Iditarod 46: If Danny Seavey were King of Iditarod

Below is Danny Seavey's latest "blog post" from Facebook about how he would solve the current woes of Iditarod.


He makes some interesting points.

Danny Seavey's Fantasy Iditarod is in its fourth year!

Danny Seavey running the Seavey
Puppy team during the Ceremonial
Start of Iditarod 42.

A few years ago when I was still working for the Seavey's, Danny got bored watching the race at home and came up with a Fantasy Iditarod game similar to what fans of football/baseball/basketball have. Of course, we couldn't choose 16 dogs from different teams, so he made it a system of choosing mushers.

It's just one of the innovative ways a Seavey has brought a positive light to the sport and especially the Iditarod. Unlike others have popped up soon after - Danny's game is completely free. You don't have to have any real knowledge of the sport to play, and sometimes it seems the LESS someone knows about the teams, the better chance they have (that's my story and I'm sticking to it, because I never really do well).

Anyway, this is the 4th year Danny's running the game... all while he is also working for Iditarod Insider in a larger capacity than I every expected. He's got a pretty sweet gig. Plus he's gotta blog for Team Seavey on Facebook.

I've said it for the last 9 years - Seavey's do not understand what sleep is or how it works.

So be sure to sign up - you will enjoy it! Plus, it just adds a new level of obsession to Iditarod!

OK guys, here it is. Please let me know if I missed anything before the mass email goes out tomorrow - Danny Seavey
Posted by Fantasy Iditarod on Wednesday, March 2, 2016

The end of the Lance Mackey era?

Lance Mackey and team at the
Ceremonial Start of Iditarod 43.
March 7, 2015

Lance Mackey made an alarming statement via Iditarod Insider yesterday afternoon - Iditarod 43 is very likely to be his last. Mackey's heath issues have been no secret the last few years - the man is in considerable pain even after treatments and surgeries to help counteract the effects brought on from the aggressive cancer treatments he went through over a decade ago. Lance has poor circulation in his hands and feet, and it was a major concern going into this year's race. During the Yukon Quest he admitted his team was not the reason they were not competitive - he was.

Looks like things may have been worse than what we all originally thought.

On his run into Tanana, Lance had to deal with a dog tangle. This typically occurs when there is a dog fight (which is caused for any number of reasons). Mackey told Insider that he lost his mitts somehow, so his fingers were essentially frozen. He can't bend them, and he doesn't have any feeling (other than pain) in them. This makes bootying his dogs (to protect their feet) nearly impossible. He declared his 24 in the checkpoint to hopefully be able to recover.

However, Mackey sees the writing on the wall - his body is telling him that his career is just about over. He was tired, cold, and in pain - so no one is willing to truly count him out yet - but he knows the inevitable is coming. Lance was most emotional when he talked about how his brother Jason, also running in this year's Iditarod, was going to scrap his race plan to now run with Lance and help him with the detail work - bootying the dogs, etc. The idea that his brother was willing to "screw up his race" to help him choked the 4 time champion up big time. That was when I started bawling.

Lance can be heard saying "I LOVE this sport... I just can't do it anymore." and that's rough. Lance is only 44 years old. God willing, he'll be around for at least 44 more. He's still at the "prime age" for a musher. The man who holds the record of four consecutive Iditarod wins, the man who won the Iditarod and the Quest in the same year... this man has gone from the top to being barely able to care for his dogs on the same trails that saved his life. It's tragic - Lance has never had an easy go of things, but it seemed that dog mushing was his saving grace... and now even that looks to be leaving him.

This is not how he should have to go out.

Lance and Jason headed out on the trail this afternoon and arrived in Ruby a short time ago. No reports on how the teams are doing, but an interview earlier with Jason on Insider had Jason saying that Lance was determined to get to Nome. If this is to be his last race, he's going to take it all the way.

We're all running with you, Lance. No matter where you place - you'll forever be one of this races biggest champions.

(If you want to go through an emotional roller coaster, read Danny Seavey's blog post about Lance. Bring tissues.)

History Rewritten

Around 6pm Alaska time, Dallas Seavey will pull into Nome's Front Street and aim his dogs to pass under the famous Iditarod Burled Arch. He will be be the youngest musher to win, beating Rick Swenson's long standing record, at just age 25.

Seavey has worked for this achievement over the last four years. He's built his kennel, trained his dogs, and worked his strategy for this moment. Whenever tourists asked what his goals were, one of them was to win the Iditarod before age 26. He had a record to beat. This was his year. Just like Lance Mackey in 2007 took his bib number, lucky #13, and said it was a sign that it was his year, Dallas knew this was his. After Mackey's win in 07, folks began saying 13 was a lucky number for Iditarod (Mackey's brother and father won their Iditarod titles with the bib #13). Today is the 13th of March.

Considering Mackey's declaration that he wanted anyone but Dallas Seavey to win due to his feeling that Seavey was cocky and obnoxious, well, one can't help but enjoy the irony.

Dallas will be pulling into Safety in just a few minutes it looks like. Safety is the last checkpoint to Nome. This is where he will don his bib - #34 - and snack his dogs. He will be congratulated, and it's a mere 22 miles more to go. Bells will begin ringing - large bells - church bells - and he will have the first of many moments. He could stop on the trail between there and the finish. Mackey did one year to congratulate his team before the craziness of the finish chute. He may snack his dogs. But he'll be headed to Nome. He'll be headed to family.

Meeting him in Nome will be his paternal grandmother, mother, brothers. More importantly his wife and daughter will be there. They knew he was going to win this year. Jen bought tickets well ahead of time, Annie was already celebrating daddy's new truck. Missing from the celebration: two men still on the trail beaming with pride. Mitch, Dallas's father, has been at that moment. He won in 2004. He was welcomed by his father, Dan, who is at the back of the race pack also missing his grandson's moment. They've been interviewed, they know that this is Dallas' moment. They want to be there, they're torn, they have a job to do, too. But, they get bragging rights none the less.

So an early Congratulations, Dallas! We're all sitting in front of TV and computer screens waiting to watch you finish!

"Anyone but Dallas. Anyone!!"

From http://www.facebook.com/ididaride - written by Dallas's older, wiser brother (ha ha!).

""Anyone but Dallas!!! Anyone!!" Lance Mackey reportedly hopes someone else wins, thinking Dallas is "cocky and obnoxious" according to ADN.

As his older brother, fan, and one of his best friends...I completely agree. He's a third child. Anyone who has one knows what I mean. He's a three time state and one time national wrestling champion, and represented the US in international tour...naments. He's pretty darn good at everything from dog mushing, playing poker, throwing knives, telling stories, running businesses, shooting stuff, and public speaking. He has a beautiful wife and awesome daughter. He owns a home, a business and rental units. He has one of the best dog teams in the world. And he turned 25 last Sunday. I would admit it has gone to his head, but in a good way. Dallas is cocky in a confident way, and obnoxious in a fun way. Anyone who knows him knows what I mean; he's the clown, the joker, the one making everything fun. Sometimes at their expense, usually at his own. It takes a lot of self-confidence to swing for the bleachers. All those guys are some pretty confident dudes.

I don't blame Lance at all. I don't really think he means it in a negative way. Remember my post about the chances and consequences, Lance is having a rough year. All mushers say and do things when they're under stress, when they haven't slept in a week, and their dreams are turning into nightmares, that they normally wouldn't. I'm sure some of them have been related to me.

Danny"

How a fan watches the Iditarod





Duane, Dad, Belinda & Tonichelle at the Willow Re-Start

Let's face it, not all of us have the option to ride out by airplane or snow machine or live in an Iditarod checkpoint. We are sitting at home and waiting for any and all information we can get. Growing up, I remember waiting for the updates at the beginning and end of every school day in elementary school. By the time we were in Jr. High and High School interest in the race, for students, was non existant. If you weren't friends with a peninsula musher, chances are you weren't paying attention. Besides, the internet was booming and you could get updates via the Iditarod.com site or better still the Anchorage Daily News.

Back when I was in the single digits age wise I remember heading over to the post office after school every day and viewing the "current leader board" that they updated as much as they could. They had to call the COMMS department regularly. That's how it was watched before social media, it was all done with a phone call to the race central folk. Phones, I'm told, rang off the hook twenty four hours a day and the calls were from all over the WORLD. Now all one has to do is click a button.

Each team has a website, or the very least it seems a facebook page. Fans can interact with the handlers/family members/employees of the mushers. Most posting are not on the trail, but are watching from home. However, they've seen these dogs train and they know the mushers. And best of all? They know what they're talking about. You didn't have that in the early days. You had what the Iditarod Insider does now, you had an "expert" talking with newsreporters and hoping everything made sense.

Some of the "excitement" is taken away because we have information instantly (or at least with in 15 minutes or so). Fans are complaining that the current standings take "so long" to post (when in actuallity it is so much FASTER than when I was a kid). We have video within hours of it being captured. We have GPS. It's incredible. It brings a new sort of excitement, and armchair mushers can debate until the wee hours of the morning while they wait for the leaders to come off of mandatory rests before they can BS about something new.

And it's all so accessable.

Does that mean I don't want to be out there on the trail? No, if anything I wish I were there even more! The energy is amazing in a checkpoint, and it's a chance to really see the action unfold. And if you're a photog like me? Well, it's a great chance to get pictures that end up in magazines.

So, while it is frustrating that we don't truly see every SECOND of information as it happens, remember, it used to be SO MUCH LESS than what it is now. And go follow a few musher's social media sites. Especially http://www.facebook.com/ididaride - Danny Seavey is doing an amazing job with coverage.

Iditarod FAQ - 2012 Edition - Part 2

To read part 1, click here.

The race has come a long way since Dick Wilmarth won the first Iditarod in 1973 in twenty days (just shy of THREE WEEKS). The race now takes, on average, nine days before the winner is declared. Wilmarth in the inaugural year ran the unknown trail to win his one and only Iditarod, due to controversy (rumors still fly that he cheated somehow) and a lack of desire, Wilmarth never ran another race. Third in that race was Dan Seavey, who will be the only musher from the first race to run in the 40th anniversary race. Dan is the first of a three generation Iditarod racing family, his son Mitch won the Iditarod in 2004, and three out of four of Mitch's sons have run the Iditarod and hold their own records.

Dallas Seavey at the start of Iditard 37.

In 2000, Dan ran in the same race as Mitch and Mitch's oldest, Danny. They made the record for the first 3 generation family to run in the same race. In 2005, Dallas Seavey became the youngest musher to finish the Iditarod, he turned 18 the day before the race (in other words it'll come down to minutes and seconds in order for someone to take that record away from him). In 2011, Dallas won the other long-distance race in Alaska - the Yukon Quest and went on to place fourth in that year's Iditarod. Dallas hopes to beat Rick Swenson's record of youngest musher to win the Iditarod in the next two years.

Rick Swenson became the youngest musher to win the Iditarod at age 26 and would go on to win four more. Swenson is the only five time champion in the forty year history of the race, and continues to run the race and participate in the Iditarod Trail Committee board meetings. He has not given up on winning the all elusive sixth win. Swenson also played a part in Dick Mackey's one second win. In 1978, Mackey and Swenson went head to head into Nome. Both men went all out to get their team to the finishline. Mackey collapsed as his team crossed under the Burled Arch, while Swenson ran his sled under. It was determined by the Race Marshall that Mackey had won because the "nose of the first dog" determined the win. It was not a sled race, it was a dog race.

Dick Mackey also hosts a family with three generations of mushers. Along with Dick two of his sons are also Iditarod Champions. Rick Mackey won in 1983, and younger son Lance Mackey has won an impressive four consecutive wins. Lance is the only musher in history to win four in a row. Lance started his winnings on the Yukon Quest before doing both races in a single year. In 2007, it all came together. Interestingly enough each Mackey won their first Iditarod with the lucky number thirteen for their bib number. Lance Mackey's step-son Cain Carter ran the Iditarod in 2011.

It's not an easy feat, winning the Iditarod (or even running it!), only 19 mushers have ever won. To repeat the feat is even more difficult. It's said there are more people who have successfully climbed mount everest or gone into outer space than there are mushers who were able to finish the race. The Iditarod is the great equilizer. There are no handicaps, there are no "easier courses" for the ladies. Men and Women compete together - one of the few sports that allows this. During the height of the feminist movement in the USA in the 80s, this was especially interesting to those outside of the race. For those running? It was just another day in Alaska.

Susan Butcher with lead dog Granite.
Photo by Jeff Shultz?

The first lady to finish the race was in 1974 when Mary Shields completed her race. It wouldn't be until 1985 until a woman would win. Libby Riddles defied snow storms and nay-sayers when she, surprisingly, was the first to cross the finishline in Nome. However, the next year's winner, Susan Butcher would be the face of mushing women for the sport well into the 90s and 2000s. Butcher is the only woman to win four Iditarods. She changed the sport of mushing by the way she trained and the care of her dogs. She was a fierce rival for Rick Swenson - who was frustrated with the low blows being directed at him for "letting a woman beat him." Through most of Susan Butcher's career the slogan around Alaska was "Alaska: Where men are men, and women win the Iditarod."

Susan Butcher took a break from racing at the height of her career in order to raise her family. In the early 2000s Alaska was rocked hard with the news of Susan's dianosis of Leukemia. Susan fought and beat it the first round, but on another check up it was discovered the disease had come back with a vengence. Susan succumed to the illness on August 5, 2006. The next year, she was declared the Iditarod's honorary musher. The first Saturday in March was declared Susan Butcher day in 2008, and Figure Skating Icon and Olympic Champion Dorothy Hamill - long time friend of Butcher's - was on hand to help dedicate the day.
Only a handful of mushers have won the race more than once, with only six teams winning four times or more. Along with Swenson, Butcher and Mackey, are also Jeff King (the world's "winningest musher"), Martin Buser and Doug Swingley. Swingley is the only American from another state to have won the Iditarod. Swingley's popularity dwindled while he was still at his peak due to the fact that he was very unsportsmanlike towards his competitors and even the state of Alaska. He retired after two disappointing races - one where he froze his corneas, and another where his team became ill and did not finish well. He raises horses in his Montana ranch.

The only other "outsider" to win was part of Team Norway. Robert Sorlie is a two time champion, and is much beloved by the Mushing and Alaskan community. Unlike Swingly, Sorlie was gracious to all, and it was a huge effort on both sides of the Atlantic and Pacific to help Team Norway travel to Alaska each year. With the economy the way it is, and the purse for the Iditarod much smaller (and the entry fee higher), Team Norway has been missing the last few years. Sorlie has not run a team in several years, but in 2012 Sigrid Ekran will be back to run the dogs.

Interestingly enough, even though the Iditarod is Alaskan in most every sense of the word, only three Native Alaskans have ever won the Iditarod. Two in the early days of the race, and finally in 2011 John Baker became the third to be crowned champion. Baker is also the first Inupiat to win. Baker came in and broke the fastet time record (held by Martin Buser from his win in 2002), the new record to beat is 8 days, 18 hours, 46 minutes, and 39seconds.

Check back for more Iditarod posts soon! Have questions? submit them in a comment on any blogpost or email me!