by Breeze » Wed Mar 16, 2022 7:35 pm
This has not been a kind Iditarod. Too warm for the first half means dog's didn't find appetites until Ruby or later. Once dogs got back an appetite, they may already have been down body weight, energy and muscle mass. Hard to come back from that, and you won't bring your team back from that unless you slow way the heck down on the Yukon and feed, feed, feed. If you plan on going to Nome, you need the dogs back in fighting weight with energy reserves by Unalakleet.
It's too damn easy to be an armchair musher. We aren't on the sled and trying to manage all the things. We aren't the race marshal, trying to manage all the things.
But if Lisbet gets kicked, it will be another Sibe team getting the bum's rush. Nordman did this to Hank Debruin ( Winterdance Kennel), in 2010, in Nulato. Hank came back to the Iditarod in 2012, finished his business, and left to not come back. If Lisbet gets kicked, my opinion is that she'll just do the Quest instead to qualify her Sibe stock and kennel for dual dog champion status.
Don't clutch your pearls, Karen Ramstead ran her North Wapiti Siberians for the same reasons ( dual dog status) but she was also completely committed to the Iditarod as a testing ground for her breed. Finishing was all she needed. Immediately after she retired her team, she became a race judge.
Organizations ( especially 501c non-profits) get what they give. If Urbach doesn't quickly understand what he needs to do to correct the ITC course, he won't have a job.