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Update 29
We Met Our Goals!!!--Jim's Post-race Reflections

The Only Thing We Lost Was Sleep

Nome, Alaska, Friday, March 15, 2002

A low range of mountains runs parallel to the Old Woman Portage, a 90-mile trail that connects the Yukon River to the Bering Sea between the villages of Kaltag and Unalakleet.

There's no place like Nome!!!  My dogs and I crested Cape Nome just after 5 AM yesterday morning.  Below us and a few miles distant twinkled more lights than we had seen in over a thousand miles.  Nome--we made it.

I stopped the team and walked to Willow and Otis at the front of the team.  I kneeled down, tears welling up in my eyes, and gave both of them a hug.  "You guys did it."  Thank you so much.  We are about to go to where there are more people than we have seen in a long time.  This is our own finish."

In Nulato, this little puppy found its way into Aily Zirkle's dog sled.

I did this with each of my 12 dogs, and we sat there, on the Cape with Nome in the distance, and thought about what had done.  All of the training, the hard work, the determination, and the sacrifice had come down to the last miles.  

What a trip.  The dogs performed so wonderfully and had such great attitudes that the race was thoroughly enjoyable.  Sure, there were times that were not always fun, and there were times when I found myself in awe at the awesome challenge and sheer length of this journey, but I never found myself thinking that the endeavor was impossible.  

Jim's team makes good time as it runs along the Old Woman Portage to the Bering Sea Coast.

The spirit of cooperation and teamwork in the Iditarod is amazing.  Not only do dogs and humans work so closely together that the lines separating what is four legged and what is two legged become blurred.  Mushers also cooperate together, work together, and support each other.  This is the true spirit of the Iditarod.

I must admit that I broke rule #1 of mushing.  As I made my way out of the "Buffalo Tunnels" between Rohn and Nikolai, I was in a collision with a tree on an icy slope, I took a bad fall, hit my head on the ice, and LET GO OF THE SLED.  I lost my team!  In an instant, any pain from hitting my head was gone and I began to run and yell after the team, but they were too fast for me, and soon I found myself hot and sweating and slowing down to a walk. 

My mind was racing.  What if they didn't stop?  How long would it be before I caught them?  Would the dogs be okay?

High winds reduced 9 feet of snow to just a few inches in some places along the trail.

Within a minute of these thoughts, Bob Bundtzen and his team were behind me, and Bob invited me to hop on his sled and ride with him to find my team.  After about two miles of rough riding on the top of Bob's sled, we heard barking, came around a corner, and saw my sled.  

I ran to the front of the team, and looked over all of the dogs.  They were fine.  Everything was okay.  The team stopped because my snowhooks caught in the snow on the side of the trail.  I was very lucky, and I was very fortunate that Bob Bundtzen was there to give me a ride.  Again, the spirit of the Iditarod came through.

"The edge of the world."

Of course the dogs are the other part of the great spirit of this race.  Their enthusiasm, athleticism, loyalty, and courage are practically limitless.  I saw my dogs run me to the end of the earth (at least to the edge of the Western world when we hit the Bering Sea Coast), and when we reached it, they took a quick right turn and kept on going. 

When a rest stop was over and it was time for the dogs to rise from their straw beds and run, they were instantly ready to go.  They never looked back, and they never questioned what we were trying to do.

Of the sixteen dogs that started with me, I finished with 12.  The other four were sent home from checkpoints along the trail.  These four were still ready and willing to go, but they were either not as fast, not feeling well, or feeling a little bit sore.  Leaving them behind was a hard thing to do, but it was the right thing to do.

For those of you who know my dogs, Mack, Smoke, Ruby, and Don were the four that went home early.  Willow, Otis, Orion, Tyke, Duchess, Cecil, Sancho, Ophir, Cruise, Gibson, Scout, and Crackle were my finishing dogs.

Looking back on this race, we met all of our goals.  We wanted to get to the finish line with a happy, healthy team.  We wanted to finish in under 11 days.  We wanted to finish in the top 20.  And we wanted to have fun.  I had twelve very strong and very energetic dogs at the finish.  I finished in a time of 10 days 20 hours and 38 minutes.  I had a wonderful time, and I was 30th place--not in the top 20, but had I been in nearly any of the other 29 Iditarods, I would have been.  I was very, very happy.

Thanks for everyone's excitement and support.  We will continue with periodic updates throughout the spring and summer.  This is the beginning of next year's race.  We are already making plans for next year....

For Ultimate Iditarod from the Nome Iditarod Race Headquarters,

Jim Gallea, 2002 Iditarod Musher

© 2002 Ultimate Iditarod, Snowcrest Racing Sled Dogs, Seavey's Iditarod Racing Team
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