One thing that makes the sport of mushing so fantastic is that it breaks down the gender barrier. There's no "mens" division or "women's" division. It's everyone for themeselves. In the 1980s the women dominated much of the Iditarod with five wins between two women. With nine days to go until the Start of Iditarod 40, it's time to get a preview of what and who to watch for. What better way than "ladies first," right?
The last time a woman won the Iditarod was Susan Butcher's fourth win in 1990. It's been close for a few ladies over the last 22 years, but no one has been first under that burled arch. That could change soon - possibly even this year - with the rise of the latest generation of lady mushers. Each brings new, and sometimes fresh, perspective to training and dog care. This season we've seen them all be incredibly competitive in their middistance races.
Probably most recognisable is DeeDee Jonrowe. She's one of the emotional favorites of the race, being almost always "the bridesmaid". When Butcher retired in the early 90s, the torch was passed to Jonrowe to be the next woman to win. DeeDee has come close many times in her long career, but the win has always eluded her. In 2002, DeeDee's training and racing schedule was sidelined when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She returned to the Iditarod in 2003, just weeks after surgery, and finished an impressive 18th. At age 58, she is one of the most seasoned mushers running in the 2012 race. DeeDee remains the darling of the race, and an inspiration to many. This marks her 30th Iditarod. http://www.deedeejonrowe.com
If DeeDee isn't the top lady finisher this year, then look for Aliy Zirkle to take that spot. Aliy has been a mainstay on Alaska trails and races for years, and her work is paying off. The family kennel looks to be as strong as it has ever been, and with the help of her husband Allen Moore it's an incredibly maintained and trained team set to take the trail to Nome next week. Zirkle won the Yukon Quest in 2000 - the only woman to do so - and is seemingly everyone's best bet to be an Iditarod Champion someday soon. http://www.spkdoglog.com
Buzz surrounds many ladies, but after her 9th place finish in her rookie year against a very competitive field in the 2012 Yukon Quest, Kristy Berrington is one of the top lady mushers coming into the Iditarod. Kristy and her identical twin sister, Anna, has lived and trained on the Kenai Peninsula for the last four years. 1984 Iditarod Champion Dean Osmar convinced Kristy and Anna to move to Alaska and run dogs. Kristy partnered with Paul Gebhardt the following year and between the two they have over 80 dogs and both are quite competitive on the trail. Anna still runs Osmar's teams, and will be running her rookie Iditarod this year, she will no doubt be one of the race's top rookies this season. http://www.seeingdoublesleddogracing.com
The Kenai Peninsula is beginning to churn out many great lady mushers. Colleen Robertia is a local favorite, but has shown time and again that she can and will be a force to be reckoned with in the coming years. Mushing enthusiasts have predicted her rise to the top in the next few years, and her work ethic has proven that drive time and again. Robertia runs both the Quest and the Iditarod most years, as well as a few middistance races. In a very competitive field for this year's Tustumena 200 she came fourth with a very strong and healthy team (the trail is well groomed, but all up-hill, both ways, in the snow, and the sun, and the cold... you get the picture). Colleen is, no doubt, on the edge of creating Iditarod magic. Could it be this year? We'll see! http://www.rogueskennel.com
Jodi Bailey is probably one of the happiest, sweetest mushers alive, but she is competitive. She makes up half of the Dew Claw Kennel out of Interior Alaska, and no doubt the dogs feed off her energy when running. She is the first rookie [of both races] to ever complete the Yukon Quest and the Iditarod in a single season, which she did last year. It was a huge goal on her part, and she did a fantastic job. The Dew Claw Kennel took a year off from the Yukon Quest this year, but will be running the Iditarod hoping to improve in their standings, and no doubt they will. http://www.dewclawkennel.com
Team Norway will once again be represented in the Iditarod, after being MIA last season. Due to high costs of travel with enough gear and dogs to compete, it's understandable that with the smaller reward for doing well hinders teams from coming such a long distance. Sigrid is one of the most recognizable musher from Norway, with her huge smile and enthusiasm. She's also incredibly competitive. Unlike most of the Norweigan mushing teams that come over to Alaska to run, Sigrid learned and trained and ran her first few Iditarods while living in Alaska and going to school at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. It will be exciting to see her run again after her haitus! http://www.teamsigridekran.no
Anjannete Steer caused a big stir in the community this year when she won the inaugural Northern Lights 300. Wife of Iditarod Veteran Zack Steer, she's running the A-team in her rookie Iditarod as Zack is taking the year off. Zack has broken the top fifteen in the past, and it looks like the team is in good shape to give Anjannete a great race. http://www.sheepmountain.com
Probably not competitive, but always a joy to see in the race would be the beautiful siberian team led by Karen Ramsted. Siberians make for beautiful postcards, but are hard pressed to be winners of long distance races that take just over a week to complete. Siberians are a little larger than Alaskan huskies, and have thicker fur, they overheat faster and so are a slower team. Still, Karen's enthusiasm for the sport and her dogs make her a fan favorite world-wide. She took a hiatus from the race last year, but is back with her happy Sibes. She's our favorite Canuck! http://www.northwapiti.com
After a disappointing scrach in last year's Iditarod, Zoya Denure was unsure that she would run the Iditarod, but she couldn't stay away. She has something to prove with a lot of talk going around that she doesn't have what it takes. Zoya and her husband devote time to training and rehabilitating rescued dogs for a life not just in mushing, but an active healthy life not matter where and what they're doing. When she's not racing dogs, speaking or taking folks on sled dog tours, Zoya is a devoted mom to young Jona who is as adorable as all get out. Whether or not she is ever a top competitor Zoya just makes you smile with her updates about her team. http://www.dogsleddenali.com
Showing posts with label sigrid ekran. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sigrid ekran. Show all posts
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
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.
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.
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!
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. |
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? |
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!
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