Slippery Slope

My opportunity to run this race and initially train sled dogs came about very casually. A neighbor happened to be looking for some help and I happened to have a bit of spare time during the winter of 2004-05. That winter JJ was working at the University of Fairbanks and we were living simply and cheaply enough that I could spend time with our dogs and take care of chores on the homefront. So this opportunity to "work" with the neighbor fit in well with our plans and also offered me an opportunity to do something truly Alaskan.

I admit I was a bit nervous at first about taking out a team of sled dogs - it was a lot of responsibility and I didn't want to make a mistake and have a dog get hurt. The neighbors I was helping out, Bill and Sandy, were pursuing a long held dream of finishing the Iditarod, a 1,100 mile race from Anchorage to Nome held in March of each year. Bill had completed the race already, and Sandy had tried a few times and had been unsuccessful so far. They both worked full time so they were really looking for someone who could help out by running the dogs during the day and ensure the dogs had a lot of training miles on them.

As part of the training for her 2005 attempt at the Iditarod, Sandy ran the Copper Basin 300 and I was her handler for the race. It was a challenging race to be a handler... lots of driving and not much sleep. I had a lot of time to think, however, and it was during that race that I seriously started to contemplate running a race myself.

During the summer of 2005, on a long summer day, we had a BBQ at Bill and Sandy's and it was there that they presented me with the opportunity to run the Copper Basin 300 with some of their dogs. Bill had a few goals with making this pitch. First, he was hoping it would encourage me to return for another season and help them train dogs again. Secondly, he wanted to give some of their younger dogs some race experience and the Copper Basin was a great race to expose them to. Thirdly, he didn't want Sandy to do it because of the physical toll it would take on her (in 2005 after the race she didn't run any dogs for over a month as she nursed a bit of frostbite).

It didn't take me long to think through their offer and after talking it through with JJ, I made the commitment to help them train the team again and we settled in for a fall season and second winter at our cabin in Two Rivers. The fact that I was going to be running the Copper Basin 300 shed a totally different light on the training runs for me and made it a more serious business. I skipped a trip home and stayed in Alaska during the Christmas holiday to continue training and pried as much information about the race from Bill and Sandy. I read a small library of books and tried to mentally prepare myself for situations which I might not have encountered during my relatively limited time running dogs. I also tried to keep myself in decent shape, but as I'd discover during the race, not quite decent enough. The upcoming race consumed my thoughts and dreams for much of the 6 months prior to the start.

JJ did an incredible amount of encouraging and guiding in her own subtle ways - asking critical questions here and there and also helping a great deal with my planning and packing of food and personal items. I was taking some time off from my new job with the Borough so in a way JJ was also a financial sponsor as she kept working full time through all the months of training. Finally, she and her dad, Wayne, were to be my handler team, and I was super excited I could share the experience with them, even if they weren't on the runners with me.

After months of training on the 4-wheeler and then on the sled running over trails with marginal snow, the week of the race arrived and I had to trust that I had done enough planning, research, and training to be successful on this adventure. That's what it really boiled down to for me - an adventure for me and a training opportunity for the dogs - more so than a race.

Previous   Table of Contents   Next