Iditarod Kicks Off

The Iditarod sled dog race started in Anchorage this Saturday. Most people know about the Iditarod only what they learned in school or saw in the movie Balto. I, like many males in the 80s and 90s, grew up reading Gary Paulsen books (which I highly recommend to anyone with either a third grader or a third-grade reading level), so I know a little more about dog sledding than the average sports fan. But before last year, I hadn't given much thought to the Iditarod in years.

My wife taught 4th grade reading, and her students read a story about the Iditarod. So when we saw that Versus was showing recap shows of the race, we recorded them for her to show her students. She never ended up showing the clips to her students, but I was surprisingly hooked.

Image from http://www.melaniegould.org/

The Iditarod is 9 days long and the "action" is nearly continuous, so watching live coverage is not an option. The Versus coverage compresses the race into three hour-long shows covering the entire race. The scenery is beautiful and the drama of men and women basically alone in the wilderness for a week (except at checkpoints) is gripping. It's an amazing accomplishment just to complete the race, and to win it is a triumph of man over nature.

Image from http://iditablog.com/

This year, iditarod.com has a cool feature where you can view the current location of the mushers on a map. It would be about as exciting as watching the live locations of UPS delivery trucks, except that it gives you an idea of how long the race is and how empty the course is. There is almost nothing at all between Anchorage and Nome except ice and mountains.

The first installment of the Versus show airs on March 16th. If you're like me and like watching the biggest events in the smallest sports, you owe it to yourself to check it out.