Faces of the last great race on Earth

March 2, 2019 3:19 PM

A few hours ago, the 2019 Iditarod kicked off in Anchorage, Alaska. Fifty-two mushers will be making their way to Nome, approximately 938 miles away. Photographer Jeff Shultz is taking pictures and recording interviews with those that are involved in the race. From dog handlers to vet techs to those doing gruntwork and everything in between, including the mushers and the dogs themselves.

For more information on the iditarod, you can follow iditapod, Alaska Public Media's coverage of the iditarod.

posted by dinty_moore (83 comments total)

(More images will be posted daily until March 15)
posted by dinty_moore at 3:21 PM on March 2, 2019

“What a trip! What a trip! Blizzard all the way! Snow 20 feet deep! But we had to get that serum through!”
posted by valkane at 4:02 PM on March 2, 2019 [1 favorite]

Oh, marvelous! I have subscribed to Iditapod. I did watch some Twitter video of the start today, and was surprised at how excited I was to see Bler's team go by. Go Boo and Boudica and Wickson and Timmy!
posted by suelac at 4:36 PM on March 2, 2019 [10 favorites]

reminder that Wickson of Blair Braverman's team requires belly rubs and lullabies to get his racing booties on, and gets them
posted by Countess Elena at 4:53 PM on March 2, 2019 [17 favorites]

And Quince Mountain is actually going to be a regular contributor on the Iditapod! Coolness!
posted by suelac at 5:47 PM on March 2, 2019 [3 favorites]

Back when Libby Riddles won the race in 1985, the first woman to do so, and Susan Butcher then won in 1986, 1987, and 1988, I remember hearing, "Alaska: where men are men, and women win the Iditarod."
posted by angiep at 5:55 PM on March 2, 2019 [8 favorites]

I'm just going to drop all my dog-mushing links in this thread as I find them... For now: Outside Magazine's top 5 dogsled movies.
posted by suelac at 6:05 PM on March 2, 2019 [2 favorites]

Braverman’s piece the other day about the logistics of the race is a great read.

You need to acquire over half a ton of various frozen meats, some of which require knowing a guy: chicken skin, beef, beef fat, liver, tripe, and salmon. Next, lease or borrow a functional upright meat saw (or get a slot with one of the rare dudes who’ll slice meat for pay) and slice the massive blocks of meat into french-fry sized pieces.

posted by the duck by the oboe at 6:06 PM on March 2, 2019 [9 favorites]

This looks like a good way to track the race: Anchorage Daily News' Iditarod Twitter feed.
posted by suelac at 6:22 PM on March 2, 2019 [1 favorite]

There's a new show on Netflix called Losers and one of the episodes is about Iditarod.
posted by dobbs at 6:56 PM on March 2, 2019 [2 favorites]

OMG, I am old if Susan Butcher was winning in the 80s. Seems like yesterday. One of the rare sporting events that males and females are on par.

It is kind of odd that this NYer who loves NASCAR also follows the other great American race. (Daytona and the ididirod.)

Go doggies!
posted by AugustWest at 7:22 PM on March 2, 2019 [2 favorites]

So mushing is not actually when you put your nose against a doggo's nose and then shake your head side to side, consequently getting your face licked all over? Huh, TIL.
posted by Pyrogenesis at 10:27 PM on March 2, 2019 [5 favorites]

I grew up in Anchorage in the days of Libby Riddles, Susan Butcher and Dee Dee Jonrowe’s peak and, because Alaska is really just a small town, know folks who have run the race. My elementary school librarian was a friend of Dee Dee’s who gave race updates every day over our school intercom so rooting for all the women is pretty much etched in my soul at this point. Sorry, dudes.

I am rooting for Blair- who has done so much for the sport already!- to finish and have a great rookie run but I am OG TEAM ALIY!!!!! If you have a half hour, the Netflix “Losers” episode about Aliy Zirkle does a nice job of showing how much she loves her team and what a tough woman she is and how she has bounced back from an awful mid-race snowmachine attack a few years ago. See also this notorious story in re: miscellaneous toughness.

We went and watched the ceremonial start today like we always do. Highlights included the aforementioned women, a treat from Joar Ulsom’s trash bag of tiny husky stuffies delighting the preschooler next to us, and also my husband high-fiving a sitting US Senator driving the drag sled behind musher Jeff King and not realizing what had happened until I told him. He did not believe me until an independent observer confirmed it.

There’s an Anchorage Daily News slideshow of the ceremonial start that features Blair Braverman and her lady lead dogs beaming as the first picture and also a funny one of Lisa Murkowski making a turn in the drag sled as proof for my husband that it really was her.
posted by charmedimsure at 12:31 AM on March 3, 2019 [15 favorites]

One of my sisters and her husband live in Alaska. They look forward every year to this race. They place bets and everything. He’s an Alaska bush pilot. He’s even been on Alaska State Troopers, because people who are arrested have to be flown out. Alaska is a remarkable place! I would not want to live there though.
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 2:21 AM on March 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

Next, lease or borrow a functional upright meat saw (or get a slot with one of the rare dudes who’ll slice meat for pay) and slice the massive blocks of meat into french-fry sized pieces.

I harbor a fantasy of moving to Alaska, though I’m not sure how I’d make a living, as I doubt there’s too much call there for what I currently do. But now I have decided: I will purchase an upright meat saw and become a rare dude who slices massive blocks of frozen meat into french-fry sized pieces for pay.
posted by ejs at 7:55 AM on March 3, 2019 [8 favorites]

I was bummed that my souldog Anya and her wondertwin Clem are scratched but WICKSON WICKSON WICKSON❤
posted by fluttering hellfire at 8:13 AM on March 3, 2019 [3 favorites]

It bums me out that Aliy Zirkle could be called a loser by Netflix. She's a second place winner. She's just won second place like, a lot of times! Much more than can be said for most and the Seavey/ Zirkle rivalry is one for the ages.
posted by fshgrl at 8:41 PM on March 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

Oh, for real- but really, give it a shot if you are a fan. The producers of the show clearly agree she is a badass- it’s just an unfortunate title.
posted by charmedimsure at 9:13 PM on March 3, 2019

Bookmark this: current Iditarod standings.
posted by suelac at 10:00 PM on March 3, 2019 [3 favorites]

looks like Bler is not near the lead but she is the lead rookie

as much as I want her to win, I want Ally Zirkle to win too
posted by Countess Elena at 6:45 AM on March 4, 2019

Ok, totally childish question that I'm sure Bler has answered at some point: how do you pee when it's -30 out? Diapers? Holding it? There are obviously like a zillion reasons why I could never run the Iditarod but for some reason the most pressing one is that I can't figure out how I'd take care of going to the bathroom between checkpoints.
posted by TwoStride at 7:09 AM on March 4, 2019

Last month I learned that many people find the Iditarod too commercialized and not tough enough, so they started the Yukon Quest. I learned that from this profile of Jim Lanier, who completed the 2019 Quest at age 78.

Representative quote: "...they were met with whiteout conditions caused by vicious winds. Visibility became an issue for the eldest musher in the field. 'The top of my eyes started freezing shut, and then I really couldn’t see a thing,' Lanier said."
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 7:38 AM on March 4, 2019

Ok, totally childish question that I'm sure Bler has answered at some point: how do you pee when it's -30 out? Diapers? Holding it?

Apparently some female mushers use an STP tool and gear with a fly, but I don't know if there's an in-depth discussion of this anywhere.
posted by dinty_moore at 8:39 AM on March 4, 2019 [1 favorite]

You just pee and keep as covered as possible. Drop bottom bibs are helpful. Your bits won't freeze that fast.

The lady peeing devices are handy too but kinda awkward to use, especially with gloves in my experience. They do let you pee standing up which I'm sure is handy when your hands are full of dog team.
posted by fshgrl at 9:26 AM on March 4, 2019

One of my awesome co-workers is a great vet tech and also a serious amateur musher (she races and also trains other people's dogs to mush), I will share this with her, thank you! I have learned a lot about this sport from her and unsurprisingly, sled dogs love to do what they were bred to do and are very well cared-for (despite what uninformed idiots like PeTA want to believe).
posted by biscotti at 3:24 PM on March 4, 2019 [2 favorites]

Bler had to drop a dog (Xander had a tight quad), but according to #uglydogs on Twitter, she got through the Happy River Steps okay.
posted by suelac at 3:57 PM on March 4, 2019

From the Outside article: Most mushers pay to ship ice to the Rohn checkpoint, which is on a stretch of trail so bare that it can be hard to find snow to melt for your dogs.

Why do they need to melt snow or ice?
posted by The corpse in the library at 4:23 PM on March 4, 2019

Dogs need water, but I don't know why you would ship ice instead of water.
posted by suelac at 4:33 PM on March 4, 2019

Rohn is super-remote- it's a basically just an unheated cabin with no running water- I don't know if there's even a generator or heat (I would bet not). Big blocks of water-turned-into-ice because it is cold and there is no space for it even in a heated cabin (there are almost 50 teams) are much harder to deal with and melt for water and dog food than ice that's not in a giant brick.
posted by charmedimsure at 4:37 PM on March 4, 2019 [1 favorite]

Oh, here's a head-cam view of the Happy River Steps [SLYT] from Aliy Zirkle. Hair-raising!
posted by suelac at 6:29 PM on March 4, 2019 [2 favorites]

I don't know why you would ship ice instead of water.

It's gonna be ice anyway and this way you save on needing a container.
posted by fshgrl at 10:26 PM on March 4, 2019 [2 favorites]

Ok, totally childish question that I'm sure Bler has answered at some point: how do you pee when it's -30 out? Diapers? Holding it?

Ah, I thought I remembered seeing this somewhere- Blair answered the how-do-you-pee question here (spoiler alert: pStyle). So there’s an answer for an n of one.
posted by charmedimsure at 11:40 PM on March 4, 2019 [1 favorite]

As most of the teams are passing through Dalzell Gorge - an area infamous for being treacherous enough in 2014 (see video) that some of the mushers have worn body armor just to get through it.
posted by dinty_moore at 6:39 AM on March 5, 2019 [1 favorite]

Some more interviews on Dalzell Gorge - Blair's sled overturned at one point and she landed on her elbow, but she's fine.
posted by dinty_moore at 8:56 AM on March 6, 2019

Also, the story of the Iditarod-hopeful dog who got loose and followed teams for 30 miles
posted by dinty_moore at 8:58 AM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]

Aliy is in second again! I would so love for her to win it for once :)
posted by fshgrl at 10:53 AM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]

She's in first right now!

Also, another link drop - Meet 5 of the Women racing in this year's Iditarod, with some great photography.
posted by dinty_moore at 10:56 AM on March 6, 2019 [3 favorites]

Also, another link drop - Meet 5 of the Women racing in this year's Iditarod, with some great photography.

That's a beautiful article -- and you didn't mention it's in Vogue, which I don't think runs sled dog coverage in most issues. Thanks for getting me addicted to the Iditapod, and go Aliy!
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 3:32 PM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]

Here’s a little interview with Aliy from today’s Iditapod. She makes a gallows-y joke towards the end about Mitch Seavey and his half-missing finger (which happened during the race a handful of years ago- eek).
posted by charmedimsure at 4:16 PM on March 6, 2019 [3 favorites]

Bler has dropped another dog at Nikolai (no word on which one yet) and is expected to do the 24hr rest at McGrath.

Aliy Zirkle in lead and Shaynee Traska has scratched. She is the only scratch so far.
posted by fluttering hellfire at 6:31 PM on March 6, 2019

Awww, it looks like the #uglydogs fans (all 70,000 of them) on Twitter are encouraging each other to leave Mushergrams for other racers besides Bler--in particular, any racers who haven't gotten one, or ones that have had a hard time (like Anja Rodano, who fell into the river and is considering scratching, or the rookie who's currently in last...).

Per Twitter, to send a musher gram:
call 907-248-MUSH
Have the racer's name, bib # (if possible) and a brief message. Volunteers are answering the line and transcribing the messages into notes for the racers to pick up at checkpoints!
posted by TwoStride at 9:19 PM on March 6, 2019 [7 favorites]

KTUU story on Linwood Fiedler's harrowing Monday night.

He hit a stump and the carabiner connecting the sled to the tow-line broke. His entire team got loose and ran away, but he was somehow able to find all 13 of them safe and sound.

Also, looks like Aliy is taking her 24 hour rest (actually 25 hours, 8 minutes) at the Iditarod checkpoint.
posted by sporkwort at 7:58 AM on March 7, 2019

A couple of the newer 'Faces of the Iditarod' micro-interviews that I thought were interesting:

Aaron Peck, Musher
Dr. Bill Mayer, Pilot
Peter Basilides, Trail Checkpoint Crew
Denise Perrins, runs Rainy Pass Lodge
Creacy Bearfield, Vet Tech
posted by dinty_moore at 10:38 AM on March 7, 2019 [1 favorite]

His entire team got loose and ran away, but he was somehow able to find all 13 of them safe and sound.

Fiedler was rescued by Mats Pettersson, who towed him around for five miles until they found the dogs. Yesterday, Pettersson trashed his sled beyond repair in the Farewell Burn and couldn't continue without a new one- Fiedler had his spare sled couriered from McGrath to Takotna for him (mushers are allowed to have one spare sled waiting for them at a checkpoint- some do and some don't). "It’s the rule of the north, or at least it should be," Fiedler said. "If a car is stranded on the side of the road, you pull over. And I think those values in Alaska are pretty important."
posted by charmedimsure at 11:49 AM on March 7, 2019 [9 favorites]

Another lovely story about a good sport: After she scratched, Shaynee Traska gave her sled to rookie Alison Lifka, whose sled was destroyed by the rough trail near Rohn.
posted by TwoStride at 6:19 PM on March 7, 2019 [3 favorites]

Dang, the stuff before Iditarod that Aliy Zirkle took a looong time on looks absolutely brutal.
posted by charmedimsure at 10:42 PM on March 7, 2019 [2 favorites]

Hellion has apparently chewed her way through about eight harnesses because she was angry about having to rest and not run.
posted by dinty_moore at 6:54 AM on March 8, 2019 [3 favorites]

Onion alert: the #uglydogs on Twitter spent the afternoon funding projects all along the Iditarod trail. They raised something like $10,000 this afternoon fulfilling GoFundMe and DonorsChoose requests. They've got three spreadsheets going:
-Mushers who haven't gotten a Mushergram today
-food delivery for volunteers at the checkpoints
-donations for various schools/groups
posted by TwoStride at 1:49 PM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]

Looks like at least one of the dogs Bler dropped was Timmy the Moose. Which makes sense; he's huge and strong but she's out of the mountains now.
posted by suelac at 2:11 PM on March 8, 2019

The Wright Brothers are still adding some noticeable size to Bler's string, though!
posted by TwoStride at 2:30 PM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]

I root extra hard for the Berrington twins because a while ago they came to a good friend’s funeral even though there was no real reason for them to do that besides to be good community members. They always race together, usually in the middle of the pack. You guys might like two good pictures of them from this year- this one of them sleeping next to each other in the open on the trail with their dogs lined out by them (taken from a plane or drone), and this spectacular one Marc Lester took of Kristy waiting for Anna out on the Innoko River outside of Shageluk.
posted by charmedimsure at 5:34 PM on March 9, 2019 [4 favorites]

Yes, I've been keeping an eye on the Berrington twins as well! I think it's such an amazing experience to share with a sibling--one that I could never in a million years pull off with mine. I know that one started much earlier than the other, given their bib numbers, and must have pulled over to wait early on. I love their commitment to racing together.
posted by TwoStride at 5:58 PM on March 9, 2019 [1 favorite]

A member of Blair Braverman's support team had an oopsie: Pianist/composer fulfills dogsledding dream, but severs finger along the way.
posted by peeedro at 1:12 PM on March 11, 2019

Oh, god I know. It sounds like he is being good-natured about it but I am worried for him as a fellow musician. Sometimes reattached fingers aren’t quite ever the same (see the Mitch Seavey story I posted above- he eventually just had it amputated).
posted by charmedimsure at 1:20 PM on March 11, 2019 [1 favorite]

member of Blair Braverman's support team had an oopsie:

So awful! I had been following Yotam's adventures as a rookie musher, and then this happened! I feel so bad for him. I was wondering how he got out given the remoteness of the lodge -- at least he didn't have to go by snowmobile.


In other news, apparently two of Nic Petit's dogs got into a fight, and as a result he's lost the lead, he's now in 4th (behind Kaiser, Ulsom, and Jessie Royer). He's at least a couple of hours behind now.
posted by suelac at 1:20 PM on March 11, 2019

In other news, apparently two of Nic Petit's dogs got into a fight, and as a result he's lost the lead, he's now in 4th (behind Kaiser, Ulsom, and Jessie Royer). He's at least a couple of hours behind now.

Apparently he raised his voice to get the dogs to stop fighting, and that was unusual enough to destroy their morale:

“The young dog started — he went to poop or pee or something, and Joey was behind him, and he’s been kind of picking on him most of the trip, and he got a hold of him at one point,” Petit said. “He jumped on him while he was on the ground, and I yelled at Joey, and everybody heard Daddy yelling — it doesn’t happen — and then they wouldn’t go anymore. Anywhere. So we camped here. We’ll see what happens. I don’t really like any of that.”

Saturday's Iditapod episode interviewed some of the mushers about what they were listening to on the trail - including the Harry Potter audiobooks.
posted by dinty_moore at 1:33 PM on March 11, 2019

Apparently he raised his voice to get the dogs to stop fighting, and that was unusual enough to destroy their morale:

They're such delicate little snowflakes!

We had a thunderstorm here yesterday, and that was enough to get my 75-lb GSD on my lap for an hour.
posted by suelac at 1:41 PM on March 11, 2019 [1 favorite]

Oh no, the latest from Twitter is speculating that Petit had to scratch. He's just jinxed on that part of the race. Must be heartbreaking.
posted by TwoStride at 6:34 PM on March 11, 2019 [1 favorite]

But in happier news, here's a feature about how people get pizza delivered to the mushers in Unalakleet and also more mushergrams.
posted by TwoStride at 6:37 PM on March 11, 2019 [1 favorite]

Here’s a little story about volunteer dropped dog care at the women’s prison in Eagle River. Getting to take part in that program is a big deal for the women at Hiland (they also have a shelter dog obedience training program there that last I heard was very popular and an enormous incentive for folks to stay out of trouble, and may be connected to the dropped dog care). I have worked some with a few other programs at that facility- they have a string orchestra and a running program- and participants in anything they have got going there are generally really grateful for interesting connections to the outside world.
posted by charmedimsure at 9:38 PM on March 11, 2019 [1 favorite]

I haven't seen much reporting on this angle (yet), but if he pulls this off, Pete Kaiser will be the first Alaska Native to win Iditarod since John Baker in 2011 (and, I think, the first Yup'ik musher to win - Baker is Inupiaq, and other champions have been Athabascan e.g. Emmitt Peters). (Disclaimer: Pete is on my fantasy mushing team.)

Here's a recent piece about another Alaska Native musher, rookie Martin Apayauq Reitan (Inupiaq), along with some info about the other Alaska Native mushers this year.
posted by cdefgfeadgagfe at 11:43 PM on March 11, 2019 [2 favorites]

In other news, in Norway Finnmarksløpet is just finished. I can see that a lot of the competitors in the Iditarod has done Finnmarksløpet before. A cool thing this year is that the 570 km distance was won by 19 year old Hanna Lyrek. Last year she was the youngest to ever complete the 1200 km distance.
posted by Harald74 at 1:34 AM on March 12, 2019 [2 favorites]

Petit has officially scratched.
posted by dinty_moore at 4:09 AM on March 12, 2019

A few more selected profiles:

Mushers Martin Reitan and Anna and Kristy Berington. The Beringtons also both have a dog profiled (Quintes, Henry)

Then a number of interviews with Alaskans who have been helping out with the race for decades - some since they were kids (and then some of which who still are kids):
Tabatha Meglitsch and Crane
Aurora Johnson, 11
Misty Anslement
Sebastian Shunelle
Danielle Eskmailka and daughter Briley

And then I just love everything about this profile of Jeff King's dog Pita.
posted by dinty_moore at 8:05 AM on March 12, 2019 [3 favorites]

I love litter naming conventions- Pita has sisters named Reuben and Hoagie. Petit named one of his litters after other mushers, so he has got Aliy Zirkle and Libby Riddles at his kennel (although I don’t know if they raced with him this year). One of the mushers interviewed for the Iditapod had a death metal litter and a hair metal litter.
posted by charmedimsure at 5:13 PM on March 12, 2019 [1 favorite]

Jeff Deeter has a Game of Thrones location name litter: Braavos, Yunkai, Qarth, Mereen and Ashai.
posted by dinty_moore at 7:28 PM on March 12, 2019 [2 favorites]

Recent piece about how the sport of dog mushing is dying out in Interior Alaska villages, but it does include a heartwarming story about a 75-year-old Yukon Quest veteran grandpa in Huslia who's helping his teenage granddaughter train her mushing team.

Also I guess we are at the part of the race where we hit refresh on the Nome Cam all night to watch people gather at the finish line.
posted by cdefgfeadgagfe at 9:42 PM on March 12, 2019

Heh, a friend who is a flight nurse just posted some selfies from the arch; should anyone have seen a lady in a magenta hoodie and jeans on the cam, well, it’s a small world.
posted by charmedimsure at 11:38 PM on March 12, 2019

If anyone is watching, Kaiser is about to cross the finish line!
posted by dinty_moore at 4:38 AM on March 13, 2019 [1 favorite]

Wow, congrats to Pete Kaiser on the win--a close one over Joar! Great run. Rooting for Jessie and Aliy now, as well as Paige Drobney and the Berington twins. That's a lot of women in the top 20!
posted by TwoStride at 5:40 AM on March 13, 2019 [1 favorite]

It still blows my mind that we're talking about a race that takes about 8 - 10 days to complete, and the difference between first and second place is routinely less than an hour.

Also, I've been checking the standings to check how Blair's doing and I keep on mixing up which column is her bib number (11) and which column is for her number of dogs (also currently 11). Which means I glance up and am like 'Reitan has 39 dogs!?'
posted by dinty_moore at 7:07 AM on March 13, 2019 [1 favorite]

In this case, 12 minutes (!!). Joar made up a lot of time for being 40 minutes behind out of White Mountain, but not quite enough.

And Jessie Royer has now made it to Nome in 3rd, and Aliy and Paige are on the way to Safety - apparently looking like the first year there are 3 women in the top 10.
posted by cdefgfeadgagfe at 12:55 PM on March 13, 2019 [3 favorites]

Aliy Zirkle is apparently just about there- looks like folks are lining up to meet her on the cam.
posted by charmedimsure at 6:16 PM on March 13, 2019 [1 favorite]

Yep - it's now offically Jessie Royer in 3rd, Aliy Zirkle in 4th, and Paige Drobny in 7th.

The back of the pack (including Blair) seem like they're all travelling as a group - they've reached Unalakleet within ten minutes of each other.
posted by dinty_moore at 6:45 AM on March 14, 2019

And into Shaktoolik within seven minutes of each other.

Plus the Beringtons finished within 30s of each other! I would guess a timed finish like that is hard to pull off?
posted by nat at 6:02 PM on March 14, 2019 [1 favorite]

Here's a tweet with a great picture of the Berington twins arriving at Nome. Again, I'm just so blown away by imagining how special it must be to share the experience so closely--literally!--with your twin.
posted by TwoStride at 10:28 PM on March 14, 2019

Blair Braverman is likely to hit the finish line in the next hour or so!
posted by dinty_moore at 9:44 AM on March 17, 2019

OMG. Sarah Stokey WALKED as the lead for her team for much of the last 150 miles. (And still came in ahead of about 5 mushers!).
posted by TwoStride at 9:46 AM on March 17, 2019 [2 favorites]

Here is the team coming in at the finish!

The #uglydogs hashtag is full of a lot of happiness right now.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 11:34 AM on March 17, 2019 [1 favorite]

I wondered why Stokey took so long on that last stretch from Safety to Nome.

The story about another rookie, Beattie, is less happy (took me a while to figure out why he had withdrawn after reaching Nome).
posted by nat at 11:56 AM on March 17, 2019

Oh God, that's horrible. I get so angry about that because it just adds more fuel to the 'the dogs don't want to run' crowd. At least they're officially disqualifying participants now.
posted by dinty_moore at 12:09 PM on March 17, 2019 [1 favorite]

It’s awful but I’m really not sure how 100% preventable this specific thing is if you are working with dogs. My own healthy, incredibly active sled dog team reject was absolutely fine when we went to bed one night the summer that he was a year and a half year old. We’d maybe done a hike or a run that day but nothing out of the ordinary.

We woke up at 5 AM to him having an accident in the corner, breathing funny and acting weird. I took him to the vet ER- probably the one where Beattie’s dog ended up- where he was diagnosed with aspiration pneumonia and spent almost a week with 24 hour supportive care, most of it on oxygen, at enormous expense and they gave us 50/50 odds he’d make it through the first 48 hours. It sucked. I don’t know what else we or anyone else could have done to prevent it. It hits fast and it is dangerous when it does- about 25% of dogs die. We were ultimately lucky, Beattie was not.

It’s totally possible that he did something dumb or wasn’t careful, but it’s also possible that he did everything right and the dog puked a little bit for whatever reason- it’s a dog!- and he and the dog were just really unlucky. My dog almost was.

Anyway. It’s awful and I am glad they automatically withdraw racers who have a dog death for any even remotely foreseeable reason- that rule is new this year.

On a brighter note, Aliy Zirkle won the dog care award from the vets for the nth time today at the banquet and I’m so glad that someone I root for takes such notably good care of her team.

Also, Blair dropped her last dog, Colbert, who she says is the only dog she has ever known to be on a diet during the Iditarod, right before the end in White Mountain because he got 15lbs of chicken skin out of the sled when she wasn’t paying attention and wasn’t going to be fit to run. I lol’ed.
posted by charmedimsure at 12:24 AM on March 18, 2019 [6 favorites]

Meanwhile, the #UglyDogs ended up funding $103,000 worth of school projects in Alaska. Amazing.
posted by TwoStride at 4:35 PM on March 18, 2019 [1 favorite]