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Ultimate Iditarod's EXCLUSIVE 2005 Iditarod Coverage Update 3--The Iditarod is under way! March 6, 7:00 PM AST
By Ultimate Iditarod's Jim Gallea Introduction This update is going to cover a lot of preliminary things regarding the Iditarod. Below is a list of topics. You can read straight through them, or click on the items below to go to those that interest you. A
diverse group of mushers makes up this year's field Not every team entered in the race has the goal of winning the race. Every musher has his or her own reasons for wanting to run the Iditarod. Mushers like Phil Morgan are headed out on the trail for their first time and hope only to have a good trip and get to Nome safely. Some mushers like G.B. Jones are veterans who run the race year after year more for the experience of the trip than to try to be competitive. Still other teams are made up of young dogs who have never raced before. These teams will take it slow and easy and give everyone involved invaluable experience for future races. Dallas Seavey, Andrew Letzring, and J.T. Hessert are mushers driving some of these young teams. Meanwhile, some mushers are veteran racers who are working every year to improve their teams and move up in the standings. Some of these mushers include Jerry Sousa, Mike Williams, Cliff Wang, and Aliy Zirkle. There's also a contingent of young, up-and-coming mushers, many of whom are second or third generation mushers from families with long traditions of racing. Tyrell Seavey, running his second Iditarod, is son of Iditarod Champion Mitch Seavey and grandson of Dan Seavey, third place finisher in the very first Iditarod in 1973. Jason Barron, son of long-time Iditarod Musher John Barron, placed 12th in last year's race and, along with his wife, Harmony, is gunning for the top positions. Add to this list Jessica Hendricks, Iditarod rookie of the year in 2003, who recently set a speed record in the Tustumena 200 dog sled race. Just because these mushers don't have as many Iditarod finishes under their belts as some of the "big guns" doesn't mean they don't have a serious chance at being very competitive. A large number of mushers in this year's race are consistently top finishers. In fact, this year's Iditarod is one of the most competitive ever. Six past champions are running the race: Mitch Seavey, Robert Sorlie, Martin Buser, Doug Swingley, Jeff King, and Rick Swenson. In addition, several top finishing mushers are also in the race. This list includes: Ramy Brooks, DeeDee Jonrowe, Charlie Boulding, John Baker, Ed Iten, Ramy Smyth, and many others. All of these mushers plus many others have legitimate shots at taking home the title. And let's not forget Rachael Scdoris, a very inspirational 20-year-old musher from Oregon. Legally blind but still able to see shapes and shadows, Rachael is making history as the first blind musher to do the Iditarod. In an unprecedented set of exceptions to the race rules, the Iditarod is allowing Rachael to communicate with another musher via radio in order to give her advanced warming of the twists and turns on the Iditarod Trail. This musher will travel closely with Rachael for the entire race, but it is important to keep in mind that Rachael is her own entrant in the race, and her "visual interpreter" is a separate competitor. Rachael is receiving a great deal of media attention, but everyone agrees that she is handling it with great poise and professionalism, and she continues to put her dogs above all others. Most people wouldn't even dream of attempting the Iditarod, not to mention attempting it while legally blind. Rachael is adding a new dimension to this year's race, and we wish her the best. Numerous news agencies, including NBC and ESPN are planning on doing stories about Rachael. Check your local listings. A
few teams to keep an eye on With that being said, here are a few mushers that I personally think are going to do very well in the Iditarod-- Mitch Seavey--Defending Iditarod Champion. Considered by many to be a "dark horse" in last year's Iditarod, Mitch showed that he and his dogs were some of the best trained, toughest, and most powerful competitors in the race. In a showing of incredible strategy and confidence in his team, Mitch waited to definitively take the lead until the very end of the race. This year, Mitch refined his training techniques to include more of what he thinks works best. He feels his team is strong, and his victory in the 2005 Kuskokwim 300 race shows that he is right. Robert Sorlie--2003 Iditarod Champion. Norwegian Robert Sorlie made history when he became the first international entrant to win the Iditarod. Three Norwegian mushers, Robert Sorlie, Bjornar Andersen, and Kjetil Backen, have combined their teams to create a single mushing "powerhouse" to compete in the Iditarod. In this combined team's inaugural showing, Sorlie brought home the title. Last year, Kjetil Backen placed third in a very close race. Now this year, Sorlie and Andersen are both racing. It will be Andersen's first Iditarod, but he has a great deal of experience from Europe's racing circuit, and I would watch for both him and Sorlie to make strong showings. Martin Buser--4-Time Iditarod Champion. Despite the fact that a recent woodworking accident has left Martin's right hand missing part of a finger and inside a splint, he has undoubtedly put together a strong team. Four Iditarod titles since 1992 is an impressive record, and Martin has shown that he can consistently field top-placing teams. Jeff King--3-Time Iditarod Champion. Jeff King last won the Iditarod in 1998, but he has finished very close to the top every year since then, and I'm sure he's getting pretty motivated to get back into the winner's circle. Jeff continues to be an innovator in this sport, inventing new sleds, harnesses systems, and ganglines to connect the dogs to the sled. He placed second in an extremely fast Tustumena 200 this year and clearly has shaped another good dog team of the caliber we have come to expect from Jeff. Doug Swingley--4 Time Iditarod Champion. Despite claiming to retire after the 2002 Iditarod and returning to racing in 2004 only to scratch (drop out) due to frozen corneas, Doug Swingley is considered by many to be a master of dog psychology and dog training. Undoubtedly Doug is shooting for the top, and he has shown that he doesn't need to follow any sled tracks to find his way to Nome. Rick Swenson--5-Time Iditarod Champion. Rick Swenson is the race's only 5-time champion, and many believe he wants to remain at the top of the all-time winners' list. Rick is the only musher to win Iditarods in the 1970, 80's, and 90's. He has yet to win the Iditarod in the new millennium, but he has been battling his way back into the top standings for the last few years. I would never want to discount Rick Swenson in a dog race, especially in a race with deep snow and potentially very cold, windy weather. To my knowledge, Rick has more Iditarods under his belt than any other musher, and he's a very good outdoorsman and sportsman. John Baker--John hasn't won the Iditarod yet, but this Alaska Native from Kotzebue is a talented and intense racer with a record that becomes more impressive every year. Ramy Brooks--Ramy has placed second in two Iditarods and has won the Yukon Quest. He comes from a family with a long tradition of championship dog racing, and Ramy is obviously comfortable in continuing that tradition. Ramy Smyth--Ramy is superb at doing a lot with a little. I doubt many Iditarod mushers have a work ethic that could rival Ramy's, and that work ethic has brought Ramy into Nome in the top ten more than once. DeeDee Jonrowe--DeeDee is a crowd favorite and an inspiration to many. Despite being diagnosed with breast cancer and going through treatment, DeeDee has continued to compete in the Iditarod without missing a beat. She has placed second in the Iditarod many times. Charlie Boulding--Charlie is one of the Iditarod's most colorful characters. The 62-year-old is a charming, down-to-earth, and definitely "Alaskan" character. Charlie has an impressive record of top finishes in the Iditarod and admits to two things: He's trying to win this year's race and, win or lose, this Iditarod will be his last. Charlie and his wife Robin have reportedly purchased a sailboat in the Virgin Islands. I'm running out of space here, but I want to include a few more names of young mushers that I think are going to do well this year and give their older competitors a run for their money in coming races. These mushers include: Jessica Hendricks, Zack Steer, Jason Barron, Harmony Barron, Tyrell Seavey, Ken Anderson, Aaron Peck, Jesse Royer, and Aliy Zirkle. I can think of several other mushers deserving of mention here, and I'm guessing that there are a few mushers who will place in the top ten that aren't listed above. However, I hope this gives you the reader an idea of the depth of competition that is in this year's Iditarod. Notes
on the trail and weather conditions Cold temperatures can help harden the trails, but weather outlooks are showing temperatures ranging from 10-35oF for the next week over much of the race course. These warm temperatures can often mean soft, slow trails, especially if the weather is accompanied by any substantial snowfall. The weather is always an unknown variable, that can drastically affect the competition. Stormy, snowy, weather and soft trails tend to favor the teams that are very strong and trained for endurance, but not necessarily the fastest on an all out sprint. Conversely, cool temperatures with hard, packed trails tend to favor the faster, well conditioned teams, even if the dogs aren't as powerful or strong. There are, however, some teams that seem versatile and capable of doing well in all conditions. But these teams can't go through gale-force winds and blinding snowstorms any better than anyone else. At this point, we'll have to do what the mushers are doing: just wait and see. Racing
strategies: A key ingredient to success A strategy must be compatible with the dog team and the way they were trained. Therefore, it is unlikely that a universally good strategy exists. For any dog team, a good strategy reflects the abilities of the musher and dogs and is developed using an intimate knowledge of the shared experiences of the mushers and dogs. As a general rule, a race strategy must allow a team to make good, fast progress down the trail while still including enough time for the team to rest and recharge. Conventional wisdom is that a strategy will include more rest early in the race to help maintain the dogs' energy level as long as possible. Later in the race is when rest time typically gets trimmed as a part of a final "push" to the finish line. Each musher has a slightly different way of implementing this general philosophy, but most teams commonly run six to eight hours and then rest for an equal amount of time before repeating the cycle. Teams who aren't vying for the top spots usually take more rest than the ultra-competitive teams. This is one of the big reasons the last teams end up five or six days behind the winning team when they reach Nome. A
few points to keep in mind while following the Iditarod As a spectator following the race updates (posted at www.iditarod.com/raceupdates), you will see where some mushers take a much longer time (up to six or eight hours longer) than other mushers to go from one checkpoint to the next. This is because some mushers chose to stop and rest on the trail between these two checkpoints while others ran the distance without stopping. Conversely, you will also see cases where some mushers stop to rest for several hours at a checkpoint while others just blast right on through. What does all this mean? Just because a musher is listed at the top of the leader board doesn't mean he or she is in the lead. Think of it this way: If you are racing in the Indy 500 and you don't stop in the pits when everyone else does, you really aren't in the lead because you are going to have to stop in the pit at some point, AND, you are risking running out of "gas" before your make it back to the pits. The best way to think about analyzing the race updates is to examine the rest/run ratio for a given team. Because teams don't do all of their resting in checkpoints, this number can be difficult to determine. However, keep in mind that a team usually travels at a speed between 8 and 12 miles per hour, and that rest stops are commonly 6-8 hours long. Knowing these things will allow you to tell when a team ran straight through from one checkpoint to the next versus when a team stopped to rest on the trail. The teams with the larger rest/run ratio are typically "ahead" of teams with a smaller rest/run ratio, even if the two teams are running close together on the race updates. On a similar note, keep in mind that mushers are required to take a full 24-hour rest stop at a checkpoint of their choice. Some mushers will rest early on at Nikolai or McGrath. Many of the more competitive mushers wait until Ophir, Iditarod, or even Shageluk or Anvik to take their long breaks. It's hard to tell who really is in the lead until everyone has taken these long rest stops. A column on the right side of all the update pages indicates whether a musher has taken his or her 24-hour layover. A final note: The Iditarod is an event as big as Alaska itself, and no single source of information will tell you all that is going on. The best strategy is to check a couple of sources of information on a daily basis in order to get a better idea of what is happening. Sites like Ultimate Iditarod, the Anchorage Daily News, and Cabela's Iditarod will give you good stories and background information on the race, the mushers, and their strategies. Sites like the Iditarod's Official Webpage have the most up-to-date time statistics. Newspaper and TV coverage may also be available in your area. Check your local listings. Enjoy following this year's Iditarod! --Jim Gallea The Last Great Race on Earth is a registered trademark of the Iditarod Trail Committee, Wasilla, Alaska |
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