Kristy Berington Bib #38 in Position #43 out of CRIPPLE as of 6:29pm last night
Next checkpoint: RUBY

There are islands that weather the storms on the Yukon River. Some of them are large enough to deceive you into thinking you are actually looking at a peninsula of the main shoreline, others are squarely planted where the river twists and turns – taking the full brunt of the elements on their upriver side, while others lie protected in the eddy of the waters that swirl towards the ocean in the summer months on this behemoth river.  Right now the flowing waters are hidden beneath the frozen surface that serves as a highway for the teams in the 2010 Iditarod, although the islands can still be seen. And somewhat like those islands that have the misfortune of being located in the main flow of the river in a way that will always mean they will challenged by whatever the river pushes towards them – be it ice floes loaded with twisted tree trunks in the spring or the ceaseless winds that channel down the river corridor, Paul seems to find himself in a position that has him challenged by forces he cannot control.

Just when I think that he has encountered just about everything that could stymie his progress during the Iditarod – broken sleds, broken ganglines, lost teams, getting lost, personal injury and wildlife encounters, he is blessed with a new challenge on his 14^th run to Nome. I talked to him from the checkpoint of RUBY yesterday afternoon, and he filled me in on this new chapter of the book that I think I will write one of these years….

While on the 112 mile run in from CRIPPLE, Paul’s team came down with a significant stomach ailment. Our team, which is known far and wide for consistently having a ferocious appetite, wanted nothing to do with the very food their bodies so desperately needed. Of the 12 dogs on his team, Paul’s leader LIEUTENANT was the only one who would consider any of the food Paul offered the team. I would expect that any parent who has ever nursed a sick child, could appreciate the sense of helplessness that Paul must have felt at trying choice after choice of the meats he had packed for the dogs, only to have them sniff at it – take the piece from his hand and lay it next to them in the straw. It did not matter what he tried, they simply had no appetites. With the temperatures plummeting to nearly -45 overnight on the trail, their bodies were burning precious calories to stay warm – calories they were not putting back into their systems. It is like leaving the car engine running and not putting any gas in the tank.  Paul knew that he would need to rest the team and regroup.

Fortunately he knew what to do and was committed to the welfare of the dogs to do it. He consulted with the Race Veterinarians at the checkpoint, and after getting some medication and a warm meal into them, he stayed at this Yukon River checkpoint for the next 8 hours. Although this did effectively fulfill the mandatory rest that each team is required to take at one of the 4 checkpoints situated along the Yukon River, he would have stayed that long regardless because he knows what he needs to do to get the dogs back on their feet.

The unfortunate part is that this is a circumstance that he found himself in not at all because of something he did wrong – it is just pure bad luck. One of the primary advantages to staying ahead of the pack, particularly early in the race, is that you avoid a lot of the interaction with the other teams. Think of the dogs in the Iditarod as a whole school full of kids. If one or two start to get sick when you have several of them together in a classroom, odds are pretty good that this might just spread like wildfire. Sometimes it only impacts one or two dogs on a team, and some teams have already developed an immunity to the particular bug that they might be introduced to, or could simply be the carrier. Often times, the actual carrier won’t even have symptoms. It is a frustrating thing, and for Paul – something he has never experienced in all the years that he has been racing to this degree. To say that it is redefining his approach for the second half of the 2010 Iditarod is an understatement.

For me, being the consummate cheerleader of the team when that phone call comes in from Paul, it is like rallying to the sideline after seeing a tank drive over your starting line-up. But it is an opportunity for me to take pause and consider this twist in the river as it pertains to the big picture. My support of Paul doesn’t waiver just because he isn’t screaming up the trail as fast as his fellow competitors at the moment. I think about those ribbons that Paul and Kristy had affixed to their sleds at the starting line back in Anchorage. The ribbons that bore the names of fallen US Soldiers like CPT Tyler Swisher. I met his beautiful widow as she visited Paul’s sled, and I think that it would be awfully selfish of me to give in to pity that Paul isn’t winning a dog race.  And I think about the Beads of Courage that both Paul and Kristy have tucked into their sleds now on their journey. These beads will make their way into the hands of children who are battling cancer, along with a note of encouragement that Paul and Kristy will write to the kids.
Will it really matter to the kid who holds that bead as they are wheeled in for another chemo treatment whether it was the first place musher that carried it or the one who crosses the finish line last?  Particularly for Paul, who quietly carries the message of sobriety throughout the western regions of Alaska where battles with substance abuse are endemic, I truly feel that this journey he is one now has to be part of a greater picture. If overcoming adversity on the trail now can give even one person hope, than it is a journey worth taking.

When the race started, Paul had victory in his sights. I absolutely cannot predict where this will go, but I do see that he is still making his way ever closer to Nome, and remains remarkably competitive.  On a lighter note, back at the RUBY checkpoint, Paul and the only five-time winner of the Iditarod, Rick Swenson, were talking about how competitive this year’s race field is. Even without the team being sick, the caliber of dog team that Paul is up against has improved significantly over year’s past. When Paul asked Rick where he figured the “back of the pack” was in context to the parking lot full of dog teams resting at RUBY, Rick alluded to a geographic point some six miles back up the trail and said he thought they were probably just on the other side of it!  This speaks to how strong the overall field is.

Certainly, this should make Kristy feel good about her current standing. Paul had the opportunity to talk to her back at the checkpoint of TAKOTNA where the two had overlapping rests during their 24 hour layovers. He said she had dropped three dogs – two of which I had noted previously: GIBSON & SABLE. He said that it really had not been much of a benefit to add SABLE to the team at the last minute, as she came up with a sore shoulder and Kristy had carried the dog into the checkpoint of FINGER LAKE early in the race. The other dog she dropped was SKUNK, who as you will recall was the recipient of medical attention immediately before Kristy started the race thanks to an argument he had with another dog, JONAH. However, it was because of a sore wrist that she dropped the leader SKUNK, which is a malady he had early in the season that apparently flared up again.

Other than the wild ride she had taken across the Farewell Burn with her charge- up team, the only thing that had Paul concerned for Kristy was her personal health. Evidently she had been battling a bad cold, which was on the verge of becoming pneumonia when she pulled into the checkpoint where Paul was at.  She was able to get some medical attention, and Paul said she was on antibiotics now. He worried about her long run up to RUBY, as the thermometers that many of the mushers carry on their sleds were showing temperatures to -45 below on the trail overnight.  He said that once she got to the Yukon, her runs would all be from checkpoint to checkpoint, and she won’t be camping out along the trail like she had been earlier in the race. That seemed to have been tough for her, as she was having difficulty staying warm due to the illness. Paul has been there himself in terms of having pneumonia during the race, so I was glad that he was able to visit with Kristy and give her some pointers on how to take care of herself.

But even with all of the coaching, there are still rookie mistakes to be made due to her unfamiliarity with the trail. Looking at the GPS this morning, I am hoping it is just a temporary hiccup in the tracking update or she is just making a quick stop to snack the dogs, because she had stopped just 13 miles shy of the checkpoint on the trail. Even though the temperatures are now a balmy -20 by comparison, it wouldn’t be the ideal camping spot. I also hope that she is not having the same health issues with her team that Paul has to contend with. If she does, I have absolute faith that she will use good sense in caring for the dogs as well as my faith in the expertise of the Race Veterinarians to help guide her. Paul has always said that something he sees with Kristy is a true love towards the dogs.

I almost laughed when I talked to Paul on the phone yesterday when he was noting the temperatures. He said that during the daytime, the mercury climbed to almost 20 degrees above – which felt great for the mushers, but was still a little on the warm side for the dogs. But what gave me the chuckle was when he noted that “20 is doable” when talking about the forecast for the next section of the trail. He wasn’t referring to twenty degrees above zero, he was talking about TWENTY BELOW ZERO!  And he was casually addressing that like it was a walk in the park. I’ll bet that he wishes it was that a “warm” now though, because in these wee hours before daybreak when the sky is just turning muted shades of purple, the thermometer is reading -34 where Paul is at.  Can I just say…. BRRRRRRR!

It promises to be an interesting couple of days ahead of us as the race pushes ever closer to Nome. The last checkpoint on the long run down the Yukon River will be KALTAG, and from there the trail cuts overland towards the Bering Sea Coastline. Two things to be cognizant of in terms of Paul’s team now: The have historically proven to be very resilient, to equally balance Paul’s personal determination and drive. I have known Paul to have made up over 8 hours of time and have passed no less than 6 other teams on this section of trail in the past. We do have to allow for the unknown impact of their current health status however, and recognize that Paul will never do something that would compromise their welfare.  Nearly a dozen teams have called it quits, and like Paul, his longtime competitor Dee Dee Jonrowe is also having a less than stellar run this time around. The fact that both Paul and Kristy – each with their own set of challenges, are continuing to rally makes me very proud. Until later…. Evy.