Iditarod Update Craziness
March 6, 2006

by Tyrell Seavey

Ultimate Iditarod's coverage of the 2006 Iditarod sponsored by:

Same old thing every year… I think they are trying to give me ulcers or something. The Iditarod updates never seem to notice Mitch leaving Skwentna. They always say that he is enjoying a 25 hour siesta there and I get to pull my hair out in the meantime. “Just say he left already,” I yell at the monitor through a mouthful of what used to be my fingernails. I tell you what, if the refresh button wasn’t digital I would have long since rubbed that little recycle symbol right off. I really do know better than to get too worked up because this is an annual tradition and I understand from the race volunteers’ perspective it is impossible to keep track of 80-some mushers flying through your checkpoint, but that doesn’t keep my mind from going around in circles like a hamster in one of those degrading little wheels… “Come on Tyrell, you know he already left.” “Yeah, but what if he didn’t… what if he broke his sled or something?” “On the Skwentna River? You know better than that… it is nearly indestructible…” It isn’t a big surprise that my friends have already stopped talking to me on day two of the race is it?

As for our other mushers, everyone seems to be progressing well. Keep in mind that placement has little or no bearing right now. I would say about half of the teams are going way too fast and will eventually settle into a reasonable pace allowing a few of the more conservative teams to catch back up later on. On a personal note, I was disappointed to see Gary Paulson scratched in Skwentna. Gary bought my entire dog team shortly after last year’s Iditarod and of course I would have liked to see him make it to Nome with them. I do not yet know why he scratched but I trust Gary to be looking out for the safety and wellbeing of his animals so he must have thought scratching was the best decision for the dogs, also he has been working against a broken wrist all season and that may have flared up on him.

I am supposed to be in class right now (woohoo for Geology) so I better head in that direction. I will update again tonight so keep on eye on the website. One more thought before I go… the upcoming trail is the tough part so cross your fingers for Rachael and Timmy as they are going to have a rough day or two coming up. But trust me, this next couple hundred miles doesn’t discriminate… it can be hard on dogs, sleds, mushers and equipment regardless of how many times you have raced before, so everybody keep our brave contenders on their minds and hopefully we will see them all make it to Nikolai happy and healthy.