The Last Great Race - Iditarod 2012

Ice Train at Fur Rondy

This past week was really exciting because the famous Iditarod sled dog race was happening. Last Sunday, after visiting the ice sculptures at the Fur Rondy Festival in Anchorage, we headed to Willow, AK to volunteer at the Re-Start, or the official start. The word Iditarod is likely derived from the Athabaskan haiditarod, meaning “far distant place”. It is originally the name of a village, then the trail was named after it, and then the race. The most famous event on the trail was the race to get a diphtheria serum to Nome in 1925, which is one example of many of how important dog mushing is to the remote corners of Alaska. This year was the 40th anniversary of the race as a sport but the 100th for of the trail.

Sara, Kira, Krista, Julie, and Kasi at the Willow Start

As AmeriCorps volunteers, we were able to see the teams get the dogs ready, lay out the harnesses, and put on their booties. We were then stationed at the VIP/Media area right at the start and along the chute. It was awesome! We got to watch them line up every team and it was amazing how eager to run the dogs are; they are literally lunging into their harnesses until the brakes come of. Of course, they have to slow down so they can go at a reasonable pace to make it the 1,049 to Nome in a little over a week. That distance was really put into perspective here for Krista and Julie who competed in Seward's IditaROW where teams tried to cover the same distance on rowing machines; the humans never stood a chance against these dogs. It was also really cool to see that the mushers actually originate from all over, including internationally, and have all sorts of other day jobs. There were 66 teams competing, most of whom were veterans to the race. We also have our hometown heroes, the Seavey Family from Seward, who helped found the race and have three generations of mushers racing this year. Today, 3/13, the race ended when the youngest Seavey, 25 year old Dallas, became the youngest musher to win the Iditarod!

Lead dogs taking off down the chute to Nome

A dog team ready to run

2012 winner, Dallas Seavey, leaving the start