Iditarod Training Journal

12/2: Finally a beautiful, cold (-18) moonlit run, no moose, no snowmachines, no other dog teams. I needed this nice run. I could actually set a hook since it was so cold. It was nice to have the peace to actually stop and hold my team.

12/4/03: B team. Bombey and Yuban did great together. Abbott struggled , Costello looked great.

12/5/03: Took both teams 35 miles today. I’m exhausted and my feet are killing me. First group was my A team. Good thing they know how to park because we sat for 25 minutes in the power line waiting for 2 stubborn moose to move. I wouldn’t have been able to hold the other team. Rest of the run was awesome. Second team did great except that Bombey wouldn’t pass Mikey’s second team after they stopped. Guess I better put someone else up front till I find out who passes best.

12/19/03 I am terrible at this journaling thing, but I felt like I reached the end of my rope today and when the tears dried enough for me to read, I logged into Iditarod 2004 mushers and decided to read some mushers’ journals. Karen Land’s journal was just what I needed. I am right where she was before Iditarod 2002. As per Karen’s post Iditarod 2002 journal “…finally I let go of the fear that woke me up at 4:00 am every morning months before the race when I was overwhelmed by the nightmares of a trail that I could not handle. I let go of the doubts that made me sick to my stomach and inspired hour-long sessions of uncontrolled sobbing.” This is so right where I’m at. I worry about the bad sections of Iditarod 24 hours a day. All day at school I find myself jealous of people that have only mundane, every day things to stress about. I think…if it wasn’t for all the people that are supporting me in one form or another… I would call it quits. That trip down Front Street will be overwhelming if only for the stress and the worry and the work that I am going through now, let alone for the next 3 months.

After reading Karen’s journal, a pep talk from Rich, and a much needed “chat” with my best friend… I feel like I can face the long run we’re due to take tomorrow with a renewed heart and renewed confidence that “I am tough, that I can do this.” I must remember to pray and remember that “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

12/22/03 Took the day off from running to do some shopping in Anchorage. It’s snowing like crazy again. Kind of glad we’re off the trails for a couple days. Kim and I took all the dogs on a couple long runs this weekend. We drove for 4 hours Saturday and 3 on Sunday. We planned on going longer, but since we were breaking trail all the way the dogs got plenty of work in. Kim is doing really well driving the dogs. We did two 35 mile runs with him double sledding behind me. First time out I lost him 100 feet out of the yard. He crashed 3 times on that run, but has not crashed since. As Kim says…”I’m a slow learner, but I have a good memory.” Yesterday we worked on passing from behind. We haven’t done much of this this year so the practice was really needed, especially considering that 107 mushers will be passing and being passed between Knik Lake and Yetna.

Anyway, today I woke up about 4:30 with the usual fear and knot in my stomach. Always worried about packing, being prepared, crashing, overflow, really cold temps…. I got in the shower and prayed my heart out for God to take this anxiety and give me peace to take care of what I need to take care of. I also prayed that I was really supposed to be doing this race. I had a great day in Anchorage and stopped to get the mail on the way home. In the mail was a letter from Rich’s brother. In it was a sponsorship check. Rich’s entire family is sponsoring me in the memory of Rich’s Dad, Curtis. Curtis died in 1998. He loved Alaska and would have loved to be part of this adventure. This was his family’s way of making Curtis part of this adventure. This was another piece of reassurance I needed that I was supposed to do this and that I have to finish this for all the wonderful people who are supporting me. This thing is so much bigger than me now.

January 10, 2004

Spent the day, with some help from Tony, cutting meat for the Klondike 300. The new band saw I bought worked like a charm and we cut about 300 #s of meat into small snack size pieces and put it in bags of 2-3 pounds for snacks along the trail or for heating in meals at checkpoints. Feels good to be independent enough to cut my meat by myself and I have secured some walk in freezer space at a local meat shop. This will allow me to begin cutting my Iditarod drop as soon as the Klondike 300 is finished and get it in a freezer for safe keeping until I get ready to pack all my food drop on February 17.

The Knik 200 was a blast. The trail was perfect, the weather perfect (25 above at the start –20 at Yetna on the way home). I finished 20^th out of 36 teams. Hard to swallow that low of a placing (I’m way too competitive at heart), but I stuck with my plan for this to be a training run. We rested long and ran fast. We rested for 2 hours in Yetna on the way up. I strawed the dogs, snacked the dogs, took their boots off and went inside for a cheese burger so the dogs would rest. Then it was on to Skwetna. We arrived in Skwetna at 9:45 pm. As per schedule…we stayed 8 hours instead of the mandatory 6. We had trouble, even with the help of the checkers, parking the dogs. They were definitely not tired. They ate their fill and had a nice nap in a cozy bed of straw. We ran to Skwetna under a beautiful, moonlit sky with no headlamp. It was –8 when we got to Skwetna. I got a couple hour nap, then was back out a 4:00am to water the dogs. We were rebootied and ready to pull our hook at 6:00 am for the short run back to Yetna. The dogs covered 35 miles in 2:45 . They were flying. Although they weren’t tired we stopped for another 2 hours in Yetna for a short nap for the dogs, a cup of coffee in the company of the Gaberzacs and the Bordens (Bill, Brenda, and Jordan snowmachined up to Yetna) We left there at 10:45 for the long trip down the river back to Knik. We had a cold (-20), but beautiful run back to Knik. The dogs finished so strong at 4:50 pm on Sunday for an elapsed time of 28hours and 40 minutes. Our travel time was awesome and I’m really pleased with their performance. I did carry Bombey in the sled for the last 7 miles…she was tuckered out and sore in the wrists. I was really glad we stuck to that schedule and am really proud of my dogs.

No time to bask in glory…. The Klondike 300 starts January 17^th so more bags to pack and meat to cut. Kim ran my remaining dogs 70 miles while I was gone so they should be ready to run next weekend. I had a day off school due to high winds so I made good use of the time and got a bunch of meat cut and some organizing done. I also had a few good trips to my physical therapist and massage therapist this past week. I’m having the same problem I had two years ago. I have some bulging discs in my neck that cause me all kinds of problems. Anyway, I’ll be visiting these two women frequently until Iditarod.

Kim came out Wednesday and Friday to run the dogs with me. He was on his own Friday as I was at Bev’s (my sewing sponsor) house having her sew Velcro, extra pockets, and D rings into my parka, pants and liner. He was mushing in a major white out as we got about 6 inches of snow last night. Kim is so awesome and so full of energy. I cut meat all day and he came out and ran the dogs again. I may take the dogs back out tonight for a spin. Kim and I will run together tomorrow.

I’m nursing a burn on my ankle from a hand warmer gone wild in my boot during the race. I thought I had in between layers, but not…. It was right on my ankle and I kept thinking all the way to Skwetna that that thing was getting hot. Sure enough I got to Skwetna, finally go inside, took my boots off and there she was. A nice big blister. Just happens to be at the wrong place. I’m taking antibiotics and taking care of it so it will heal before it has to spend another 3 days in a stinky, smelly boot during the next race.

Time to feed the dogs.

Klondike 300 Race January 19-21:

Impressions: Lots of invaluable experience that I’m glad I know now, but wouldn’t choose to do it again in the next day or so.

Race overview:

Saturday morning the temp at the kennel was –24. The temp on Big Lake at the race start was –30. The race was delayed one hour due to late mushers having trouble with getting tucks started. Then a race trail breaker fell off his snow machine and broke his leg. This was going to delay the race another hour so the race marshal called for a vote from the mushers as to whether the race went off at noon to the Tug for a restart or postpone the race until Sunday and start from the Tug Bar and skip the initial 17 miles. Most mushers voted to wait till Sunday since it would be nearly dark before most teams completed the restart.

Sunday morning was colder than Saturday (-30 at the kennel and –36 on Big Lake). Due to the severe cold some mushers withdrew because they couldn’t get their dog trucks started. Anyway, out of the 23 mushers signed up, only 14 took off at the start. John and Jason Hoisington showed up at the house before 7:00 to help us load the dogs and get everything to the start. Once at the Tug bar I realized that I forgot my parka and had to send John back to the house to get it ( a 40 minute one way trip). Good thing we were there plenty early. It was a flury of help getting the dogs booted, harnessed, coated, hooked up and me dressed (that was the hardest job since I had so many layers to put on in that cold. Sven, Rich, Ellen, Tony and Delores all were a huge help getting on the trail.

It was cold, but I managed to work up a sweat getting dressed for the start. I was soaked by the time we pulled the hook and headed out. We launched from the trucks instead of at a starting shoot because there wasn’t enough handlers to control the dog teams. One sorry soul doesn’t know how a dog race starts and left his new van parked at the edge of the parking lot we were launching form. Any team that had to break to make the corner managed to get a chunk of the van. Some one just kept kicking junks of plastic off into the snow bank.

Atlas, my leader is way smarter than the race officials and knows that it’s easier to run down a road then a trail. He took the team down the middle of the road. Rich and the crew had to call him and the team up into the trail and off we were. I was so glad to be on the trail. I hate race starts. It’s always hard to get everything ready right on time and not too early. The dogs are lunatics and there is just too much that can go wrong.

I had a small crash on a corner about a mile from the start. I ran over a tree, but managed to keep the sled upright while being drug behind it. I finally found the drag with my knee and slowed them down enough to get back on my feet.

The trail was really hard and fast once we got on the Iditarod and we traveled well until Flat Horn lake when Latte decided she didn’t want to run anymore. There was nothing physically wrong with her, she just didn’t want to run. For an hour I tried to get her to run, then gave up and started the process of rearranging my sled bag to haul her. After struggling to get her in the bag I was soaked with sweat again. Things were pretty uneventful after that. We arrived in Yentna after about 6 hours and I decided to spend a few hours there and give them all a drink, some straw to lie on and a few snacks. The temp at Yentna was –38 up at the lodge, probably 10 colder down on the river where my dogs were parked. I had trouble getting my lighter going and had to borrow one. Still had trouble lighting straw and heet. Nothing wants to burn at –40. After finally getting water hot enough to give the dogs a drink and a snack I went up to the lodge to try to dry my sweat soaked clothes. We spent about 4 hours at Yentna, then rebooted and headed up the river to Skwentna at about 8:00pm.

The trip up the Yentna was fairly uneventful, although cold. Once we hit the big turn on the Yentna, I recognized the area from the previous race and made the turn toward the Skwentna Roadhouse. When I hadn’t seen a race marker for about 6 miles I got nervous that I had taken the wrong trail and turned around. We back tracked to where I knew we were on the right trail and turned around again. Ended up on the same trail with no markers so we turned around again. After returning to the confluence again I ran into Rick and Zoya who had left Yentna behind me. They had turned around a couple of times after not seeing race markers too. We floundered around for awhile then figured out that the stakes we were seeing were stakes to the Skwentna Roadhouse and not Serum Run stakes that we thought they were. So a couple hours after we should have, we arrived at the checkpoint at 12:30am.

After feeding and bedding the dogs and checking everyone for frostbite I went into the lodge for some food and rest. Once Zoya and Rick came in I found out that Zoya had 5 male dogs that had gotten badly frostbitten. That made me nervous so I asked the vet to go out with me and check all my boys. My dogs were fine. Maguru had some minor frostnip and the vet gave me some salve to put on it, but said he’d be fine.

I slept for an hour or so, then got up around 6:00 to go back out to feed the dogs again. I fed the dogs then took Latte to the dropped dog area and realized that Koala Bear had a sore wrist too. She wouldn’t stand on it so I dropped her. Yuban was sore, but not bad so the vet said give her a try on the run to Yentna. I officially scratched from the race since I had to be back at school Tuesday to get my grades in. Rick and Zoya scratched and made arrangements to have their dogs and themselves flown out.

It had warmed up to –40 by the time I left Skwentna at 9:00am. The dogs did well on the way to Yentna. Yuban was limping pretty good when we got there so I decided she’d get a break and fly home from there. I took the dogs boots off, watered them, snacked them, then went inside for an hour or so and let the dogs rest. The Anchorage Daily News called while I was there and interviewed me, then I tried to call Rich. I couldn’t get him so I called my friend, Ellen to see if she’d be willing to pick me up at the Knik Bar. I would have mushed all the way home, but that would have added 20 miles to an already tired dog team. She said she would, no matter what time I got home.

The weather had warmed up so I took the dogs coats off, rebooted and left. What I didn’t do was take some of my layers off. The two leaders I had left were both not doing really well. Bossy was sore in the hips and had trouble running and Atlas had really sore feet. I wanted to give them a break so I tried to put some other dogs up front. It was a long, sweaty process to get two dogs up front that would run. I finally ended up with Costello and Io leading the way. They were still really strong and loved running up front. Once it started snowing they kept losing the trail so I put Atlas back up there by himself to get us off the river. Once across 3 mile swamp and just before Flathorn lake we ran into 2 snow machiners who were hauling one of the racers dog team back. David Armstrong had gotten lost and hurt. He was finally found, taken out on a sled along with some of his dogs. Mark Johnson (a friend I have mushed with) and a guy named Tim were working hard to get David’s dogs home. I hooked up with them and put my puppies back up front to follow them. It was really slow going since David’s dogs were tired and one snow machine kept overheating. Mark and Tim missed a couple of turns that I had to point out to them so I think they were as glad to have me along as I was to have their company.

We called the Tug Bar before reaching Burma Road and had some guys from the bar bring out a truck for David’s dogs and sled and gas so the snow machines could get home. They also relayed to Ellen that I was on Burma Road. Of course she got many conflicting reports as to exactly where I’d be so after an hour of driving around she finally caught up with us. I just decided to park in the road, take off the dogs boots and harnesses, snack them and wait. Finally around 2:30am she stumbled on us. Bless her heart…she had food/water for the dogs and water and a beer for me. I was so thirsty and sweaty from running up all the hills. We got the dogs home and in their houses around 3:30 and dropped into bed about 4:00. I was up at 7:00 off to pick up the dropped dogs that were at the Tug Bar, then off to school to get my grades done. I finished my grades around 3:00 in the afternoon then told my boss that I was heading home. I stopped to pick up Yuban, who was flown back that afternoon, came home fed dogs, then spent awhile checking on the dogs. Ellen came by after work to unload all my stuff and sled from her truck. By the time I was done with chores I still didn’t get to bed until 10:00 and back up at 5:30 for school on Wednesday.

Now it’s time to give the dogs a little break. Clean the house and get organized for food drop.

All in all….GOOD IDITAROD TRAINING!!

January 30, 2004

Well, things just got a little more stressing and a little more complicated…. Rich broke his ankle riding the snowmachine. It happened Wednesday evening while Kim was running the dogs and I was off getting dog food. Luckily he was close to the house and with a friend who drove him to the hospital. After a couple hours of surgery and a day in ICU he’s home now with 8 screws and a plate in his left ankle. He’s doing fine, just a bit frustrated. He’s been through so many surgeries and recoveries and it’s been such a nice “dry” spell… I’m trying not to freak out about this going on while I’m trying to work, get food drop ready and trying to run the dogs. Being diabetic, he won’t heal very quickly and there’s a very real risk of infection. I’m just going to put all this in the Lord’s hands and let Him take care of it. He’s always taken care of things before and He’ll take care of this and my food drop packing.

We’re having a “work party” tomorrow…meat cutting, dry food packing, algyval making, bootie counting, dog yard work…. Hope we get lots done. Then I’ll feel better.

February 9, 2004

Kim ran my dogs in the Goosebay 120 this past weekend. It was really warm; quite a contrast to the last race. Good for the dogs to have to work in the heat and the punchy snow. Kim did an awesome job with the dogs. He ran them very conservatively and they came screaming in all healthy and happy. I’m glad Kim got to do at least one race this year. He’s worked so hard and done such a great job with my dogs.

I’m off work now until after food drop. I have some meat and my dry food cut and packed. Still have to cut and pack about 800 pounds though. Tony is coming over this afternoon to help cut the last of my fat for the race. For the next week and a half I’ll be doing little else other than food drop stuff and hopefully a few training runs. It’s time to take the plunge and start running all 16 dogs at once. Should be exciting.

February 12, 2004:

We’ve had a sudden heat wave that’s thrown me into a panic. Tony and I tried to cut meat the other day and it was just too warm. I was worried about everything thawing so I called Mat Valley Meats and asked them to cut it. They would cut about 700 pounds of meat for .30 per pound. Sounds like a deal to me. We took the meat to them on Monday afternoon.

The other problem with the warm temps and rain is that the trails are trashed. They’re icy and rock hard: Too hard to boot (dogs need footing on the ice), too rough to not boot (worried about cutting feet on the hard trail). Kim tried to make a dent in the trail with the snow machine and some pallets last night, but to no avail. He came back and helped Erin and I with food drop chores.

My meat is all cut and I have to pick it up today. Hopefully Tony can help me bag it today, then I’ll take it to a friend’s freezer. In the meantime I’m trying to get all the other stuff ready. If I can get all set by the end of today, maybe I can pack the dogs up and go find some decent trails to run on. It’s been a week now since 4 of my dogs have run and 4 days for those who run the Goosebay. I’m stressing about this time off for the dogs, but I imagine I’m not the only musher in this boat.