Iditablog.com – Iditarod 2010 News and Coverage

Hannah and have decided, and its official: the restart of the Iditarod is much more fun than the actual ceremonial start. Now, don’t get me wrong the other part was cool and everything, but today was a blast. You wouldn’t have guessed that about 3 hours after we left the house this morning around 7. It was almost 10 and we were still in Anchorage, or back in Anchorage. When we left town to drive out to Willow, we had directions but they lacked one minor thing, the direction of the highway that we were supposed to take. We were taking state route 1, and for north it said “downtown” so we took south. Bad idea. about an hour and a half later I think “I haven’t seen any signs saying Wasilla at all, just ones for Seward!” we pull over and get out the handy satellite phone. After a few quick calls we learn that Wasilla is north of anchorage and we had just spent a long time driving nowhere. After we turned around and are almost in town, we were stopped for about 30 minutes because an accident was blocking both lanes. At this point we weren’t sure if we were going to make it out there early enough to interview mushers before they had to leave…but still knew we could at least make the start of the race no problem. We got there around 12, which was an hour before the media was going to be kicked out of the starting shoot, and two hours before the race started.

We got lots of good interviews in, and I was able to get everyone that I was sad to have missed the day before. We also got some great pictures under the starting banner as well. I phoned in an update to KICY, handed off the satellite phone to the “teacher on the trail” who will call in updates to us, and I made one last contact with the guys from OLN. When 2 rolled around, hundreds of people had gathered around the starting fence, and we weren’t sure where we were going to be able to get a good spot. We walked up to the starting line, and saw what I was looking for, a press box. We got to lean on the fence at the very front and get a great view of all the mushers starting the race.

What made this so much cooler was the fact that mushers were in the zone, and I could even tell in the way they anwsered interview questions. The ceremonial start is more of a festival and is very fun for everyone involved, the re-start actually felt like it was the start of a serious competition. As mushers would bring their teams up to the starting line, you could see the stress in their faces as they knew their official time started right now. The dogs came up to the line jumping, howling, and ready to go. It was with much effort that the dog handlers calmed the dogs down, held the sled back, and made sure everything was set to go. In the really well trained teams the lead dogs were focused. Tails down, noises pointed forward and completely still, even with barking dogs behind them. In mushing, all the other dogs take their cues from the leads. It didn’t go so smoothly for everyone though, one musher’s team wouldn’t go and after they did start it wasn’t for very long as the ALL stopped about 30 feet ahead. Rachel Scodoris, the 19 year old legally blind musher decided that starting as number 10 wasn’t going to work and opted to start at the end.

It was an amazing day, and I have to keep reminding myself that after all these weeks and weeks of work, the iditarod work isn’t over, its just starting. I fly back to Nome tomorrow afternoon and have under a week of tracking online to do with hourly updates on the air, and then I start back out on the trail. Just typing that makes me excited!!! I’ll meet them on the coast and follow them up until the winner comes into Nome. I’ll see the population of our small little town double in the next two weeks as the remaining mushers, media, and tourists come into Nome. Its going to continue being a very exciting time! I’m leaving Anchorage but the iditarod continues.

This morning started early. My alarm went off at 6:30, and somehow I fooled myself into thinking that was when I needed to get up. I slept in .for 15 more minutes until my second 6:45 alarm went off. I got out of bed and slowing went through my normal morning routine which I’ve found is easily adjustable from temporary home to temporary home. It sounded like Hannah had gotten up as well, and we were on the way to a good on time morning. We left the Bronczyk’s house around 7:30 and were aiming to be downtown anchorage by 8. The race didn’t start until 10, but we knew the pre-race time would be valuable for getting good interviews. I started off with an interview with Ed Iten, a man who people are speculating can place in the top ten. It was pretty shaky, but we had to keep moving, and keep talking. Now, the hard part was the moving. Our press passes could get us pretty much anywhere we wanted to go, however moving around in the fenced off areas where the mushers were proved to be harder than we thought. See, the problem was the trucked in snow it was so loose on the street that you feet sank to the bottom when you walked, and it took a lot more effort. We got some pretty good interviews, then a 9:00 I called in a report to the station.

We got some more interviews and then I called in live from under the starting banner at 10:00 when everything started. I gave a live 10 minute report and it went really well. Hannah and I continued to scrounge through our list to find mushers that I wanted to get interviews from. At about 11 we decided to go inside and take a break. After lunch we hung out some more down at the start getting some really good pictures from our privileged area (you’ll see them online soon!). We then got in the car (after being let out of the parking garage even though we were 75 cents short) and drove to one of the spots on the trail that basically went through a neighborhood. After some good pictures we packed up and headed further down the trail to near the end. When we got there we had just enough time to see the last musher run by. All in all it was a pretty successful day.

I was able to talk to (from memory) Current (2004) Winner, Mitch Seavey, Dallas Seavey, 2003 winner Robert Sorlie, first musher Jessie Royer, top 10 contender Ed Iten, Blind musher Rachel Scdoris, Ramy Smyth, Itilan musher Dodo Perri, Greg Parvin from Nome,Charlie Boulding, 3 time winner Jeff King, and others. However, there were a number of interviews I was pretty disappointed that I didn’t get, but hopefully will be able to land at the re-start tomorrow. We’re headed out again around 7 tomorrow morning.

Well, the past few days down here in Anchorage have been great, nice and relaxed while at the same time hectic. Thursday I rewarded myself a little bit by sleeping in until after 9:30, I went back to the Iditarod Headquarters and hung out for a while. I also made a major Costco run and did some other errands. I got back to the Bronczyks in time to get dressed for the Musher’s banquet. I wasn’t sure what to wear to a banquet where there was going to be over 150 tables and this is Alaska, it takes a whole lot for people to get formal. I went with dark slacks and a dress shirt, I brought a tie along just incase. The dinner started at 6:00, and lasted until about 10:30. We had steak for dinner and watched the mushers pick their starting position. Each musher would then give a “thank you” speech like they just won an Oscar. With 80 mushers, things took a while to wrap up. I took pretty detailed notes all evening long to ensure that I could phone in a good report the next day to the radio station.

Friday morning I got up at 8 and called into KICY. I first left a message with my report so that someone could take it off the phone system and insert it into the news later that morning. I called back and got on the FM morning show, and then got on the AM morning show. I spent some time on the phone trying to connect with Iditarod contacts and make final preparations for Saturday morning. I left the house around 11 and ran errands at Iditarod Headquarters, the malls, and spent a while downtown anchorage. I had lunch at a brew house, and then went over to an Art Gallery that was hosting a send off party for Iditarod champion Jeff King. After that I headed back to HQ to see if there was anything going on. I picked up Hannah from the airport around 6:30 and showed her around Anchorage taking her to Iditarod Headquarters, and then to downtown. We went to a restaurant for dinner where they had this funky trivia game that you could play electronically at your table while competing with people all over the restaurant..pretty crazy. We headed back to the Bronczyk’s to plan out the attack for Saturday morning.

Its looking like a 6:45 wakeup so we can be down at the start by 8:00, two hours early. It should be a blast!

(ok, I’m stretching it with the titles but its all about branding).

I am in Anchorage. I got in late last night, got the rental car, and drove to my Aunt & Uncle’s house without getting lost! Can I just tell you how much I like Anchorage? Its so cool here, and its nice to be back in civilization. I ate at Red Robin this evening red robin! I had Costco pizza and a hot dog for lunch!! All stuff that you can’t get in Nome, I was thrilled.

I did some shopping today, got a sweet tan corduroy sport coat at value village for $15! I also got my hair cut, just as planned. At 2:00 I attended the Iditarod media briefing and registration. I picked up all the media passes for KICY, and then listened to them talk about the race for a few hours. I’m very excited, but also now I’m getting more bummed that I won’t be on more of the trail. There were tons of people there, and hopefully I’ll get hear some stories about where all the media people are coming from too. They gave us media guide packets with Bio’s of all the mushers and I’m already starting to write stories about them…hopefully I’ll be able to get all the interviews I need!

I’m also working with camp to figure out if we can get Hannah (and possibly myself) down to Alaska Christian College about 2 hours outside of Anchorage to recruit while she is here. Maybe if I had asked around more than just a week ahead of time; planning like this would be easier, but I didn’t and it isn’t. We will see what happens.

I think that’s it for now folks. Tomorrow is a day to sleep in a bit, slowly shop, and then in the evening its the world famous Musher’s Banquet.

P.S. This is my 100th post. I think I’ll reward myself with a trip to Anchorage .