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 Paul is wearing Northern Outfitters in the K300
By Evy Gebhardt ©2010 KUSKO 300 PRE RACE UPDATE #1
As of 6PM Friday January 15, 2010
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In less than an hour, Paul will be among a seasoned crop of mushers to leave the starting line in Bethel, Alaska for what is unquestionably the premier mid distance sled dog race in the state, the K300, or “Kusko” as it is usually referred to. There are just 13 mushers that will be taking on this challenging race, which kicks off on the frozen surface of the winding Kuskokwim River from this city of some 6000 residents. And while the residents of this windswept region offer a warm send-off to the teams as they head out into the darkness following the rare nighttime race start, the mushers had better be well prepared to face some grueling conditions on their 300+ mile journey.
Temperatures are currently hovering at minus -10F, with windchill advisories cautioning for the freeze factor to plummet to -45F overnight. When I talked to Paul this afternoon, he had several plans in place to assure the team’s safety as they made their way into the 30mph headwind on this first leg of the race. Trail conditions are far from ideal, with the absence of good snow cover being the major concern. Paul will be using a snowmachine for roughly the first four miles of trail to keep the team safe on the slick icy snowpack. After that, his concern is to keep the team well hydrated. This single element has proven to keep be the best resource for mitigating any frostbite potential for the dogs, when coupled with the fox tails and dog jackets that he has for each member of the team. Since there is not loose snow on the ground, the dogs will not be able to “dip” to the side of the trail and scoop mouthfuls of snow to keep themselves hydrated on this section of their run. They will depend on Paul to provide them with the hydration they need, and fortunately he has the expertise to proactively prepare for this. In the past several weeks, Paul has adjusted his training to include stops with the team to feed them “soaked” food. By this, I am referring to the dry commercial Momentum brand dog food that he feeds the dogs that is combined with water. He will carry a cooler of water in his sled, and then will add the commercial food to the water about fifteen minutes before he plans to stop the team for a break. This allows the nutrient rich food to soften and absorb the water, so that when the team eats the soaked kibble, they are also ingesting critical masses of fluid through this feeding approach.
So when he takes off from the starting line in 11th position, he will have water in his cooler. He will also carry extra bottles of “Heet” (Which for anyone residing in the northern climates, this is the same recognizable yellow bottle of alcohol that is used to de-ice fuel.) If needed, he will stop and melt ice to get water for the dogs to drink, using the Heet to fuel the portable cooker he also carries.
For himself, he did tell me he regretted not bringing his snowmachine helmet out for the race given the wind and cold. He has used the helmet in the Iditarod several years, and has been very happy with how well his face and head stays protected. (Except for the year he neglected to properly tuck his neck gator up around the bottom lip of the helmet. The insidious cold had snaked in along this gap and frozen the skin on his neck in a line that, by the time he reached the finish line in Nome, had the telltale black of dead skin in a long arc that made him look like he had a hangman’s noose around his neck.) On this journey now, he has the protection of a bright new red Northern Outfitters parka and a ruff sewn by Northland Furs.
Track the progress at http://www.k300.org/ Until later – life is a journey, enjoy the ride! Evy
2010 KUSKO 300 RACE UPDATE #2 As of 7AM Saturday, January 16, 2010
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Taking a conservative approach in this early leg of the grueling 300+ mile Kusko 300, Paul moved into 8th position with his team of 14 dogs when he pulled into the village of KALSKAG at just after 6:30 this morning. Weather reports from the area make me want to put another log on the fire just thinking about it!
“Wind Chill Advisory... Bitter cold conditions continue over the entire Kuskokwim Delta. Early this morning wind chills have reached as low as 48 below zero at Bethel in the past hour. North wind gusting to 50 mph will along with temperatures in the teens below zero produce wind chills to 50 below zero.”
These are conditions that will require continual vigilance on Paul’s part to keep the team as hydrated and protected as possible. The lack of snow on the trail certainly does not help, but reports were that as the race progresses deeper inland away from the coastal regions of the state, the snow conditions were supposedly more favorable.
For any of us that have never stood on the runners for any length of time, it is hard to fully appreciate the isolation that comes with being a musher. The long, absolute hours of darkness that they travel through during the midnight hours would be enough to test the mettle of any of us, but compound this with that kind of bone rattling cold, and there is not a doubt in my mind that these mushers are either completely insane or tough as nails. Granted, Paul would favor the latter, but the bottom line is that there are intangible benefits that our team will realize through Paul’s past experience on the race trail. His understanding of the impact of the degrees of cold (and yes, according to the experts there is a difference), the quality of the snow (didn’t know that this was an issue either did you?) and his understanding of the metabolic differences of each of the dogs on his team are all things that will play into how he approaches the race. By being tough enough himself, both physically and mentally, he is able to make wise decisions for the dogs’ benefit.
One of Paul’s strongest attributes in terms of the sport of mushing, is undoubtedly his ability to function at a high level in the absence of sleep. I recently read an article that addressed the effect on the brain of sleep deprivation. It indicated how some people’s mental reaction was so compromised by this, that they were the equivalent of a severely intoxicated person. Paul has talked about some of his competitors over the years and how they would waste time and energy because of how poorly they functioned without sleep. He himself fell victim to this phenomenon in the Iditarod a few years back, when he became disorientated on the long run into the Cripple checkpoint. He was both tired as well as on the verge of hypothermia due to the heavy wet snow that had soaked through his gear, and made choices that reflected his diminished mental state. Particularly in highly competitive races like the Kusko, you cannot afford to waste anything – be it time or energy. There simply are not enough miles of race trail to reclaim lost opportunities.
In this vein of thought, you may question why he is currently holding back and not leading the charge as the race makes its way up the Kuskokwim Delta. I will point you back to historical successes that mushers have had in the Kusko 300 by doing exactly what Paul is doing now. Ramey Smyth captured an unheard of victory years back by following the lead pack of the likes of Charlie Boulding, Jeff King and Rick Swenson – icons in the sport of mushing. When their teams needed to stop for rest late in the race, Smyth was able to capitalize on a stronger, more rested team and seize victory. It was the upset of the season that year. Likewise, a past Iditarod & Kusko champion, Mitch Seavey is currently just behind Paul in the standings, likely approaching the frigid head winds in a similar fashion to Paul.
Ultimately, I know that Paul will run the race to the dogs’ best capabilities. I also recognize how much he is focused on claiming that elusive Iditarod victory in just a few short weeks, and he will not do anything to hamper his chances there with these dogs.
The teams have a mandatory layover at KALSKAG before continuing upriver to the next checkpoint at ANIAK. Past there, the trail loops up through the tiny village of NAPAIMUTE before retracing back downriver towards the finish line. There are a couple of shorter sled dog races that run concurrently with the K300, and Paul has talked about how challenging it can be on the Kusko teams to bypass beds of straw left behind by the other racers on the their abbreviated courses. One benefit the Kusko teams will enjoy when they make it past NAPAIMUTE will be having the winds to their back as well as a downhill run as they make their way seaward on the river delta.
Track the progress at http://www.k300.org/
Until later – life is a journey, enjoy the ride! Evy
2010 KUSKO 300 RACE UPDATE #3 As of 6:30 am Sunday, January 17, 2010
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Wind gust of up to 45mph, and a windchill factor in Bethel currently reading at -31 degrees below zero mark what will likely be the final day of racing for the teams in this year’s Kuskokwim 300 Sled Dog Race. And while there seems to be a couple of teams that are pushing hard as standouts to win this exhaustive warm-up to the Iditarod, with nearly 100 miles of trail before they reach the finish line, it is early to call.
Paul is currently in 6th place, which reflects the longer rests he seems to be affording the team as they travel through this frigid landscape. According to the information available, he also still has the largest string of dogs in front of his sled in this front group of mushers. The numbers reflect that he has dropped two of the 14 he originally left the starting line with. I really would have no way to gauge which dogs they may have been, and from the attrition I am seeing in the other teams, I would not be surprised to see him drop a few more en-route to the finish line throughout the balance of his journey today. However, I will take a degree of solid encouragement that Paul is holding a larger team together. I feel that this speaks to a level of care that he is maintaining, as well as a balance of nutrition, rest and pure luck. I don’t refer to the latter in jest either. It can be absolutely nothing more than just the wrong moment in time that can cause a musher to have to drop a member of the team during a race. A missed footing on a patch of ice that causes an unexpected slip, which results in a sore shoulder, can happen to any team at any time. With the trail conditions such as they are, this is a very big possibility.
Already, the race has extinguished the dreams of victory for one musher. Mitch Seavey, a former K300 champion, called it quits and scratched from the race yesterday for reasons unknown. It could have been a damaged sled, illness or problems on the trail that may have impacted more dogs than Mitch felt comfortable continuing without on the rest of his run. There are thresholds for a minimum number of dogs a musher must have in their team when they cross the finish line. If he had to drop a large number of dogs that early in the race, he may have looked at the big picture and knew that realistically it would not be prudent to attempt to continue with an already diminished team. We will likely have an answer to this mystery once the rest of the mushers get back to BETHEL.
For now, Paul is on the trail headed down to KALSKAG. From there, it is a long 50 miles to reach TULUKSAK. The trail then makes the final charge back to the finish line in BETHEL, passing through the tiny village of KWETHLUK on the way.
Track the progress at http://www.k300.org/
Until later – life is a journey, enjoy the ride! Evy
By Evy Gebhardt ©2010 KUSKO 300 POST RACE UPDATE #4
As of 5AM MONDAY January 18, 2010 View as a PDF | "THE TOUGHEST RACE I'VE EVER RUN" Paul said when he called me early this morning upon completing the race. Late in the hours of midnight, when we were hunkered down warm in our beds, Paul and his team crossed the finish line in this year’s Kusko 300 capturing 5th place. It was exciting to see Paul’s longtime mushing companion, John Baker, claim his first ever win in the race, and as much as I would have loved for this to have been Paul – I am very happy for John. The two mushers started out as rookies together, and over the years, have developed a friendship that included one year in particular when the two mushers traveled in tandem for the majority of the Iditarod trail. As well, it is good for the sport to see new faces in the spotlight.
Paul was a little trail weary, and I will have a more detailed followup later, but he did indicate that if he never saw glare ice again that would be ok. He said he frost bit his right eye early in the race, and had to make a stop for several hours to treat this at a checkpoint. Mitch Seavey, who ended up scratching, froze his left eye. And although Paul was able to recover enough to allow the use of goggles, Mitch did not reclaim enough vision to safely continue. Paul had indicated that there were multiple challenges with locating trail markers during the race, and having comprimised vision was not helping matters. He said he got lost several times, and had issues dealing with running over the cracked surface of the river ice. He was signing the praises of his lead dog Lieutenant, who ran in single lead from the KALTAG checkpoint all the way to the finish line.
For much of the race, Paul held onto a big string of dogs. He had several young dogs on this team, and it was important to him that they have a positive racing experience. This is the lineup of 14 that he started with:
Lieutenant & King were his main leaders, followed by: Crazy, Fawn, Hag, Recon, Snickers, Betsy and Copper. One little female, named Cocoa, was making her first-ever race debut on this trail, and there were other newbies including: Panther, Nicholas, Jester & Pyscho that were in the team to learn the dynamics of racing as well. This particular race offers some unique trail conditions that Paul can’t replicate for our team here on the Kenai Peninsula. Since they are conditions that the dogs will encounter on their 1,100 mile journey to Nome in a few weeks, the exposure they have now to this will make them more comfortable later on. The wide expansive country that marks the majority of the trail that the Kusko follows is very similar to the miles of running on the Yukon River, as well as the barren, coastal region of the state where the Iditarod trail travels along Norton Sound and the Bering Sea. Not that it was enjoyable by any measure, but the wind that the team encountered will also likely be an element that they need to have a mental comfort level with as well. And while Paul has yet to claim victory in the Kusko, if you look at statistics, he greatly increased his odds of garnering his long sought-after Iditarod crown by running this race.
By this, I would reference back to the 2007 season. Paul placed 11th in the Kusko that year, and went on to take 2nd in the Iditarod. When Paul was the runner up in the Iditarod in 2000, he had placed 8th in the Kusko. So you would ask yourself if I am taking encouragement from his 5th place Kusko finish this year as we head into the Iditarod….in the words of Sarah Palin: “You Betcha”. For complete race stats, you can visit http://www.k300.org/
We won’t be sitting still long, so don’t go too far away… the Tustumena 200 Sled Dog Race is this coming weekend, and Kristy is signed on for the 200 mile race while Paul will be taking his team on the 100 mile circuit to use this as a training run. The next event on the circuit that awaits them before the Iditarod will be the mid-February Denali Doubles Event.
Until later – life is a journey, enjoy the ride! Evy
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