I finally made it to Anchorage. Sorry for the “ break “ in writing. I was scrambling a bit to get here. Including a 7.30 a.m. phone call, Gerd can you meet me at Mile Post 128, and oh yeah can I have your truck, I finally rolled into town. I think it’s the first Iditarod Banquet I have missed in 10 years. There is also a slight change in plans, I will not be able to take my iron dog along and instead fly into the checkpoints.  I sure hope to score some iron dogs along the way, to get me out on the trail after all. Time will tell, just have to roll with the punches.

Its crunch time. The clock is ticking, no matter how you look at it and if you are ready or not, the start of Iditarod is here. As varied as the mushers experience level is, as varied is their last minute mind set. The trail conditions are sure on everybody’s mind. Some mushers do last minute preparations like strengthening the brush bow on their sled like Iditarod Rookie Cindy Abbot who is training out of Vern Halters Kennel. Cindy is not quite a 100% rookie, as she made it more than half way down the Yukon River last year.

Other mushers like Rick Casillo have taken a multi year break from Iditarod, with not having run since 2008. Training conditions have not quite been ideal throughout much of the winter, which saw Rick and many other mushers train out of Eureka Lodge. Eureka is, same as the Denali Highway, a popular training ground for mushers. Rick commented on the fact, that although he could not train at home, he thoroughly enjoyed spending so much time with other mushers. It felt a little bit like racing already.

Visiting my friends of Bonnie and Jim Foster, who have been involved in Iditarod for a long time and hosted many mushers, including an annual open house, I ran into Aaron Burmeister and Hans Gatt. In my truck I have Saffron, an older female dog who has been to Nome with me 6 times.  She is going to fly out to retire on a couch in the warm south.  And Aaron was glad to see her, as Aaron had borrowed her for the 2012 race. Life always comes full circle.  Bonnie and Jim are going to take care of any dropped dogs Aaron might have, as well as the dropped dogs as several other mushers. Bonnie was quick to offer her couch to Saffron also.  Us mushers are very fortunate to have this support system behind the scenes, who help with so many things, hidden from the lime light of cameras. Bonnie and Aaron were discussing last minute details about the dropped dog arrangements. Trail conditions as such were not on Aarons mind at all. As an experienced musher he has the “ roll with the punches attitude “.  We can all whine at the weather and the fact that it is 42 degrees in the daytime but we all can not change it. In the old days, before facebook , twitter and webcams the obstacles were a little more hidden, and a musher would just find out when he gets there, what was actually waiting for him or her.

Now in the information age, there seems to be a bit more worry about the unchangeable….. like weather. One thing is for certain, the Iditarod Trail crew has put an incredible effort into preparing the trail as good as possible, be it chopping down trees, smoothing out overflows, building ice bridges and even re-routing the trail.  They have always done that, and thus the trail gets a little bit better each year. The over all runtimes also reflect that, the race has become faster and faster over time.

Now if you look at the Iditasport Invitational race, where a bunch of hardy runners and bikers compete towards McGrath and some of them all the way to Nome. It is impossible not to notice, that they have been setting a blistering pace, shattering records not by minutes, but by up to 9 hrs. Some of the bikers have been moving so fast, that they basically outran the average speed of a dog team. What does that tell us? The trail is going to be fast.  Same as the Yukon Quest Trail had been very fast this year. Several thaw and refreeze cycles have hardened the trail. Those first bikers are in Ruby right now. That is crazy fast and one thing they keep on saying; “ We love this trail “. So, when all the hype is over, and the mushers are leaving the hubbub of Anchorage and Willow behind, and start finding their run and rest rhythms, things will be just fine. And soon the worries, which are just a waste of imagination, are long forgotten. And without even noticing it, the mushers start living much more in the “ now and than “. And that is one of the draws of the Iditarod Race, something which has mushers return year after year. It’s a change in pace of daily life.  All other things are temporarily forgotten. All which matters is the now. What do the dogs eat? Who´s foot needs massaging? Do the runner plastic needs changing? How long to stay in the checkpoint, 4 or 5hrs? An of course, than there are those magical moments, where the northern lights dance across the sky, the team is running in sync, and a mushers life could simply not get any better.

So one more day of fun and games.  For all you arm chair mushers out there, I hope you follow along tomorrow morning, when the show begins in downtown Anchorage! Root for you favourite Team! Lets enjoy the ride! Happy trails.

Sebastian