by DeeDee » Wed Dec 03, 2008 9:11 pm
Good Evening- It was an absolutely GRAND day. Turns out Martin and Sean (not sure I am spelling his name right) were getting ready to train as well when we drove up so we ended up pulling out with 4, 16-dog teams. Mike and I followed Martin on his home trail and for the first time this season I got to follow that famous blue Northern Outfitter's parka with all the colorful sponsor patches. Put a huge smile on my face and definitly got my head into the game for the season. Mike and I had really good runs with it starting to snow really hard about 1/2 hour before we reached home. Enough of the trail report time to answer questions.
Most special race - I think one of my most moving races was 1997 just 4 mons after the fatal car accident the we were in. That winter was very very hard. Mike was not even able to walk on his own until a few weeks before the start and I was not able to use my left shoulder. It had frozen from the seat belt injury. I trained small teams from the time I was alowed to return to the sled until about 2 weeks before the start. Roxy had been amazing helping me get the team together. I was no longer scared about anything happening to me I had already been very very close to not surviving and had watched my grandmother died next to me, the only thing that made me hate for the start to happen was being away from Mike. I was afraid he might not be alive if I let him out of my sight. I did not expect to be very competitive but I needed to get away from disfunction that has defined my winter. I was noticably weaker having lost a section of my intestine when it ruptured and unable to eat for awhile. Thanks to Roxy the dogs were very well trained and responded to me great. I love that lady. By my 24 hour layover I was running in the 30's and left with from Takotna with the smallest team in the race, 10 dogs. I remember Susan interviewing me and asking me as I was hooking up how it felt to have the smallest team and be down to 10 dogs not even half way thru the race. I smiled and told her it was all I could handle all winter, and the dogs did not miss the other 6. By the Yukon other teams were falling off and my 10 dogs were getting much stronger. I went from running in the 30's to 5th place at Eagle Island. By the time I traveled the coast I was safely in 4th with no threat from behind and I could give the dogs 6 hrs rest at every village. I traveled in my own bubble working out things with God, watching my grandmother singing in the heavenly choir I was seeing in the northern clouds. I cried, and cried, and prayed , and prayed trying to make sence of what had happened to us and all the time traveling in 4th place with my solid 10 dog team. It was one of the best races of my life. I have since that time, had similar experiences healing from chemothearpy but that race was amazing and I will forever be grateful for the friends that pulled together to make it possible.
Favorite Race Other Than Iditarod. - I really loved the John Beargrease marathon, when it was a 500 miler in Jan. The North Shore trail is so beautiful and that time of year there was warmth in the sun. That is not the case in Alaska in Jan and Feb. The people of northern Minn are so real. They are friendly were always happy to see us, and seem to relate to the same things that makes me love living in Alaska. It was expensive to get there from here but it was sure worth it. I would have to say it would be a tie between that and the Alpirod. I think it is because i love traveling to new places by dog team. For that reason I would have to include the Kobuk 440. Now that is a survival test at a graduate course level. I use to be scared of the wind blowing out of Shatoolik until I raced up there in a storm, Shaktoolik was a breeze compared to the Kotzebue area. I felt like I was one of the first explorers opening up the Arctic by dog team when I was on that race and I love every min. of it. That level of gut-level survival traveling gave me such a feeling of being alive, like I was firing on all cylinders. It was WONDERFUL.
Internet Effect- Well it has exposed us to a greater fan base and has provided a way to get all the races statistics easily. Use to be only the serious racers had all those numbers and we would crunch them in our heads over coffee kind of like playing a game of chess. We would spend many a night huddled around the woodstove trying to decide what competitors were planning to do and how we could be counter play that move. A dear friend Ron Tucker, who just died of cancer last month was particularily good at that and I loved to sit like a little girl listening to tails from her past at his table throwing "what-if" situations at him and listening to his keen mind work. Now more people do this by themselves just them and their very impersonal computer. The social part of it has been removed. I miss that. I guess I also have to admitt that this has provided a way for "too much" coaching in the checkpoints to happen as well. That really changes the nature of our event. We are suppose to do this with our dogs and our own skills however many or few they are. That was the way they traveled in the early days.I am always striving to be as good as Scotty Allen and Ironman Johnson the legends of the early days. The Internet might work to take that raw adventure out of it. That would be a shame. It should not be available to the competition during the race only the fans.
Ouest and Iditarod Same Year - YES I would love to. I think the Quest trail might provide that unspoiled racing experience that I so love, but I just would not be able to chose not to be on the Iditarod trail is I could safely be there. So yes I very badly want to do both and do them the same year sometime very soon.
I think I got them all covered. I will check back in the morning and let you know the plan for the day.