Iditarod 2009 – Paul Gebhardt Update # 3 as of Wednesday, March 11 ©Evy Gebhardt
Bib #15 Paul and team are currently running in 7th position
Into the TAKOTNA checkpoint
Now 418 miles into the 37th running of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, the trail has begun to take its toll on the mushers running the Last Great Race on earth. Shattered sleds, broken dreams and a plane ride home for two of the competitors that have called it quits marked the time since my last update.
I’ll have to admit, I am feeling a little out of sorts, as Paul did not place his customary phone call to me while at the NIKOLAI checkpoint. Whether this was due to limited availability of resources or some new Iditarod rule change, I don’t know. But it did through “my” expected routine into limbo a little. So like the rest of you, I am relying on a heavy diet of information extrapolated from the Iditarod site, my experience on the sidelines over the years, and perhaps a little intuition as well.
The reports off the trail yesterday suggest that the mushers were encountering snow as they made their way through the checkpoint of McGRATH deep in the midnight hours. While it did not appear to be a significant accumulation, the fact that it was carried on unusually warm winds is. If you have been watching the Iditarod site closely, you will have noted a couple of things with Paul’s stats. Number one is that he has dropped two dogs from the team. Both Kristy and I were speculating as to which ones they would be, but I honestly never know until I hear from Paul or they show up on the plane back to Anchorage. When dogs are dropped, they are checked over by veterinarians then loaded into small airplanes for a flight back to Anchorage. We are required to have no less than two back up contacts available at any hour to come and retrieve our dropped dogs when they arrive there. Additionally, we have an Anchorage veterinary office on call and the resources of a 24-hour pet emergency clinic in Anchorage to handle any issues relative to the health of these canine athletes that do not continue down the trail with their teammates. Usually, the catalyst for dropping a dog may be a sore shoulder or wrist, a casualty usually attributed to “punchy” snow conditions when it is warm. Sometimes a dog may not have the appetite of his teammates. And a dog that does not eat well literally is not putting fuel into the tank, and will not perform well. This is rarely the case with Paul’s team! Or you may have a young dog that mentally is not having fun on the trail. Better to have that animal come home here to the kennel, which is what could be the case with either of the dogs Paul dropped.
The worry on my end is exactly which dog Paul may have dropped. I shouldn’t allow myself the pitiful pleasure of worry I know, but I always wonder “is it his main driving leader”… I will never forget when Charlie Boulding, a grizzled icon of Iditarod’s past, talked about dropping just a couple of dogs off his team. He thought he would do better once he had a solid team to progress up the trail. What he discovered instead was that he had given up any speed the team had with the attributes those dogs brought to the lineup. It was not that he regretted dropping the dogs, any musher does this for the best interest of the dogs, it was just a realization that he had not planned for. I think this is one of the reasons Paul was so conscientious about rotating multiple dogs into the lead position during training. My worries about which dogs he dropped aside, I will also say that sometimes a team will actually speed up when a dog is dropped. Plus, there is the element of less chores for Paul to do – such as 8 less feet to bootie.
The other notable thing that I discovered through the streaming video off the Iditarod site is that Paul is running with a broken sled. There was a clip that showed Paul and Mitch Seavey talking at the NIKOLAI checkpoint. Paul was showing Mitch the damage to the main stanchion on the sled, and commenting about how the sled did not “track” anymore. What he meant by this is that it was not steering properly and following behind the team in a clean pattern. Instead of the ease of motion that the sled should have sliding along the snow behind the team, it would be sidewinding, causing them to work harder to do the same job as the teams with functioning sleds alongside of Paul. This would explain his miles per hour. I am sure he is a little frustrated that his original plan to have a replacement sled waiting for him at NIKOLAI did not come to fruition, but being the optimist that he is, I am also certain he is looking forward to switching to the one that should now be waiting at TAKOTNA.
I will be curious to see if Paul elects to take his mandatory 24-hour layover at this checkpoint, or instead rests a few hours then moves further up the trail. Much of this will be dictated by trail reports, weather conditions and most importantly, what is the best for the dogs. Paul did not win the Humanitarian Award twice in this major event by happenstance. He knows that they are not even halfway to the finish line at this point, so he will do what is right by the dogs.
I know there will be some dramatic shifting in placement over the next couple of days. Mushers who wait to declare their 24-hour layover will continue up the trail and bypass those that have started the clock on this long rest. It is not a true illustration of positioning until after these have wrapped up. I will say that with the caveat that one should never make assumptions even when looking at the standings. There have been years when Paul literally gobbled up teams along the Yukon River portion of the trail, and other years when he moved up 9 positions along the Bering Sea Coastline.
This is the Iditarod after all. And the winds of change and hands of fate deal some real wild cards to the mushers out on the trail. The race’s only 5-time champion, Rick Swenson, had been traveling in close proximity to Paul back in the Alaska Range. I heard a news clip about Paul helping Rick, who had crashed on the trail. The two of them arrived simultaneously at the ROHN checkpoint. Rick would stay there for a long time after that before moving on.
Is Paul still in the hunt for a victory? Are there new faces that the contenders will see leading the pack as this race travels deep into the heart of the Alaskan wilderness? Who are the dark horses that pundits are counting out? Stay tuned!
Until later, Life is a journey, enjoy the ride..
Evy
|
