Alaska . . . We got ourselves a dog race in this Iditarod

Day 10 of the 2007 “Last Great Race on Earth” has all the magic of NASCAR, the sportsmanship of the NBA, the ‘class’ of The Masters, and the grit of human spirit and excellence not found in many sports.

The true ‘stars’ of this Iditarod are the dogs . . . they love to run . . . and run. They have the heart of champions each and every one no matter where they stand in the order of things.

They battle . . . each other . . . the elements . . . the terrain . . . and when the day or night is done . . . they rest soundly in the contentment of a job well done. The amazing race of the Iditarod is that these dogs at the end of a long day’s trail are happy and look ready to continue even after the toughest conditions on earth.







Photo by Bob Hallinen Anchorage Daily News

Even the human competitors have a toughness not seen in other sports.

Most Sunday’s for a few hours there are those who drive a car for 500 miles on a mostly round track, some with high banked walls and a few little bumps. The continual ‘left turns’ must become maddening after a few seasons of racing. It is a hard few hours for some in the sometime extreme heat as the summer sun brings temperatures inside the car over 115 degrees.

And we have those gridiron hero’s who ‘work’ for a few months of the year putting in that hard 4 hours on the Sunday’s playing field with the occasional Monday night work. Sure they stay in shape in the off season (2/3 of the year) with the rounds of golf and the few months of workouts to get back in shape before the season starts . . .

Baseball . . . I won’t even go there as years ago when the strike was ongoing I heard all the players whine about not making enough money. I was on a three week camping trip through mid America and saw many farmers working their fields at night by their tractor’s headlight while huge foreclosure signs were posted on their property. Baseball has never been the same for me after that . . .

I guess the closest thing I can think of that comes close to the mental and physical toughness of the Iditarod is the Tour de France. Another grueling test of endurance in varying conditions over a long period of time and my hat salutes those athletes too.

We are closing in on the final miles of Iditarod XXXV and it is turning into quite the race. The top four mushers are within hours of each other with Lance Mackey and Paul Gebhardt passing through the Elim checkpoint on their way to the mandatory 8 hour rest stop in White Mountain. Both have a much needed rest to look forward too in White Mountain.

Following closely behind are four time winner Martin Buser of past Iditarod Trail races followed by last year’s defending champ, Jeff King also a four time winner.

From the rest stop in White Mountain there are two final checkpoints to complete. The first is in Safety with the final just past the burled arch in Nome where this incredible journey ends.

Time will tell if this is a storybook ending but so far it has been another incredible run.

Thanks everyone . . .

Ice

Current standings

Standings

Rank

Musher (bib)

1

Lance Mackey (13)

2

Paul Gebhardt (10)

3

Martin Buser (19)

4

Jeff King (31)

5

Zack Steer (7)

6

Ed Iten (30)

7

Ken Anderson (54)

8

Mitch Seavey (20)

9

John Baker (48)

10

Robert Sorlie (50)

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