Iditarod 39 - OMG !!!

This is the beginning for the 2011 Iditarod race.  It is day one, or the Ceremonial Start in downtown Anchorage.  The weather is sunny, and about 20 degrees. A bit warm for the dog athletes and just right for the mushers.  Oh My Gosh what a day. I was selected to handle the dogs for Lance Mackey. He is a four time Iditarod winner. He also is the only musher to win the Yukon Quest (1050 miles towards Canada) and then two weeks later win the Iditarod (1050 miles to Nome).  It was so exciting. 

The athlete waiting for the race to begin.  This year I was a dog handler and was able to go anywhere I wanted. Next to mushers, pet the dogs, ask mushers lots of questions and ask for our pictures to be taken. I learned so much.  This is one of many dogs and at this time (8 a.m.) the dogs are sitting around somewhat quietly and waiting for their meal. The meal is a warm broth of with some stuff in it.  Yum!

This is one of many sleds you will see. Some sleds are short vs long, some are wooden vs aluminum, some are covered and some are not.  Each musher has their reason for which sled they use.  Since this is the ceremonial start, each musher has an Iditarider. This person has bid to ride in the sled from Anchorage to Campbell Creek Center.  I tried to bid on Angie Taggerts sled.  She is a teacher and she is running her first Iditarod and using Jeff King's dog sled. Jeff is in Sweden trying to round up more sponsors and mushers for next year's Iditarod.  Almost all the Iditariders paid $7500 to ride for 25 miles. 

This is the Iditarider for a musher. He is from Florida.  He borrowed all the furs and boots to make the ride.

These are some warm boots!  They are hand made by a lady from a Bush Village.  In the olden days, the ladies chewed the sinew to make it pliable for sewing.

This cute little girl is from Bethel. A bush village.  She is in 2nd grade. She just arrived in Anchorage with her grandmother.  In true Native manner, I asked a question and she looked at her grandparent before she answered. I asked if I could take her picture and she waited for her grandmother to nod before I took her picture. She was very curious to see her picture on the camera.  Most native have never seen themselves in a picture. I wish I had a portable printer to give them a photo for them to keep.  This is the seal/beaver hat I wore in my last blog.  I had quite a few people write asking how dark my hair was and what kind of hairstyle was I wearing.  I had on this hand made (by a Native) beaver (front) and spotted seal (side and back) hat.  It was so warm. My neighbor is letting me take it to Nome to wear to keep me warm.  This is the infamous Dee Dee Jonrowe.  She is an awesome athlete and terrific women.  I have never met anyone who who hasn't said anything but positive and kind words about her. Last year she ran the Iditarod for her mom. Dee Dee is a breast cancer survivor and her mother was finishing her breast cancer treatments when Deedee went on the race. 

This is the Seavey Family.  Mitch, father, in the middle and his son, Dallas on the right.  Dallas beat his father in last year's Iditarod.  Dallas hopes to win this year to join his father as a past winner. 

This is Waddie McDonald the musher from Scotland. He is known for wearing his kilt.  Don't you love the dogs jackets - red plaid.  All 16 dogs had these wonderful jackets on. 

This is Michael Williams, an Alaskan Native, and his family rides with him as he heads towards the starting line.

I was able to get an up close photo of the dog trucks. These dogs are just so relaxed and yet they know they can't wait to run to Nome.  Look how they just sit and look back at me.  I still have to think how amazing it is that these dogs are so sleek ad muscle bound vs big and bulky huskies. Most of these dogs are bred to run and it is not uncommon for a team to include several sets of siblings.

This is the Mushin Mortician - Scott Janseen.  When he graduated from college his sister make him a cake that had a dog sled team pulling a coffin. This was his dream, Iditarod, and his career, mortician.  He is quite a funny guy.  I got my picture taken with him but I love his mushing patch.

Don't you just love the Kennel sign.  Yellow Snow Dog sled rides and tours.  Aren't those beautiful dogs.  The one on the left runs in the middle of the pack and the one on the right is a wheel dog, closest to the sled.  Wheel  dogs are the bulk dogs and pull but typically are not very smart.  Sounds like most athletes huh?

This is Angie Taggert, a fellow teacher running her first Iditarod. As of today she is hanging in there. She still has all her dogs. If you have watched the Iditarod standings (Iditarod.com) this is a bit strange race. Apparently the weather is so warm, about 30, and the dogs are having a hard time running in this warm weather. As I stated, they like and run best about zero - minus 20 degrees.  Plus kennel cough seems to be taking quite a few dogs. Then the musher has to "dog drop" their dog. This means they load the dog on a float plane and send it back to Anchorage. Then the Dog Drop team (I hope to work it next year) cares for the returned dogs until they are loaded on a truck and sent to the ladies prison in Eagle River.  At this location the dogs are well cared for and nursed back to health and loved.  Quite a nice process.

This was a patch worn by an entire group of fans.  They made the trip from Southern Africa to see how the Iditarod Race is run.  They practice sled dog racing on dirt roads in Africa.  I am sure we will see one of their mushers in the near future.

OMG!   It's Lance Mackey, Sheryl and Niki.  We were his dog handlers for the Iditarod.  Here we are getting the dogs and the sled with Lance to the start line. What you haven't seen is we RAN with these dogs for almost 7 blocks. That is a long distance for a human tugging a muscular professional race dog! It was so hard.  I thought I was in shape, I lift plenty of weights and yet I couldn't hold these dogs to a walk or trot. They pulled me all the way. At the point where Lance was hooking up his dogs, I said, "Lance, this one has almost chewed through is guide line." He said he would fix it at the start.  Okay but I was confused. And of course, I lost the dog on the way to the start. He did chew through the rope and I went to catch him but he wrapped around my legs.  The professional handler (paid Mackey employee) took over my other leash and let me get untangled and then rejoined the team almost at the start line.  I am so glad the dog didn't run away into the crowd.  All these dogs want to do is run so it would not be unheard of if they kept running for hundreds of miles.

I am petting Bruiser before they got hooked on the gang line. This is Maple. She won the Golden Harness Award 2010.  This great honor is awarded to the most outstanding dog of the race. Maple has been Lance's lead dog for years.  Isn't that quite the honor to wear her golden harness?  Unfortunately, this year, Maple has been placed on the "dog drop" and sent back to Anchorage after 3 days.  She had a "funny run" and Lance didn't want to end her career so it was a difficult decision to send her home.

I can not tell you what an honor it was to work with such a wonderful man and an amazing dog team.  I was so nervous about stepping on their feet as they pulled me to the start line.  It was a chance of a lifetime.  I will post the Restart of the Iditarod 39 in Willow next. I had the dubious honor to be about 4 miles from the start and on Crystal Lake and shook hands with many of the mushers as they passed in front of us.  You will love those photos I am sure.  I am still pinching myself about this experience. 

I hope you all are doing well. David had a terrific time in Daytona at Bike (motorcycle) Week. Safe trip there and back. Thank you big brother, Russ and wonderful wife, Tracy, for keeping tabs on David and taking wonderful pictures. Thank you Ron and Cathy for getting David home safely every night.  My son, Tyler, is skiing in Colorado and Jensina is touring Italy with Morgan. Those two girls will have plenty of stories to share with us.  They did get a bit lost their first day in Italy. It was harder to communicate to the locals than they expected. But in traditional Warmbold method, Jensina found a way to get the correct directions to the train and hotel and all is well!!!

Hugs to you all. Don't forget to set your clocks back this weekend. I am hoping to wake up at 3 a.m. to view the Northern Lights tonight.  The forecast is good for it. I will have to drive into the mountains to view it out of the town lights.

Hugs from Nanuq of the North.