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Winterdance


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Great book, one that inspired me to run my own team. I avoided making many mistakes by reading about his :rolleyes: You still make a fool out of yourself from time to time when dogs are involved, whether it's sledding or stock work.

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Winterdance is a classic, in the dog world, in the sledding world, and in the humor world. :rolleyes: Gary is such a natural storyteller, and is so willing to face up to the humor inherent in his bumbling that you just can't help but like the guy.

 

If you really liked that one, then you'd probably like My Lead Dog Was A Lesbian, by Brian Patrick O'Donoghue. It's not a laugh-out-loud book, but one that'll get you inside the head of a clueless but determined noobie musher, and make you smile and/or wince as he careens from mishap to misadventure to sublime experience. As you might guess by the title, O'Donoghue doesn't take himself too serously.

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I just finished Brian O'Donoghue's book, "Honest Dogs". It is a recount of his running in the Yukon Quest. Sounds quite grueling. Puts a perpective on Lance Mackey's victory in both races last year.

 

That is a testament to how well he cares for his team. Run correctly the race is no worse than training for them (plenty of sleep, good food, foot management, not pushing them too hard). He must have been unusually sleep deprived for a musher to provide the level of care required to keep the dogs happy enough to run a second race and win. Trust me on this, you push your team too hard and they lie down and refuse to move, sometimes for days, and there is nothing you can do about it aside from giving them some time off.

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Trust me on this, you push your team too hard and they lie down and refuse to move, sometimes for days, and there is nothing you can do about it aside from giving them some time off.
Yup. When a team stops having fun, they *may* run for a short distance further on loyalty, but not far, nor long. And when they quit, that's it. Hand in your scratch sheet; you're done. The smart musher will pull the plug themselves - Having a team quit on you may (possibly) ruin that team for that musher forever. Even when a team retains trust in the musher, it can take quite a while to regain their morale to the point where they're a competitive team again. Better to quit whilst they're willing, and try again next year.

 

Lance's "two-fer" last year was beyond astonishing to everyone whom knows anything about mushing - that is, to everyone but Mackey himself. Team management and care is the key, and almost no one can entirely keep up with a team through one long-distance race, let alone two in the same season. To do two marathon races within weeks of each other? Astounding! Mackey's acheivement puts him in the company of the legends of mushing. His name rightfully belongs in the same breath as Seppala, Riddles, Butcher, and Vaughn.

 

The challenge is to push the team hard enough to win, but not so hard as to burn them out or injure them, and that requires an attention to detail that is almost inhuman, in conditions that are utterly beastly. The best mushers find their teams increasing in fitness whilst in the middle of the race, peaking somewhere on the Yukon river, maybe around Unalakleet.

 

Speaking of which, it's almost that time again!

:rolleyes:

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That is a testament to how well he cares for his team. Run correctly the race is no worse than training for them (plenty of sleep, good food, foot management, not pushing them too hard). He must have been unusually sleep deprived for a musher to provide the level of care required to keep the dogs happy enough to run a second race and win. Trust me on this, you push your team too hard and they lie down and refuse to move, sometimes for days, and there is nothing you can do about it aside from giving them some time off.

 

Lance is energy incarnate, though - lean and wiry, with a whippy build that often comes with toughness and endurance built right in. Even in repose, though, he gives the impression of movement, of an engine revved to performance rpm. He's like a steel spring, coiled kinetic energy, flexible and resillient. And a hell of a nice guy, too, and charmingly modest - not to mention commendably and humbly grateful to his dogs for all they give. If anyone deserves the victories he put together last year, back to back, unprecedented - Lance is it. He's the real thing.

 

So, Tranq - is the Iditarod thread going in General, of Coffee Break? :rolleyes:

 

ETA: Winterdance is freaking HILARIOUS. It's rare that I laugh so hard whilst reading that I can't breathe and tears are running down my face, but there were passages in this book that absolutely WERE that funny to me. I sent it to my Dad for Christmas one year; I hope he enjoyed it. That thing where he's on his bicycle and he touches his gang line and it's humming like a just-plucked guitar string - well, I won't give it away for anyone who hasn't read it, but I just about asphyxiated when I read that passage.

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ETA: Winterdance is freaking HILARIOUS. It's rare that I laugh so hard whilst reading that I can't breathe and tears are running down my face, but there were passages in this book that absolutely WERE that funny to me. I sent it to my Dad for Christmas one year; I hope he enjoyed it. That thing where he's on his bicycle and he touches his gang line and it's humming like a just-plucked guitar string - well, I won't give it away for anyone who hasn't read it, but I just about asphyxiated when I read that passage.

 

Are you refering to the incident with the matches?

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Yeah, Tranq, you got us hooked last year and we expect you to come through again this year. Don't you even TRY hiding I-rod updates in the rescue section. :D Coffee break seemed an appropriate place to host it, or maybe it should have it's own section! :rolleyes:

Coffeebreak it is, then. :D

 

I've been digging through the various resources, getting up to speed on some of the changes. Wasilla has lost the restart forever. :D That also means the traditional Knik checkpoint is gone as well - all restarts are going to be from Willow Lake. And the cermonial start has been perminantly reduced to 11 miles. Between encroaching urbanization and a run of years of bad snow conditions near Wasilla, the ITC finally decided to just cut bait.

 

There's more, but I'll need to organize it. Plus I need to pick my sister's brain a bit. :D

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Yup. When a team stops having fun, they *may* run for a short distance further on loyalty, but not far, nor long. And when they quit, that's it. Hand in your scratch sheet; you're done. The smart musher will pull the plug themselves - Having a team quit on you may (possibly) ruin that team for that musher forever. Even when a team retains trust in the musher, it can take quite a while to regain their morale to the point where they're a competitive team again. Better to quit whilst they're willing, and try again next year.

 

That is really interesting. Can't wait for the race this year, knowing you'll be posting your commentary. Thanks!

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I picked up that the Cabela's site was being moved and all the uproar over there. I really enjoyed that message board (lurker only). Are you going to follow it to the official I-rod site or do you have your own favorite?

I use the Cabela's board, but I hit a lot of others: Sleddog Central, Hurdal.com (Team Norway, including the redoubtable Robert Sørlie), and more beyond. I hit every musher's site, those that have one, at least once a week during the pre-race workup, to see whom else has likely-looking feeds this year. I normally get my stats straight from the ITC's main site, although there are times when Cabela's is a bit faster - This year, though, I think they're combining the two sites. I always subscribe to the ITC's Insider service, and get a lot of good input there. Also, Alaska Daily News often has stories that don't show up on the MBs.

 

I do this every year at the UnaBoard - I'm not sure if I'll cross-post, or post links... Have to think abot that.

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