Where the tough go to survive
They call it the “toughest race on Earth,” probably because you’re up against so many forces: other people, other animals, time, nature, the wilderness, yourself. It’s the Iditarod, a dog sled race through the majestic, yet often unforgiving Alaskan wilderness: “dense forests, over mountain ranges and across frozen rivers and isolated tundra.” Yes, 1,150 miles in an open dog sled, from Anchorage in the southern part of Alaska up to Nome in the state’s midwestern part. The insane will think about joining, but it’s the really sane ones who end up signing up, individuals who have conditioned both body and mind to finish a race that relies on sheer determination, physical strength and mental willfulness.
The Iditarod Race puts in the spotlight a different kind of athleticism and a rarely witnessed relationship between man and dog (even more intense than the tear-jerking man-and-animal bond portrayed in the movie Eight Below).
Mushers and their team of 16 sled dogs – elite athletes in their own right — take to the Alaskan wilderness for nearly two weeks (sometimes more) with minimal rest and just enough provisions. Most of them don’t even think of winning the race, just finishing is enough a source of pride, especially if you’ve put health, personal finances and a year’s worth of training on the line.
Discovery Channel bravely shadows seven mushers and their dog teams in the 2008 Iditarod Race in a documentary called Toughest Race on Earth: Iditarod.
A phone interview gave the chance to chat with two of these featured mushers: Dee Dee Jonrowe and Jeff King. Dee Dee, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in the summer of 2002 and ended up having a double mastectomy, participated and placed in the top 20 of Iditarod 2003, three weeks after completing her last chemotherapy treatment. She has participated in 27 Iditarod races.
Jeff has been living in Alaska for the last 30 years; all of them spent training for and joining sled dog sports. He’s won the Iditarod four times, his first was in 1993 and the latest in 2006.
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Toughest Race On Earth: Iditarod premieres on the Discovery Channel every Tuesday at 9 p.m. from January 6. Encores are on Wednesday at midnight, 8 a.m. and 2 p.m.; Saturday at 8 p.m.; and Sunday at 11 a.m.
Dee Dee Jonrowe
Philippine Star: What first introduced you to mushing? And did you ever think that you would be doing this competitively?
Dee Dee Jonrowe: I had a little five-dog team that I drove for my job as a biologist for the Department of Fish and Game. Within a year, I wanted to see how good my team was against the other village teams so I entered some of the spring races in the villages. It wasn’t long before I entered and completed my first Iditarod in 1980.
When you recovered from breast cancer, what made you decide to come back to competitive mushing?
As long as I was physically capable of doing it, and I was able to be able to handle my team so that there was no danger for them, I wanted to return. It’s the thing that really makes my heart tick, that makes the adrenaline run in my veins and everything that makes me feel alive. I’m so amped up when I’m in Iditarod, and I love dogs. I love being out in nature. I love being able to see God’s great creation unfettered by filters of civilization. And I most expressively love the native people of Alaska and the culture here. That was what I wanted to return to.
What’s the most challenging thing about working with animals?
I think consistency. I found that there are really not a lot of secrets with training animals. It’s just about being consistent and responding to them in the same way for the same action throughout their life.
I love studying my dogs and trying to figure out what is the motivator that unlocks each individual. And there’s a lot. Sometimes it’s food. Sometimes it’s praise. Sometimes it’s running loose. There are lots of different things that are motivators. Each dog is a little different.
How would you reply to accusations of animal rights organizations saying that the Iditarod promotes animal cruelty?
I think that’s erroneous. I have dedicated 30 years of my life to providing quality of life for my dogs. If you were to come to my kennel, you would find my old retired dogs, as well as my young, up-and- coming dogs.
There are over 40 vets from all over the world that are dedicated to being caretakers of the dogs along the trail. All of our dogs have great medical checks before they go out on the trail. They all have blood work done. They all have ECGs. All their hearts are evaluated.
This is not the kind of thing you do for an ego. If it’s all about ego, this is way too much work; you should just take something mechanical where you can turn the engine off and on. We have so much emotion and so much money and time invested in these dogs that it would absolutely be against our nature to want to do something that would bring them harm.
Is it harder for a woman in the race?
The thing that’s hard being a woman, in my opinion is lacking upper body strength. In this case, we’re running up and down the Alaska Range and through some really difficult sled handling. The faster your dogs go, the quicker you need to be able to respond. In addition to that, when you put the mandatory gear and food in my sled, it would now weigh more than I weigh, where it doesn’t equal even the body weight of most of my male competitors.
Sometimes I break equipment because I just lose the control in my back and will hit a tree. I try to do some weight training to counterbalance myself and train the dogs to give me a break.
Over the years, I’ve earned my place, and I would honestly say that there’s no competitor, no competitor on the field today that wouldn’t give me respect.
As a breast cancer survivor, what motivated you to take part in this grueling event?
Surviving cancer, as far as I’m concerned, is not worth it unless you’re able to do something with your life. There were times I wondered what in the heck was I going through this for. The intensity of the discomfort and pain was bone, bone deep. It’s a type of tired that comes from so deep within you that it’s hard to even explain it.
But the whole reason to survive is to be able to return to the life that I’m passionate about and to make a difference, to encourage other people that have to go through this. It was other cancer survivors that were the ones who, I felt, had the authority to encourage me. Other people would, and they meant well, and I would just look at them hollow-eyed and think, “You have no idea. You really have no idea” because I had no idea. Family and friends mean well, but they just... unless they’ve been through it, they just have no idea.
I wanted my life back. I wanted what it was that put a smile on my face.
Jeff King
Philippine Star: You are called the “Winningest Musher in the World.” Maybe you could start by telling us why you’re called that.
Jeff King: I was born and raised in California, and moved to Alaska when I was 19. I am now 52. And from 19 years of age until 52, I’ve pretty much been racing and competing in sled dog sports. I have been given that tagline of having won more races of all kinds than anyone else that they’ve ever tried to keep track of, so I suspect that’s where it came from.
I love competition. I absolutely adore the dogs, and the combination of competition and dogs brings you to the Iditarod.
How do you train for something like the Iditarod?
We train the dogs, so my job is not to train me, but to train my dogs. Their physical training includes running 60 miles. They’ll have about a 12-hour break, and they’ll run 60 more miles before the sun comes up tomorrow. That’s the physical part.
The mental part is knowing that between the two 60-mile runs, they will rest. They’ll eat. They’ll be cared for, and they will become familiar with the routine that will be necessary for the run/rest schedules that are inevitable in a long-distance race. It is a nine or 10-day race, but about half of that time the dogs are resting, and my job is to decide exactly which of the hours they rest and what they do, what they eat, and how they’re protected while they’re resting.
Why do you keep doing it? Does it give you some kind of rush?
It is a rush. I love the feeling of helping my dogs be their best. It’s like being around a bunch of happy people. You can’t help but feel good when everyone around you is your friend and feeling good and thinking highly of you. A dog trainer: it’s who I am, and I can’t imagine, to my dying day, not having dogs in my life.
You’re known for putting upgrades into your sled, such as a handlebar heater and a seat. Any more additions to your sled for the next race?
There are, but I can’t tell you in advance. This stuff is so quickly absorbed by the competition; it’s like Microsoft telling Dell or Apple that they’ve got a new program coming out. I guarantee you that I continue to be fascinated by making my job easier and more effective and also the job of the dogs being more efficient.
What’s your favorite part of the race?
I have now run the Iditarod almost 20 times. Every part of the trail has been wonderful, and every part of the trail has been extremely challenging in another year. But what I’m looking for is that part of the trail that has a full moon, so I’m watching the calendar. I already know what the calendar says for the moon for the 2009 race, and I know that when the moon hits full and I’m traveling down the Yukon River, that moonlight with clear skies on a hard trail will get the dogs excited, and I get absolutely thrilled.
How would you describe the experience of competing?
I don’t think there’s anything that can compare with the 10 days of focus and immersion into this event. The event is so long that it is a constant roller coaster ride of emotions and energy because we can’t get to the finish line without resting. In fact, we rest every day.
I’m a huge believer in the power of good and bad, and exhaustion and energy, and you can’t have one without the other. And so, if I’m feeling extremely exhausted, deep down in my psyche I know that I’m about to feel elated with the energy that will be gained after a rest, and the satisfaction that will be gained when I see my dogs rouse from their sleep, shake, and look at me with bright eyes and say, “It’s time to go, boss.”
What’s been the highlight of your racing career to date?
It would have to be the finish of my last Iditarod win in 2006. My team was almost magical. Every member of my team was spectacular but as a group, it seemed like they were mythical gods. They were one living being, like an animated film of a team of horses going through the sky.
It’s not something you can repeat over and over. Hardly a day goes by that I don’t sit back and absorb a few minutes the satisfaction of that most incredible race in 2006.
