Alaska's Great Race - Iditarod Musher

" This is your fourth Iditarod? Why did you do it?"

" Sense of accomplishment too of traveling a team of dogs all across Alaska; it's almost over a thousand miles. You know, it's a real challenge, particularly if you're like me; I got one race in Alaska. I'm a city kid from Washington DC. So, I'm actually a neurosurgeon in real life. Traveling with the dog team across Alaska is so fun from the way I was brought up. This is a real challenge and accomplishment. Most of the time we go in between 10 to 12 miles an hour. Occasional faster bursts. It's all I wanted to go. They can go over 15, but I don't wanna train them to do that. I wanna train and we're going for at least 10 miles an hour for 2 weeks. Some of these dogs here have done Iditarod before, most have not. Some are in for a real shock. When you start the race with 16, and 16 is a handful, but you can drop them as we go at checkpoints if the dog is tired or injured. It goes with the season or whatever the reasons. Well, the training since I got here of myself has been different. It's basically toughening it up, you know, getting used to the cold, and, you know, the pounding of the sled and all that kind of stuff getting used to getting thrown off and bumps and bruises, and getting over that. But, I've been up here working with the dogs for 4 and a half months now. We're only a week from Australia Iditarod and so, this is kind of tuned up to keep them shape. If you're not in shape by now, it's too late. What you got is bunch of individuals, and the idea is to make them a team. It's physical training, but then they gotta learn their commands out here; they gotta learn how to camp; they gotta learn how to travel, you know, get up to 6 hours; we get up and move. You only come across another team out there. You gotta learn to just pass them, not stop and have a dog fight or a smelling session. To get them, a group of dogs to go, you have 1200 miles and do well, and have them arrive in good shape, well-fed, happy. It's a challenge and it's very satisfying. You always get lost. The idea is not to get lost for too long. They had a trail fairly well-marked, but those markers blow over, but the races speed it up as the breeding has changed and you figure it out what dogs can do and can't do. So, now in 9 or 10 days, we'll win. It's a real privilege. I mean how many people got to do this? Well, I'm told that there`re actually more people who have climbed Everest than have finished the Iditarod and so, this being my fourth time, so I think they're probably only a couple of other people who have ever done that."