Iditarod

[LannyC]

My wife and I are big Iditarod Sled Dog Race fans. We follow those incredible canine athletes every March over the Net. Anyone else hooked on sled doggies?

milliHelen: amount of beauty required to launch one ship.

 

[skimonkey]

Isn't this race on day 3 now for 2014?

I caught a few tweets from ADN Iditarod @iditarodLive on Twitter. The pictures they are posting are just stunning.

 

[LannyC]

Here's a vast collection of Iditarod links from the Bering Strait School District:

http://mushing.bssd.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=121

As with most any subject, the closer you look, the more interesting the details become. Iditarod combines athleticism (both human and dog), technology, preparation, training, endurance, strategy, and the extremes of Alaskan weather. Oh...and large dollops of luck! There's nothing quite like it.

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[skimonkey]

Thanks, Lanny. I just had a look at the race map...am I reading correctly that it is 975 miles long?

 

[LannyC]

Yep, that sounds about right. There are varying estimates about the actual length, but the precise number really doesn't matter. Distance is the least of the challenges facing the racers. The human is the weak link on the team, and sleep deprivation is probably the biggest issue after the first couple of days. Well, except for the unlucky mushers who had to quit due to sprains, concussions, and fractures sustained over the worst sections of the trail, which were especially nasty this year as a result of the lack/absence of snow.

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[LannyC]

This page has a short video highlighting the beauty of the wilderness: http://iditarod.com/race/?vid=53959

NOTE: this doesn't seem to work from within the IPF app, nor in iPad Safari. Try pasting the link into some other browser. The vid title is "Run Dogs Run - Finger Lake." Works for me in Mercury browser.

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[scifan57]

The Iditarod even has an official app, so you can follow the race from start to finish. https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/iditarod-the-official-app/id810365013?mt=8