Today was one of regrouping. Here at our house, the phone started
ringing at 5:30AM with calls
about where Judy Merritt was on the trail. The stats showed her
leaving Rainy Pass at 11:50AM yesterday. And no more news has come
through the communications food chain since. Her husband and other
relatives were hoping to get some “official” word (Can
you imagine not knowing? I can, from Bill’s 2002 race) as
to what is/was going on out there. Finally, one of the phone calls
suggested that Judy had gotten caught by the big storm and was somewhere
on the trail, on this side of the pass, camped out. Not too much
time elapsed until we received word from her husband, Bill Merritt,
that the trail sweeps had gone out to look for her. They did find
her trying to get her team moving since the snow had slacked off.
The sweeps allowed Judy to call home with their satellite phone
and speak to her husband, who called us to report that she IS moving.
Now we wait. And pray.
We can only hope that Judy and some of the other back-of-the-pack
mushers are not
beginning to feel the “why am I here?” type thing that
happens after days of hectic preparations and then quickly diving
into round-the-clock work with the team on the trail. The mental
state of the musher is key to finishing the race. Sleep deprivation
contributes to the feelings of despair when the musher is tired,
cold, missing their family and questioning their sanity of ever
attempting to make a thousand-plus mile journey on the back of a
dog sled. Cabela’s site has a very good article on mental
state. Click
here to read the article. It is very true that finishing the
Iditarod has MUCH to do with mental toughness and determination.
On another note, Earl, our pilot missionary friend, was up early
to check weather patterns, as he needed to go down to Anchorage
to get his plane back to Fairbanks. Bill took him down in the late
morning. While Bill was in town, he checked by headquarters at the
Millennium Hotel. Here he was able to speak to Melanie Shirilla,
Doug Swingley’s wife, and got the scoop on Doug scratching
from the race. To aid visibility going down the Dalzell Gorge, Doug
had removed his goggles, which were frosted up. Doug had recent
corrective eye surgery and this leaves the corneas very sensitive
to temperature extremes. One of Doug’s corneas froze while
going down this treacherous section of trail in sub-zero temperatures
without eye protection. This caused him to lose depth perception
and he managed to get a stick in his other eye. After realizing
the blurry vision was not improving, Doug was able to call his ophthalmologist
who told him it would be a good idea to get back and have it properly
diagnosed. So Doug scratched. On tonight’s evening news on
TV, Doug said, “I'm pretty disappointed, fourteen years in
racing and I've never done this before.”
Bill saw one of Doug’s dogs, Ricky, out on the dropped dog
line behind the hotel. He helped volunteers catch an Aaron Burmeister
dog that got loose. Other officials were packing to leave
for destinations out on the trail. The hotel was a beehive of activity
as volunteers were selling shirts and souvenirs, dog handlers were
dealing with dropped dogs, the communications center was constantly
updating musher positions and coordinating flying out vets from
one checkpoint to the next, etc. etc. This race is a massive undertaking
and the mushers are now stretched from Cripple back to Judy, who
is finally into Rohn at 9:10PM. Hurrah!! On the stats, you can now
see that a few mushers have taken their 24-hour layovers as the
jockeying for position becomes even more intense.
calls
about where Judy Merritt was on the trail. The stats showed her
leaving Rainy Pass at 11:50AM yesterday. And no more news has come
through the communications food chain since. Her husband and other
relatives were hoping to get some “official” word (Can
you imagine not knowing? I can, from Bill’s 2002 race) as
to what is/was going on out there. Finally, one of the phone calls
suggested that Judy had gotten caught by the big storm and was somewhere
on the trail, on this side of the pass, camped out. Not too much
time elapsed until we received word from her husband, Bill Merritt,
that the trail sweeps had gone out to look for her. They did find
her trying to get her team moving since the snow had slacked off.
The sweeps allowed Judy to call home with their satellite phone
and speak to her husband, who called us to report that she IS moving.
Now we wait. And pray. 
beginning to feel the “why am I here?” type thing that
happens after days of hectic preparations and then quickly diving
into round-the-clock work with the team on the trail. The mental
state of the musher is key to finishing the race. Sleep deprivation
contributes to the feelings of despair when the musher is tired,
cold, missing their family and questioning their sanity of ever
attempting to make a thousand-plus mile journey on the back of a
dog sled. Cabela’s site has a very good article on mental
state. 
leave
for destinations out on the trail. The hotel was a beehive of activity
as volunteers were selling shirts and souvenirs, dog handlers were
dealing with dropped dogs, the communications center was constantly
updating musher positions and coordinating flying out vets from
one checkpoint to the next, etc. etc. This race is a massive undertaking
and the mushers are now stretched from Cripple back to Judy, who
is finally into Rohn at 9:10PM. Hurrah!! On the stats, you can now
see that a few mushers have taken their 24-hour layovers as the
jockeying for position becomes even more intense. 
