Anna Berington at Musher Sign-up in June

Anna Berington came to Alaska to get into sled dogs. However it was long before moving to the Last Frontier that Anna became familiar with mushing. Anna and twin sister Kristy built their first dog sled using a pair of downhill skies and a milk crate. Their first pulling dogs were a Border Collie and a Great Pyrenees. Their first runs with the make shift sled pulled by their make shift team were taken while growing up in northern Wisconsin. From that creative mushing beginning, Anna began working for a neighbor who raced sled dogs. Since then, Anna and Kristy have come a long way in the mushing world.  Use this link to view the Insider clip on Anna Berington.

Anna joined the National Guard then ended up in California working for a sled dog touring company.  Giving the rides to tourists was fun be she wanted more.  “More” was the endurance aspect of mushing, the training, preparation and the strategy for mushing long distances.  Once in Alaska, she found herself a couple of good mentors, Scott Janssen and Iditarod Champion Dean Osmar.  Anna has completed Iditarod four times.  Her best finish was 28th place in 2015. 

Anna says that her best times running dogs have been with twin sister Kristy and thankfully, for those of us who can’t tell them apart, they sometimes wear different colored hats. In Anna’s first Iditarod, she wore a red hat and Kristy wore a blue one. Other years on the trail, there’s no easy way to determine who’s who. In Anna’s first two Iditarod finishes, she and Kristy have come into Nome with their teams running beside each other crossing under the Burled Arch simultaneously while holding hands. What’s Anna’s favorite snack for the trail? She gravitates to Smucker’s PB&J Uncrustables.

The Berington twins are extreme athletes. When they’re not mushing, they are training for and competing in triathlons. It’s the endurance aspect that draws Anna to Iditarod.  Anna signed up for the 2016 Iditarod at the Musher Sign-up and Volunteer Picnic in late June.  Kristy made the commitment to run in 2016 in mid-November..

Al Fischens at Musher Sign-up in June

Alan Eischens has been involved with the sport of mushing for more than 30 years. Over that time, he’s served as a race official and checkpoint volunteer. In 2012 he established Double EE kennel in Wasilla. He’s done a sled load of qualifying races and participated in his first Iditarod or perhaps we should say Iditariver in 2015. The lack of snow between Anchorage and the interior caused race officials to relocate the start of the race to Fairbanks. Rather than going up and over the Alaska Range, the 2015 trail ran along rivers for most of the miles between Fairbanks and Kaltag.  Click this link to view the Insider video clip about Alan.

Eischens was in Nome in 1978 when Dick Mackey claimed victory over Rick Swenson by one second. It was a duel of teams on Front Street that Eischens will likely remember the rest of his life. The two teams were neck and neck heading to the burled arch. Mackey went ahead of Swenson by quite the length of a football field but then his dogs ran up on the sidewalk and into the spectators. Swenson who took the lead soon found his dogs inspecting the underside of a parked school bus. Mackey once again gained the lead only to get tangle up in a camera tripod just as he entered the chute. Swenson was closing the gap but not giving up, Mackey ran up, untangled his leaders and the two teams crossed under the arch only a second apart. The photo finish caused quite the controversy. There had never been one so close. Was it the whole team, sled and driver that had to cross under the arch or was it any part of the team. Decision – any part of the team.

Alan grew up in Adak, a village of the Aleutian Islands. He developed a great love for the out of doors and living off the land. He’s lived for ten years in Savoonga on St. Laurence Island where he worked construction. When Eischens finished Iditarod 2015, there were many Islanders in Nome to great him. Alan has also lived in Fairbanks. When he takes time away from training dogs and racing, he’s likely to be hunting, fishing, woodworking or snow machining.

Eischens, who is training for his second Iditarod, dedicates the many miles he’s done with his dog team to bringing awareness and education to the public about pediatric stroke, pediatric kidney disease and pediatric brain cancer. Two special little gals, Ava and Remedy are pictured in the Double EE Kennel photo gallery holding a poster says to Alan, “You be our legs, we’ll be your heart.”   Eschews finished Iditarod 2015 in 60th place with a time of 12 days, 11 hours and 56 minutes.

Each Friday, Greg Heister and the Insider team will be introducing two mushers. This week, Al Eischens and Anna Berington are featured. Don’t miss a moment of the Iditarod action. Go to http://iditarod.com/subscriptions/ to subscribe or renew.

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