by Cassandra Sturos -
Running in the Iditarod, Alaska’s 1,150-mile dogsled race, through
frozen tundra and over snow covered mountains is not an experience for
the faint of heart. In order to even qualify for the “last great race
on earth,” mushers must compete in two approved events totaling at
least 500 miles. They also need to finish in the top 75 percent of the
race in both events to indicate their level of commitment.
Many mushers choose to participate in the U.P. 200 as a qualifier for
this extraordinary race, not only because of its length of 240 miles,
but also the unique atmosphere of the downtown start in Marquette.
Musher Rodney Whaley is competing in the Iditarod on Mar 1, 2008, for
the first time and is planning on running the U.P. 200 to get in some
last minute training for his dogs.
He started racing sled dogs at nine years old when his family
lived in Alaska, but they eventually moved. He re-discovered sled dog
racing years later on a vacation with his wife when he spotted sled dog
rides and decided to pursue the sport.
“It kind of got back in my blood,” Whaley says.
Whaley then spoke to some people about leasing a dog team to train for
the Iditarod and then got his employer, the National Guard, to agree to
sponsor him. He will be running in the U.P. 200 to further prepare
himself for the Iditarod.
“I am looking forward to the event; I am just running it to get my dogs
ready. I’m not out there to win it. I’m out there to make sure my dogs
have a good healthy run,” Whaley says.
Besides meeting the proper requirements for the Iditarod, mushers will
need to train very extensively, says Jim Warren, a musher who has twice
competed in the Alaska race.
“It turns out that the preparation is pretty lengthy and pretty
demanding, just getting to the start line is a major accomplishment,”
Warren says.
When Jim ran the U.P. 200 he ran it as a qualifier for the Iditarod,
but the attempt ended after an accident involving several of his sled
dogs. Warren says the U.P. 200 serves as more training for the actual
Iditarod.
“It gives it a pretty good flavor of what you’re getting into,” Warren
says.
He was enticed to compete in the Iditarod after traveling with his wife
to watch the race in 2000. Her cousin, Rick Swenson, had won the
Iditarod five times, and the combination of that and going to see the
Iditarod firsthand prompted Jim to want to run the race as well.
“I was in Nome [Alaska] as a tourist; four years later I was standing
in Nome with my own dog team,” Warren recalled, “People said, ‘No, you
can’t do it; it’s impossible.’ But we did it.”
He finished his first race in thirteen days. With winners of the
Iditarod finishing on average in 9-11 days, finishing in 13 days, for a
rookie, is something to be proud of; even finishing the race at all is
an astounding achievement.
Chris Warren, Jim’s son who has run the U.P. 200 twice, hitchhiked
across Alaska to follow his dad’s progress in the Iditarod in 2004. He
says that while the Iditarod is an incredible adventure, he didn’t like
seeing what the race did to the mushers.
He recalled some of the harsh realities of the race such as broken legs
and broken teeth and because of this, he says he would not like to run
in the Iditarod himself.“Someone told me, if you ever want to run [the Iditarod] you need to
hire someone to beat you with a hockey stick so you know you can handle
it,” Warren says.