Friday, February 29, 2008

Banana eating, beer scramble and dog races

Welcome to Nenana Tripod Days. This weekend I'm heading down to Nenana for the annual Ice Classic dog sled race. It's two days of 40 miles each day, although I'm hearing now it's actually only 30 miles a day but they say 40 to keep the sprinters away. Either way it'll be a fun training race. Sam's got the weekend off, but isn't coming as there's lots of paperwork to be done at the cabin.
I'm hoping that we'll have a good showing, but if we're at the back again, I'm OK with that. It's strange because I'm very competitive by nature, but when it has come to my first racing season, I've been good at taking it slow and easy to make the experience as fun as possible for the dogs and, ultimately, myself.
Anyway, wish us luck.
Peace.

5 comments:

Alaskan Dave Down Under said...

Have fun and "good luck"! You won't need the luck, just have a good time and let the dogs do what they do :)

Any chance you could get me a ticket for the ice breakup... say, third week of April??? Just kidding, I haven't been following the ice depth this year and anything from moi would be a total shot in the dark.

Anonymous said...

Ok, I finally have to stop lurking long enough to ask a question about two things you've mentioned in earlier posts that have just been eating at me (yeah, yeah - the whole curiousity cat thing...)

you mentioned in your race post that "Bud Smyth has three wives" - and I keep going back to that going, "huh? really? how? Is he Mormon? In Alaska?" I REALLY don't want to be rude, but I'm dying of curiousity over that.
The other thing you mentioned is "Ken my old mentor and boss who now hates me and won't talk to me," - I've gone back through most of your posts to see if I can figure that one out, and I've either missed it, or you've never said why. The reason I'm curious about that statement is, I am both interested in journalism - your field and his- and am a mushing fanatic, so I know who Ken Anderson is, from the mushing end. I also happened to really be rooting for Lance in the Quest, so I was doubly interested in your take on K.A. Just curious as to why he hates you and won't speak to you. You can tell me none of my business and leave it at that if you want, but I just had to ask, after coming back to those two comments in your blog time and time and time again the past two weeks.
If you'd rather not post on them, and want an email address, let me know. Otherwise, I'll just remain an anonymous fan who reads your blog religiously because you write excessively well, take great photos, and mush dogs. What's not to love about THOSE things! One of my favorite blogs for those reasons - i hate it when you go days between posts! (Sorry for hijacking your comment section!)

AKbushbaby said...

Bud Smyth is apparently a mormon with three wives. This is just what I heard, so you know, don't take it to heart. As for Ken, I saw him at the finish and he gave me a big hug, so I guess he's not mad at me anymore. It had to do with a story I wrote for the paper and it's more his significant other who's upset with me, but I have a clean conscious, so I sleep well. I know my posts are sometimes cryptic, but it's only because I don't want to hurt people by going into great detail about personal issues. It's weird, sometimes I feel like posting 10 times a day and other times I'll go weeks and feel like I have nothing to say. I'll update tonight when I get home from the race. Thanks for reading!

Anonymous said...

Wow, ok. Thanks! You've said just enough to satisfy that infernal curiosity. I totally understand the need to be somewhat cryptic at times, and your reasons for being so - I just had to ask. So now, all I'm wondering about is, how did your race go, and how did the pups do. THOSE things I can wait to hear about when you have time! Hope it went well.

Ishmael said...

Do you have any Iditarod predictions or insight for us this year?