ASK THE MUSHER Vol 13: Mike Jayne

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ASK THE MUSHER Vol 13: Mike Jayne

Postby Di* » Fri Jan 16, 2009 10:35 pm

Our next installment of the "Ask the Musher" series will start on Monday January 19th
and will feature 2006 Iditarod Rookie of the Year 8-) Mike Jayne!
WELCOME TO THE FORUM MIKE!This thread is now open for questions, ask away!

:) Mike agreed to join us here and share his "rookie" perspective in running the '06 Iditarod where he placed 25th and garnered the "Rookie of the Year" distinction. He also has the record for the 8th fastest rookie time so far.

Mike lives in Fairbanks now but was born in Iowa and grew up on a hog farm there. When he was 16, his family moved to the remote Brooks Range and lived "off the grid" far removed from the luxuries of modern life . While living there, they were featured in the book "Looking For Alaska" by Peter Jenkins. Mike began mushing in 2000 and since his dad does veterinarian work for many Iditarod mushers, he was interested in running it for a long time.
Mike Jayne wrote:I commercial fish in the summers and race dogs in the winter. I also buy and sell land and I'm in the middle of building a house right now. Takes time when you're working alone. I've been self employed for 4 years now. I've run several races for the last six years and now I'm taking a few years off from racing.


Mike ran the Yukon Quest in 2007 putting in a solid top ten performance in 8th place. He won the special "Challenge of the North Award" for running 750 miles of it with only 8 dogs.
Mike Jayne wrote:I had a bunch of dogs get sick and hurt early in the race, so it cut my team almost in half right away.

Here is an awesome YouTube clip of Mike and his team going up Eagle Summit, really gives you an idea of the scope of that terrain-Amazing!


Last year Mike ran the Kobuk 440 with an impressive 2nd place finish amidst a field of veterans.

Check out his Facebook and Myspace pages on the links below;
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/profi ... =751976375
MySpace: http://myspace.com/michaeljayne

All pictures used with permission
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Re: Coming Soon "Ask the Musher" MIKE JAYNE Mon 1/19/09

Postby MelanieGouldFanBrian » Mon Jan 19, 2009 7:37 am

Hey Mike. Thanks for joining us and answering our Mushing questions.

We are a rabid (no pun intended Mith) :D but none-the-less mostly harmless and absolutely lovable group of fine folks with an almost insatiable appetite for all things Iditarod!

My question about '06 is: At what portion of the race did you realize that you had a shot at Rookie of the Year?
Were you reasonably sure you would catch up to and pass Tore and Tove? and did you have a strategy or plan to do that?

Hope to see you racing again soon. And thanks again.

MGF Brian
Last edited by MelanieGouldFanBrian on Tue Jan 20, 2009 8:02 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Coming Soon "Ask the Musher" MIKE JAYNE Mon 1/19/09

Postby Moose » Mon Jan 19, 2009 8:01 am

Hi Mike! Thanks for dropping in. As awesome as the ROTY award was, it must have been pretty incredible to have passed Rick Swenson. Would you tell us about that and a bit about the challenges and joys of living above the Arctic Circle. Any future plans that involve sled dogs and racing? :D
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Re: Coming Soon "Ask the Musher" MIKE JAYNE Mon 1/19/09

Postby Di* » Mon Jan 19, 2009 12:42 pm

:) Thanks so much Mike for agreeing to visit with us! I have the utmost respect for EVERYONE who finishes this race!!

When you ran the Iditarod was there anything that you felt you weren't prepared for in hindsight?
How does the Iditarod compare to the Yukon Quest in terms of terrain, in your opinion which one is harder?
What do you use to motivate yourself mentally when you reach the "wall" & just want to quit?

I'm fascinated with the video clip of you on Eagle Summit. Could you describe what it feels like to get to the top, lungs burning, legs weak?

Thanks for your reply! :)
Di*
 

Re: Coming Soon "Ask the Musher" MIKE JAYNE Mon 1/19/09

Postby sc-race-fan » Mon Jan 19, 2009 1:02 pm

Thanks for joining us. Sometimes we act RABID, but we're harmless. We are just a bunch of folks around the world who love mushing and the Iditarod. My question is Do you think the minimum race requirements are enough? Should a musher have more minimum races before the BIG ONE? hope you get things in order and are back racing soon.
Proud PaPa of the triplet litter; Aidan (B), Bailey (G), and Cameron (B). Cameron is on top in picture; Bailey, of course, is the bowhead!!
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Re: Coming Soon "Ask the Musher" MIKE JAYNE Mon 1/19/09

Postby emwcee » Mon Jan 19, 2009 9:03 pm

Hi Mike,

Thanks so much for agreeing to join us here. I'm Marcia Claesson, one of your Facebook friends.

What races are you doing this year, and do you have plans to do the Iditarod again?

When you moved to Alaska from Iowa, what was the transition like? What are some differences between the two places, besides just the weather? (I'm from Nebraska.)

I'm curious about your experiences in commercial fishing, especially since I read the book Nights of Ice, Stories of Disaster and Survival on Alaska's High Seas ( a very good book, for anyone who is interested.) Have you had any scary situations/close calls while fishing? Any exciting stories?
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Re: ASK THE MUSHER Vol 13: Mike Jayne 1/19-1/25

Postby MelanieGouldFanBrian » Tue Jan 20, 2009 12:28 pm

Hey Mike, Brian again.
Moose asks a good question about Rick Swenson that leads me to this question I have been wondering about for some time. How do the Veteran mushers treat rookies? Are they supportive and open to giving suggestions and advice to rookies?

MGF Brian
You ought to be thankful, a whole heaping lot, for the places and people you're lucky you're not."
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Re: Coming Soon "Ask the Musher" MIKE JAYNE Mon 1/19/09

Postby Mike Jayne » Tue Jan 20, 2009 3:19 pm

MelanieGouldFanBrian wrote:Hey Mike. Thanks for joining us and answering our Mushing questions.

We are a rabid (no pun intended Mith) :D but non-the-less mostly harmless and absolutely lovable group of fine folks with an almost insatiable appetite for all things Iditarod!

My question about '06 is: At what portion of the race did you realize that you had a shot at Rookie of the Year?
Were you reasonably sure you would catch up to and pass Tore and Tove? and did you have a strategy or plan to do that?

Hope to see you racing again soon. And thanks again.

MGF Brian

Thanks! Glad to be here. To answer your question I really wanted ROTY a long time before I ever entered the race. So that was my main goal and what I was racing for. I was mainly trying to race against the other rookies, and didn't really care what place I finished as long as I got it. I had a schedule and plan but it kind of fell apart after a few days, lol, so I just had to wing the end. I wasn't sure I would catch them, since they were so far ahead, but I knew I had to try otherwise it would have all been for nothing. Everyone kept saying, "They're too far ahead, you'll never get them" but that motivated me even more. And passing them on that last hill before dropping into safety was the greatest feeling.
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Re: Coming Soon "Ask the Musher" MIKE JAYNE Mon 1/19/09

Postby Mike Jayne » Tue Jan 20, 2009 3:24 pm

Moose wrote:Hi Mike! Thanks for dropping in. As awesome as the ROTY award was, it must have been pretty incredible to have passed Rick Swenson. Would you tell us about that and a bit about the challenges and joys of living above the Arctic Circle. Any future plans that involve sled dogs and racing? :D

Yeah Rick was pretty grumpy about being passed by a rookie I think. He acts like a hard-nosed old guy sometimes but he's actually a pretty nice guy. I might get into racing a few years from now, but there are other things I want to do while I'm still young. Growing up in the Brooks Range was a unique experience. At first I hated it, being a teenager and all, but it really taught me a lot about self-reliance and wilderness life.
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Re: Coming Soon "Ask the Musher" MIKE JAYNE Mon 1/19/09

Postby Mike Jayne » Tue Jan 20, 2009 3:41 pm

Di* wrote::) Thanks so much Mike for agreeing to visit with us! I have the utmost respect for EVERYONE who finishes this race!!

When you ran the Iditarod was there anything that you felt you weren't prepared for in hindsight?
How does the Iditarod compare to the Yukon Quest in terms of terrain, in your opinion which one is harder?
What do you use to motivate yourself mentally when you reach the "wall" & just want to quit?

I'm fascinated with the video clip of you on Eagle Summit. Could you describe what it feels like to get to the top, lungs burning, legs weak?

Thanks for your reply! :)

Thanks Diana,
There were a lot of things I wasn't expecting on Iditarod. At the start for the first day or so there are so many people, mushers, snow machiners, people with bon fires partying on the trail. That threw me and the dogs off a lot. Coming from up north where there isn't really anyone to that. Stressfull. But other then that I was pretty well prepared. I had a lot of good advice from a lot of veterans, on most all aspects. One thing that was annoying for me as a rookie was not know the good spots to stop. You might be camping out in the open and it's really windy and miserable, then you leave go a half mile and there's the perfect spot where everyone else stopped. One of the hardest things no one really told me was not freaking out and cutting rest in the begining. When you stop to camp, sometimes 40 or more teams can pass you and it makes you very anxious.

For me, the Yukon Quest was harder. I think there are a lot more elevation changes, and not the short ones on I ditarod you can easily run up. Sometimes you are going uphill for a few hours, long and slow. And that was much harder having a small team most of the way. Also you have to carry a lot more since the checkpoints a few and far between, which is something I don't like to do. The trail is much worse too. On Iditarod, the trail is broken out by the Iron Dog, and most of the way it's the main route between villages, so it's very well maintained. The most tired I've ever been was at the end of the Quest. The last 10 miles in I kept falling asleep as I was pedaling and ski-poling. Almost fell off the back a few times.

I've always been competitive, and it's not hard for me to keep going. The hardest thing is when other people around you are fading and it can be easy to talk yourself into taking a few more hours here, or stopping a little earlier. But that's all part of the game.

Eagle Summit was pretty hard, but I had gone out a few weeks before the race and ran it a few times. I kept hearing horror stories about it, and that people often had there teams quit there, so I wanted to be prepared especially since I was doing long runs at the end. Actually a few hours before I got there, Hugh Neff, Michelle Philips, Sebastion, and Aaron Burmeister all got stuck there. Michelle's team quit, and then the other teams behind them stopped too. It's a long steep hill and I was glad to get it over with and the dogs too.
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