In Alaska March is the month of the Iditarod race:
From Anchorage, in south central Alaska, to Nome on the western Bering Sea coast, each team of 12 to 16 dogs and their musher cover over 1150 miles in 10 to 17 days.
The race commemorates an event in 1925 that used relays of dog teams to bring urgently needed medicine from Anchorage to Nome.
As Kate Kelly explains in her article The Iditarod: Its Symbolism for All Americans:
In 127 hours (six days), twenty mushers had covered almost 700 miles in temperatures that hovered around 40 degrees below zero and winds strong enough to blow over dogs and sleds. The serum was delivered to Nome in time to slow the epidemic.
The look of sheer determination - Iditarod 2010
Now each dog team runs not a dozen or so miles to the next village, but the full 1100 miles from Anchorage to Nome.
Kelly writes more about the amazing dogs who run this massive race:
The native people of Alaska, primarily the Malemuit people who lived along the Seward Peninsula developed a particularly hardy breed of dog, now known as the Malamute. The average weight of the dogs is about 75 pounds, but they can pull the same weight as much larger horses. When running, the dogs can average speeds of 8-12 miles per hour for hundreds of miles and they can exceed twenty miles an hour for short sprints.
The spirit of the dogs, the athleticism of their build, and their racing prowess are unique and very impressive.
[Via : Kate Kelly: The Iditarod: Its Symbolism for All Americans.]
It’s a major national event that takes a couple of weeks, but the Sled Dog Action Coalition have concerns about the dogs who participate:
The Iditarod is described by the Iditarod Trail Committee and by the Alaskan media as an exciting contest of man against nature. What the descriptions do not tell us is the untold suffering of the dogs that often give their lives in this race. Dog deaths and injuries are common in the Iditarod, and when they are not racing, the dogs live under inhumane conditions.
[Via : Sled Dog Action Coalition: Iditarod Information.]
The list of Frequently asked questions makes very sobering reading, including how many dogs are killed or injured each year, notes about the race rules not requiring injured dogs to be removed from the race, and questions about how the dogs are trained.
Photo by Alaskan Dude: The look of sheer determination – Iditarod 2010.
Have you seen this race first-hand? Have you participated in it? What are your thoughts about the Iditarod as it’s run today?
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