Iditarod

[frozenchief]

Brent Sass won the Iditarod this year. Dallas Seavey was hot on his trail but just couldn't catch up. Came in about an hour later. Took about 8 ½ days for a winner to be declared. The next 12 hours will probably see another half dozen or so mushers come in. And they'll trickle in over the next few days. Last person to complete the Iditarod gets the 'red lantern' award.

One definitely unique aspect of the Iditarod: it's the only race I know of in which you might have to kill something:

https://www.alaskasnewssource.com/20...r-near-galena/

I like dogs and I've gone out with some friends who have teams, but a race of > 1,000 miles through the Alaska wilderness does not sound like fun.

But it's better than running the Iditarod trail myself. I have a couple of friends who are into long-distance running and she has this sled that she attaches to her waist. She has run the Iditarod trail to Nome in the past. She carries a sleeping bag, stove, food, etc., sleeping out on the trail at night. She said it took her a couple of weeks. Thanks, but no thanks.

Anyway, details about the race and standings, etc., are here:

iditarod.com

[MAHOMO 4 LIFE!]

Man I remember when Lance Mackey came to our school and told us stories. Dude was severely on drugs but his stories were wild. I’m glad he got better

[Graystoke]

What an endurance race. Looking at the standings it gives information about number of dogs checked in. I see some mushers with 9 dogs and others with as much as 14. I know very little about the race, but wouldn’t more dogs be better? I mean dogs kept fresh are weight, but a rotation seems beneficial.
Or am I interpreting this all wrong?

[Coochie liquor]

I do the vacation Iditarod twice a year. Usually in Jamaica and Mexico. It consists of waking up around sunrise, starting to drink immediately (bloody Mary’s, pineapple mimosa’s, and coffee with rum cream), then continuously drinking rum and diet all day, and still making it to the finish line at 1-2 am at the club and then back to the room for sex before passing out. Then I restart the vacation Iditarod all over again, until it’s time to go back home.

[frozenchief]

Originally Posted by Graystoke

What an endurance race. Looking at the standings it gives information about number of dogs checked in. I see some mushers with 9 dogs and others with as much as 14. I know very little about the race, but wouldn’t more dogs be better? I mean dogs kept fresh are weight, but a rotation seems beneficial.
Or am I interpreting this all wrong?

That's a good question without a real easy answer. You have to have at least 8 dogs to finish. If you have to drop a dog and you are left with 7 dogs, you are forced to scratch.

That said, there are different reasons to drop a dog. First and most obviously, some dog might not be feeling well or might be injured. They can get injured from the terrain, from being kicked by a moose, from getting tangled in the leads and the musher can't stop the rest of the team in time. Every musher I know absolutely loves their dogs and if they don't think a dog is doing well or if they have reason to think the dog might be injured, they will drop a dog at a check point. There's a whole group of volunteer pilots that use their planes to fly supplies to check points and return with whatever needs to be returned. Sometimes, that's a dog.

Sometimes, a dog might be too young to make it the whole way and so you run them in race conditions knowing that you'll drop them along the way. It helps train the dog and gives the musher an idea of what the dog is capable of.

Dogs sometimes escape and sled dogs .... there's no real gentle way to put this, but they're crazy. Every sled dog I've encountered is just bat shit crazy. And if they get out of the harness, they might run alongside the team or they might just run toward the last check point. There are numerous mushers who have lost hours searching for dogs that have escaped. And a musher might decide that a dog that has escaped once is just too much of a risk to carry.

Those are some reasons to drop dogs. And I can understand why thinking that more dogs means that you make better time, but that depends. Having 10 dogs that are disciplined and trained (as well as sled dogs can be) can make better time than having 14 or 16 that are not disciplined and trained.

[eDave]

The maximum number of dogs a musher may start the race with is 14 and a minimum of 12 on the line to start the race and at least 5 must be on the towline at the finish.

[Wilson8]

Brent Sass won the Iditarod this year

Wait...How was he able to do that and also get Justin Reid signed for the Chiefs?

That man is amazing!

Carl used to just take off for Scotland and forget all about his responsibilities.

Not Brent Sass. He's making phone calls while on his sled.

But then again maybe this is why we have a new Frank Clark contract.

(Not sure who was originally responsible, but Butt Bleach is the best name I have read so far.)

[Perineum Ripper]

Having went through a couple courses at The United States Army Northern Warfare Training Center, **** any sort of cold weather shit in Alaska. I had my fill of all of that shit, cold weather leaders course. 11 day course, with 6 straight days living in sub zero temperatures. Suck my butthole.

[threebag]

The Ikilledadog- Jim Rome

[Rain Man]

I keep meaning to do this, but I never remember when the race starts.

[Capt_Von_Trapp]

Originally Posted by threebag02

The Ikilledadog- Jim Rome

Heh. How are the animal rights organizations not all
Over this race??

[threebag]

Originally Posted by Capt_Von_Trapp

Heh. How are the animal rights organizations not all
Over this race??

They have tried different stuff in the past.

[frozenchief]

Originally Posted by threebag02

The Ikilledadog- Jim Rome

Yeah, Rome says that but he never comes up here and he never sees it in person. He never sees the vets that donate their time to ensure dogs’ welfare. He never sees the mushers that mush for miles with a dog in their arms because they are concerned about that dog. He never sees the award given for the musher who best takes care of his dog. No. He just flaps his jaws from SoCal without having the goddamn guts to actually come up here and look at what actually happens.

Well, **** Jim Rome.

I’ve said before that sled dogs are bat shit crazy. They run. They run like nobody’s business. They live to run. They were born to run. I visited a friend the first winter I was up here. He lived in Kotzebue (north of Nome) and he had a dog team. He took me out for a run and I served as ballast. To prevent the dogs from running away with the sled while the musher is harnessing other dogs, they use boat anchors to anchor the sled into the snow. My friend used 2 boat anchorage, one off each side of the back end of the sled, to prevent the dogs from running. And yet when those dogs got into the harness, they were straining at the harness so hard, they were wanting to run so bad, that they dragged boat anchors through the snow. I’ve never seen anything like it.

I remember that run. A snow storm came in and we were running in white out conditions. You could not tell up from down. I know that sounds nuts but it looked like the dogs were climbing a ladder so you could not tell up from down. Yet those dogs knew the trail. Their ability to find the next mile marker was incredible.

Every musher I know mushes because they love dogs. And idiots like Jim Rome sit in their comfortable chairs and cast judgment with no knowledge of what actually happens. Well, I learned all I needed to know about Jim Rome when I saw Jim Everett beat the shit out of him. Jim just cowered. Hell, Jim wants to bitch about the Iditarod, let him run the Iron Dog: 2500 miles on a snowmachine from Anchorage to Nome to Fairbanks. No dogs. 2 man teams. Just hop on, Jim. You’re a big man. You have all the answers from your fat, cushy life in SoCal. You want to critize the Iditarod, at least show you have the cojones and the capacity to do an endurance race in the Alaska winter.

Jim Rome is a coward and a fraud and he can just rot.

[eDave]

Originally Posted by frozenchief

Yeah, Rome says that but he never comes up here and he never sees it in person. He never sees the vets that donate their time to ensure dogs’ welfare. He never sees the mushers that mush for miles with a dog in their arms because they are concerned about that dog. He never sees the award given for the musher who best takes care of his dog. No. He just flaps his jaws from SoCal without having the goddamn guts to actually come up here and look at what actually happens.

Well, **** Jim Rome.

I’ve said before that sled dogs are bat shit crazy. They run. They run like nobody’s business. They live to run. They were born to run. I visited a friend the first winter I was up here. He lived in Kotzebue (north of Nome) and he had a dog team. He took me out for a run and I served as ballast. To prevent the dogs from running away with the sled while the musher is harnessing other dogs, they use boat anchors to anchor the sled into the snow. My friend used 2 boat anchorage, one off each side of the back end of the sled, to prevent the dogs from running. And yet when those dogs got into the harness, they were straining at the harness so hard, they were wanting to run so bad, that they dragged boat anchors through the snow. I’ve never seen anything like it.

I remember that run. A snow storm came in and we were running in white out conditions. You could not tell up from down. I know that sounds nuts but it looked like the dogs were climbing a ladder so you could not tell up from down. Yet those dogs knew the trail. Their ability to find the next mile marker was incredible.

Every musher I know mushes because they love dogs. And idiots like Jim Rome sit in their comfortable chairs and cast judgment with no knowledge of what actually happens. Well, I learned all I needed to know about Jim Rome when I saw Jim Everett beat the shit out of him. Jim just cowered. Hell, Jim wants to bitch about the Iditarod, let him run the Iron Dog: 2500 miles on a snowmachine from Anchorage to Nome to Fairbanks. No dogs. 2 man teams. Just hop on, Jim. You’re a big man. You have all the answers from your fat, cushy life in SoCal. You want to critize the Iditarod, at least show you have the cojones and the capacity to do an endurance race in the Alaska winter.

Jim Rome is a coward and a fraud and he can just rot.

Yea, I was wondering what PETA has to say about it too.

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by Capt_Von_Trapp

Heh. How are the animal rights organizations not all
Over this race??

They are, but it never seems to gain any traction. I did hear a whiney story on the local socialist news radio station a couple of weeks ago. Like any of these racers give a **** what some weepy twat in Chicago thinks about dog sledding.

Also, Alaska is a touch on the remote side. I really don't think the PETA freaks want to travel thousands of miles to tangle with the folks involved in these races. Millions of square miles to bury bodies.