win the 1979 state basketball championship; Kris Thorness becomes Alaska’s first Olympic medalist, Rick Swenson’s fifth Iditarod victory, Doug Herron’s 800 meter record, UAF’s victory in the Top of the World Classic, Susan Butcher’s fourth Iditarod victory, Carlos Boozer leads Duke to the 2001 National championship, the 1925 Serum Run, Noorvik’s Elliot Sampson wins the high school cross country championships.

Selection panel: Bob Eley, sports editor, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (chairman); Beth Bragg, columnist and former sports editor, Anchorage Daily News; Dennis Egan, radio broadcaster, Juneau; Lew Freedman, Chicago, former Anchorage Daily News sports editor and author of numerous books about Alaska sports; Mike Janecek, Palmer, longtime high school coach and athletics administrator; Danny Martin, sports writer, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner; Steve Nerland, Anchorage, American Legion baseball manager; Mike Sica, longtime Alaskan sports broadcaster and journalist. Results of Internet voting by the public constituted the panel’s ninth vote.

The Alaska Sports Hall of Fame is a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization established March 17, 2004. The mission of the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame is to teach, to honor and to inspire. For additional information about the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame, visit http://www.alaskasportshall.org/, contact Harlow Robinson at 907.240.3684 or Denise Brown Robinson at 907.360.1832.

Joe Runyan is training dogs this winter in the Kenai Peninsula’s Caribou Hills, far from his home in the Lower 48, expecting to once again drive a team in the Iditarod after a 14-year hiatus.

This time, the former champion will work as Rachael Scdoris’ visual interpreter, covering for Tim Osmar, who is slowly healing from a badly broken leg and is unable to safely work a sled.

 

Runyan has never been one to go lightly into any project. In the 1980s, he won the Yukon Quest, Iditarod and Alpirod, and is the only musher to claim all three titles. He retired from racing in the mid-1990s, moving from Alaska to New Mexico, only to re-emerge a few yeas later as a popular analyst of the sport, on the web, in magazines and, lately, on video.

Runyan was poised to help Discovery Channel produce a documentary on Rachael Scdoris during this year’s race. Then, in June, Osmar shattered his leg fighting a wildfire that threatened his home. When it became obvious that Osmar wasn’t healing fast enough, the show’s producers turned to Runyan.

He couldn’t resist.

Now reality is setting in. By mid-January, the 59-year-old former champion was shaking off the rust by running Osmar’s race team on 40-milers near Osmar’s log house in the Caribou Hills.

“The dogs won on the first day,” Runyan said. He didn’t get 20 yards before the team took a sharp corner, flipped the sled and dumped him hard. “On the next run, I won, and the dogs were under my control,” he said.

“My problem is Timmy’s got to buff me up. It’s been 15 years since I did the Iditarod.” While Runyan said he’s brimming with enthusiasm and optimism, he’s going to have to rely not just on Osmar’s advice, but he joked he’d be leaning on Scdoris as well. “I told her I’ve got to depend on her, too, to get up the trail. I’ll be the oldest Iditarod champion out there.”

Jokes about age aside, Scdoris said she’s happy. She was initially disappointed that her trail buddy Osmar, who successfully helped her complete her first Iditarod in 2006, isn’t healthy enough to go again. But she’s excited by the fallback plan. Osmar has run every Iditarod since 1985 and has a photographic knowledge of the trail and what it takes to get up it. And Runyan has been a diligent student of the race since he walked away after 1993. Osmar and Runyan will huddle over the dogs, drop bags and all aspects of the race right up until March 2, when Runyan will be on his own. It’s quite a brain trust, but Runyan said Osmar is the boss. “He’s the teacher and I’m the student. It’s a lot of fun,” he said.

Runyan’s job is to run a team a few seconds or a few minutes within Scdoris, who is legally blind. She needs a driver to yell to warn her when hazards such as low branches, steep descents or open water are coming up. “I’ve known Joe since I was a little girl. He’s just a fun guy,” Scdoris said, adding that she believes Runyan will be level headed when things get tough. Scdoris said their goal is to beat teams they are supposed to beat, beat a few they aren’t supposed to beat, and have some others looking over their shoulders.

Runyan looked over the dogs in both teams, concluding Scdoris has a good team and “Timmy’s got a real competitive team. The challenge will be to match up both teams. We’ve got to convince Timmy’s team to travel logically, which is hard to do with sled dogs.”

He’s also pumped about the video documentary, which he said will give a broader look at what it’s like running in the middle to back of the pack. “It’s about more than what it takes to get Rachael to Nome. It’s a commentary about physical and cultural changes,” he said, describing the producer as an “anthropologist at heart.”

As far as his new winter location, staked out at a bed & breakfast in Clam Gulch, Alaska, the former Interior resident said, “I love the weather. I’m used to 50 below at Nenana. I’m basking in the warm weather. That’s great.”

It’s been a balmy 27 below at Clam Gulch in February.

Martin Buser’s wife, Kathy Chapoton, coined it perfectly in a blog during the Kuskokwim 300 sled dog race. She renamed the race the “Kusko-swim.” In a race where weather and location combined into a perfect miserable storm, mushers found themselves wading up to their hips in ice cold river water – and their dogs swimming in it – not once or twice, but over and over again for more than 50 miles.

Mitch Seavey from Sterling, Alaska, ended up with enough lead dogs and power to slog to the front and win the 2008 running of one of the most competitive and tricky 300-milers in the world. Ramey Smyth powered to second place.

 

Based in Bethel, Alaska, the race follows the broad Kuskokwim River north from village to village for 150 miles before button-hooking back to Bethel.

Weather was perfect when 22 dog teams departed on Jan. 18. It was in the 20s and the flat river trail was covered in snow. Then a warm south wind began to blow, then roar, gusting to 50 mph as temperatures rose into the upper 30s. By the halfway point, mushers reported crawling into howling headwinds with “blowing water” instead of blowing snow. And within hours, the snow turned to slush and then melted away. “I’ve never seen any change in a trail that fast,” said Martin Buser. “As we were going you could see things disappear. Even the ribbon of trail that was snow when we started out (from Aniak near the halfway point) was washed out and became dirt, a mere ribbon of fallen down trail markers.”

Anywhere else, such conditions would be bad, but the Kuskokwim 300 is run on a river, and one so near its mouth in the Pacific Ocean that it is tidally influenced. Along with the wind, tide waters were pushing up through cracks in the ice.

What the front runners hit on their way back to the start/finish line sounds nothing short of nightmarish. At night, they found themselves running on ice covered by six inches of water, punctuated with holes up to three feet deep. It seemed like the rising tide was forcing the wooden lathe trail markers up out of their chain-sawed slots in the ice. Mushers saw the markers floating in greasy pools of water.

“That last run from Akiachak (18 miles from the finish) to Bethel was the toughest run I’ve ever done,’ Seavey said. “That’s saying something since I’ve been running dogs since 1964.” Imagine the tension among mushers who had to lead their swimming teams across yards-long pools of deep water. They had to assume there was still river ice under their feet. The alternative would mean death.

“Our concern was, did the holes under the puddles go all the way into the river?,” Seavey said. “You just don’t know, and you keep the markers in your sight and assume that when they were put there, trailbreakers weren’t running close to any deep holes.”

Seavey always seems to rise to the top when conditions are the worst. Soft snow slowed teams to a crawl in the 2004 Iditarod, and Seavey pulled ahead leaving Koyuk to claim his first Iditarod victory. That same year, the Kusko had high winds and deep snow drifts. He won the Kusko that year, too.

He said his key to success in this year’s Kusko was enough leaders. He’d keep switching new dogs to the front of the team to spell the others. Seavey is understandably confident about his team for 2008.

Buser wasn’t trying to win, announcing before the race that his finish line was “in Nome.” He set out with a team that included younger dogs that needed testing. Buser is trying to field two teams in this year’s Iditarod, one for himself and one for his son, Rohn, 18, who is going to run his rookie Iditarod. Rohn got the A team, the trouble-free dogs, in Kusko, which his father described as a blessing. “I thought I gave him a winning dog team; they were some of the absolute best dogs of our kennel to work with. If it had been last year, he may have won by an hour or more.”

Indeed, Rohn led most of the way, but eventually got bogged down in those treacherous final miles. “His skills today are so much greater than his skills four days ago,” Martin Buser said right after the race. “It’s simply because he’s a young racer. There’s certain things you just can’t teach.” (Motivating your team to wallow through endless pools of deep ice water, for example.)

Actually, Martin Buser said his past experience taught him to do a few things to calm his team. He’d turn off his headlamp so the dogs didn’t have to see what appeared to them like an endless ocean all around. “In the scariest situations, I turned off all the lights,” he said. “I know that helped my dogs. Once I totally relinquished all my guidance, we were almost better off, but it was scarier than hell.”

Buser pointed out that these challenges, which the Kusko seems to throw at teams each year, are a real benefit to mushers and dogs. They build confidence, character and team unity.

Some drivers had better luck than others. Martin Buser, Seavey, Smyth, Ed Iten and John Baker found their way back OK. But others got lost or had to pull over. Rohn Buser pulled off on an island that seemed surrounded by deep water, and camped with his team until the water subsided a little. Jeff King got disoriented, which Seavey pointed out was easy to do with a dog team snaking around deep water on flat river ice. King mistakenly drove backwards for five miles, turned around, then wound up letting his team sleep for three hours up on a bank while he walked about a mile to find dry trail.

“These aren’t water dogs, they’re sled dogs, and they don’t like getting wet,” King said. “Miles and miles of grinding it out through endless water took a toll on the lead dogs, sapping their spirits.”

Seavey was surprised so many teams made it through the water and crossed the finish line. “When I was coming through there I was thinking, ‘There’s a lot of dog team that just couldn’t do this,’ he said. “I guess it’s a testament to the quality of teams in this race that as many finished that did. I was real impressed.”

Find the final standings and photos from the 2008 Kuskokwim 300 at the official race web site, www.k300.org/.