Feb 19 2008
Tid Bit Tuesday - The Iron Dog
The one thing about Alaska, is that I can say over and over and over “Only in Alaska will you find/see/do….” 
The Iron Dog race is one of those things.
The Iron Dog is the longest snow machine race in the world. It goes from Wasilla, Alaska to Nome, Alaska and Ends in Fairbanks, Alaska. A total of 1,971 miles. (here is a link to the course map: http://www.irondog.org/archives/Course%20Map.pdf ) This years winning purse is: $165,775! No wonder it’s such a popular event!
Each team consists of two snow machines and two riders. They ride in pairs for safety. The course goes through some pretty tough terrain, and it’s always good to have a partner with you, should something go wrong. They face amazing weather obstacles in addition to the terrain. All in all, it’s a ROUGH ROUGH race. Most racers virtually throw their snow machines away after this race. And they leave with BRAND NEW snow machines. Did I mention it’s a tough race? Hard on racers, hard on machines.
This years race started on Sunday, February 10 and finished on Saturday, February 16. There as a total of 40 teams. 23 of those teams were rookie teams, 5 of those team are out of state teams. The racers leave the starting line in 2 minute intervals and their times are tracked till the finish. The team with the shortest time is the winner. Their starting position is decided by draw before the race day.
This years winners were team #14, Quam and McKenna (their bio is here: http://www.irondog.org/racers/bios/2008/14.htm )
Even our lovely Governor, Sara Palin’s husband gets involved. He’s won this event several times. He had a bit of a crash this year that evidently required some medical care, but ended up finishing 4th. Not bad for the “First dude of the frontier” (their bio: http://www.irondog.org/racers/bios/2008/22.htm )
Here is a link to the numerous photos that were taken from all the different areas of the course this year. It gives you some great perspective to just how “out in the middle of nowhere” these teams are! http://www.irondog.org/gallery/2008/index.htm
So there you have it. Only in Alaska will be race just about anything (just wait till I get to some of our summer race events… you’ll roll over in laughter) but we’ll race just about anywhere… for ANYTHING :) You just gotta love us crazy Alaskans!