The Last Great Race, Iditarod 2009
The Iditarod is over 1150 miles long. 1150 miles. That’s like driving from Chicago to Orlando. Let that sink in, just for a minute… You know when your parents told you to stop complaining; that they had to walk to school, in 0 degrees (and colder), in the snow, uphill, both ways… Well imagine riding a dog sled from Anchorage to Nome, in March. In the cold (yeah, those rumors you may have heard, “winter in Alaska is cold” – they were pretty much spot on), in the snow, uphill… both ways. Now, imagine you are the lead dogs in a group of 12 to 16 dogs, looking ahead at a landscape dominated by jagged mountain ranges or flat open nothingness. All of it is wilderness, desolation, cold… and yes, uphill both ways. I love...