With five days until the Ceremonial Start to the 38th Iditarod, it's time to get a few FAQ's out of the way. These are compiled from my crazed brain, with the help of working with Alaskan tourists for the last four years. If I miss anything, feel free to comment and ask away. If I don't have the answer I'll BS my way through it, just like I do all summer long! (Only half kidding, I will do my best to answer your questions with the right answers, unlike in the summer where I make it up as I go along and you'd never know it).
First off the Iditarod Trail is longer than the race actually runs. Mile 0 of the trail is actually in Seward, AK - not Anchorage. In 2004 -the year he won- Mitch Seavey ran his team from Seward to Anchorage before the ceremonial start began. He is - as far as I know - the only musher to do so for the Iditarod Sled Dog Race.
The official mileage of the race is 1,049 (a nod to Alaska's being the 49th state), but is closer to 1,100 miles.
The first race was run in 1973, and was basically a test to see if it could even be accomplished. It took over two weeks to get from Anchorage to Nome, and the mushers weren't so much racing as helping one another out.
Joe Redington is the Father of the Iditarod and gets the credit for starting the race - he went into debt so that he could afford to pay the winner - as well he should, however the first teams to ever attempt it all had a hand in the history making race, and many still continue to see her through.
There's a sort of Mushing Family Royalty in the Iditarod. The Redingtons, Mackeys, Seaveys and Busers all have multigenerational mushers within their families. All but, ironically, the Reddingtons have at least one Iditarod champion (The Mackey's win with the most - three). In 2000, the Seavey family became the first family in Iditarod history to run three generations in one race. Dan Seavey - who helped Redington coordinate the first race, and ran in that race - his son Mitch Seavey and his grandson Danny Seavey were the ones to all make it down the trail and into Nome.
Tyrell Seavey holds the record as being the first, first-year rookie to make the top 20.
Dallas Seavey - yes, another Seavey - is the youngest musher to finish. He turned 18 the day before the race started in 2005.
A musher is considered a rookie - no matter how many times they run - until their first Nome finish. If you scratch (quit the race) you will return in your next race again as a rookie. Rookies that finish receive an "Iditarod Finisher" buckle. You can only get it once, and it's highly coveted and is more prized -possibly- than a win. It's said that there have been more people to climb Mt. Everest or go into space than there are who have finished the Iditarod.
Rick Swenson is the only musher to win five Iditarods, and is the youngest musher to win at age 26. He also was part of the historic one second finish in 1978 - the year Dick Mackey won - where it was also decided that the winner would be decided by the nose of the first dog over the finish line and not the first musher. This finish was inducted to the Alaska Hall of Fame in 2010.
Libby Riddles was the first woman to win in 1985, it would be the only championship she'd win, and it was almost a fluke. A freak storm blew in in the last possible moment and Libby was caught out in it, but not wanting to lose time she continued moving forward believing she'd already lost the race. She won!
Susan Butcher would be the true 'women's champion' winning a total of four - she is the only woman to do so. Susan became the icon of the sport, and changed the face of the Iditarod for the mid 80s and most of the 90s. No other woman has won since. A phrase was coined after Susan began winning - "Alaska: where men are men and women win the Iditarod."
There are only a select few who have won four Iditarod's or more. Members of the club include Rick Swenson, Susan Butcher, Doug Swingley, Jeff King and Martin Buser. Each, in their own way, brought something special to the Iditarod - and changed the sport for the better. The race you see now has been greatly influenced by this "club."
Martin Buser holds the fastest time of any Iditarod winner, just under 9 days.
The average time for the winner these days is 9 and a half days.
Doug Swingley (Montana, USA) and Robert Sorlie (Team Norway) are the only "outsiders" to win the race. "Outsiders" is the term to describe non-Alaskans. (Interestingly enough while Doug Swingley won four impressive Iditarods, he is not well liked/respected by most Alaskans - whereas Robert Sorlie - a three time champion - is beloved by most. Go figure.)
Though he is considered by some to be the first international Iditarod champion, Martin Buser (Swiss born) became a US citizen in 2002 - taking the oath under the Burled Arch in Nome.
Lance Mackey is the third Mackey to win an Iditarod title - making their family the first to have three champions in one family. Lance is favored to win the 2010 race.
Jeff King is known as the innovator. It seems every year he comes with something new to the race. He is the inventor of the "old man's sled", which is a racing sled that has a caboose-or, rather, chair in the back. Most scoffed at the idea when he first introduced it (hence the name "old man's chair") but now it is widely used by newbies and old timers alike. He has even had heated handlebars in the past, though those had a tendency to get a little *too* warm.
While the purse is a substantial size for winning the race, it doesn't come close to covering a musher's expenses. Most mushers support their kennels by doing tours and demonstrations in the summer months inbetween training.
The unofficial song of the Iditarod is Hobo Jim's "Iditarod Trail." After Joe Redington's death in 1999, Jim wrote another song about the race entitled "Redington's Run" in honor of the "Father of the Iditarod."
The race has two courses, which are alternated every other year, around the Yukon River. In even years the Northern route is used, the southern route -of course- is run in the odd years. Of the two it's said the Southern Route is more brutal because the wind is in your face, not behind you. This gives the Southern Villages a chance to host checkpoints -and allows the race to pass through the ghosttown of its namesake: Iditarod.
Iditarod is a Native Alaskan word meaning "A Great Distance."
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