If We Are Relaxed, We Must Be Forgetting Something

January 3, 2002

Snowcrest Racing Sled Dogs--Seeley Lake, MT

"If we are relaxed, we must be forgetting something!"  was my dad's reply to my question about the fact that we had a lot to do before leaving for our first race in Oregon but had done little to prepare.  That was three days ago.  Now, we are not relaxing; we are getting ready to go, and we leave tomorrow, but things are actually taking shape quite nicely.  

I don't know if all dog mushing families are the way mine is, but my family seems to be good at waiting until the last minute before preparing to leave for races.  We manage to find all sorts of things to fill our time as the clock ticks away to the departure date.  But we have always managed to make it, and last year we were even five minutes early to our first race of the season!  (Of course we had to drive all night to make it, but who's counting?)

Preparation for this race is a little bit different than for most we have done.  Typically, we only have one team entering a race, and we are usually gone for no more than a week.  This year, we are heading to the inaugural running of the Atta Boy 300 race in Oregon with two dog teams, and we are planning to be away for 11 days.  This means that twice as much equipment must be packed, twice as many sleds loaded, and, significantly, twice as much dog food packed into the truck, not to mention 32 eager sled dogs.  We are using both our dog truck and also a trailer designed to carry 12 dogs plus a small amount of cargo and two sleds.

This pile of food is solely for the musher.  While this food was prepared for the Iditarod, the photo gives you an idea of the quantities of food, equipment, and gear that must be prepared.

Here is a partial list of what we have packed:

I'm not including the general things we always need when mushing like towline, snowhooks, snublines, plus smaller items like axes, snowshoes, headlamps, and so on.  The bottom line is that lots of items must be found, cleaned if necessary, organized, and packed, and then triple-checked to ensure that we are not forgetting anything.  As an added bonus, we are making entirely new towlines for the race.  We like to do this once a year to keep the equipment in top shape.  But making towline is tedious and time-consuming work, so we aren't getting much sleep tonight.  

For the dogs, large blocks of frozen meat are cut into smaller pieces and packaged into bags.  The smaller pieces thaw and create a "stew" much more readily when placed in hot water from our alcohol burning stoves.

My dad and I are driving the teams in the race, but we also have two other people coming along as "handlers."  Handlers are sort of the "pit crew" in the mushing world.  They get to help us at the starting and finish lines and help take care of the dogs when we are not racing.  However, once we are on the trail, the handlers can only sit and watch and we are on our own.  In the Iditarod, this means that handlers can only help at the start and finish, and nowhere in the middle--even when the team is resting.  Luckily for us, the Atta Boy 300 allows handler assistance while the teams are resting between legs of the race.

Why the difference?  Part of it has to do with the style of racing.  The Iditarod is what is known as a long-distance race (I know, it sounds so technical and definitely not obvious).  The Atta Boy 300 is a stage-race.  Distance racing is racing where the clock never stops.  Teams must choose a schedule of running and resting that allows the dogs to make quick progress down the trail, but also builds in rest time to maintain the dogs' energy level.  Teams don't all rest in the same place or for the same amount of time, and at any point throughout the day or night, at least a few of the dog teams are moving.  

Stage racing is much more like the Tour de France.  A set course is run each day, and when that course is completed, the racing is over until the start of the next day's leg or stage.  The total accumulated time spent running decides the winner.  Teams are running the same distance the same day and all resting at the same time.  Handlers are allowed between the stages because the rest time doesn't count toward deciding the winner like it does in distance racing such as the Iditarod (although a few distance races allow limited handler assistance at checkpoints).  The Atta Boy 300 has seven stages each between 35 and 48 miles long.  The total mileage is about 300 miles spread out over the seven days of racing.  Hopefully this makes sense.  If not, drop me a line, and I'll clarify myself.

We will be providing updates about our progress in the race as often as possible--hopefully nightly--so keep in touch, and we'll keep you posted.  Now's when we get to see how all of our training and hard work has come together.

Are we there yet?

Jim

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