Training has begun!
September 25, 2002

Update Posted by Tyrell Seavey, Seavey's Iditarod Racing Team, Sterling, Alaska

Race preparations for the 2002-2003 season are now officially under way.  We started this year’s training with a 3.5-mile run in which the dogs pulled an ATV (basically, a four-wheeled motorcycle).  After working at our tour operation all summer, the dogs are certainly capable of going on more challenging training exercises, but we want to start off slow and build the dogs up to longer runs as the season progresses.

This year Seavey’s Iditarod Racing Team will be entering three teams into the Iditarod Race.  My dad, Mitch Seavey, will once again be racing our competitive dogs, while Jim Gallea and I will be cooperatively training the yearling and two-year-old dogs.  My dad’s goal for the Iditarod Race remains the same, and that is to be as competitive as possible.  For Jim and I, well, we just want to get to the finish line.  Once the young dogs complete a non-competitive season they are better prepared to run with the “big dogs” in the years to come.

This first training run was very encouraging for Jim and I.  We split the 60 dogs we are training into four teams of 15 dogs and all of them performed well above our expectations.  Right now we are looking especially hard for potential young lead dogs.  Every run we try a new dog in the lead position with an experienced leader.  So far we have had fairly good success with our young trainees.  Mozart, Camel and Yonkers all have great chances of becoming world-class lead dogs.  In the months to come we will select another 10-12 pups to train for the lead positions.

Looking ahead into the near future, we plan to build the dogs up to 5-mile runs for a couple of weeks then progress to 7-milers.  The idea is to challenge even the best athletes’ abilities while being careful not to leave the slower ones behind.  We accomplish this by going at a moderate pace and putting the strong dogs in the back of the team and the weaker ones up front.  As the slow guys learn and mature, we will start to rotate them into the more difficult positions in the back of the team

We here at UltimateIditarod.com are looking forward to another exciting season of dog mushing action, and we hope you are too.  To keep up with all the action check back often.  We will be posting a number of new updates within the next week or so.

Tyrell Seavey