IditaProject Forum

Our next installment of Ask The Musher will feature Rachael Scdoris! How cool is that?!

She will begin answering questions Sunday, 8/31.

For those interested in supporting Rachael, visit her website:
http://www.rachaelscdoris.com

8/31 Update:

Welcome Rachael. Thanks for joining us!

Okay guys, ask away!

A special thanks goes to emwcee for doing the legwork on this.





Pictures used with permission.

Hey Rachael:
Welcome and thanks for joining us for an Ask the Musher installment. I have 2 general questions.
First, I think we're probably all interested in knowing what is the most difficult and challenging part of running the Iditarod for you?
Second, what exactly happened to cause you to scratch late in last year's race?
You are an inspiration to many Rachael, and I'm proud to be able to post these first questions to you.

MGF Brian

Wow Rachael, we are so honored to have you join us here!! Thank you so much!
I have a few questions,
What was your funniest moment this year?
and
What was your scariest moment?

Are you doing anything different in training this year as a result of your experiences?

HAHA, MGFB-once again I see I have come in second! (a reference to our monthly trivia contest-I always wind up in 2nd place! )

Hi Rachael! Thanks for dropping in. We met and had a chance to chat when you and your dad came to Maine a couple of years ago. That must have been the fall of 2006, because I think it was the year of your first Iditarod finish. Right? Perhaps you remember the monsoon that weekend that flooded the fairgrounds and made such a deafening din on the metal roof we sat under? The weather kept some of the crowds away and made for a much more intimate setting for the rest of us. It was a pleasure to meet you and Jerry. I enjoyed your book tremendously, and it's been a real treat following your sled-doggin' adventures.

Well, now that I've gushed, I'd better come up with a question or two. So, I think at that symposium someone asked what you might do differently when training for the next season, and you said that you were satisfied with the training miles you'd covered but that you'd do more camping with the dogs. Did you do more camping coming into 2007 and, if so, what were the benefits derived, if any?

And just to follow up, how about anticipated training tweaks/changes between 2008 and coming into 2009?

Thanks, Rachael. Skritches to your team.

Rachael, thanks so much for agreeing to do "Ask the Musher." I'm Marcia, your friend on Facebook. We're really looking forward to hearing from you. I hope we don't overwhelm you with our questions.

I loved your book. You put so much detail into it, and I'm amazed that you could remember so many details about each race. One of the things that I found interesting is that so much of a musher's time is spent undoing tangles. We don't hear much about this aspect of racing. I guess the videos always show the beautiful pictures of the race, not the mundane stuff. Is the problem of getting tangled up a big factor in the race? How often does it happen, and does it have an impact on the outcome of the race?

I'll probably have more questions later, but I wanted to start with this one.

Thanks so much for joining us here! It is really interesting to get the inside scoop from people who actually run the race.

I love all of the questions so far. The only one I can think of is two parts: 1: What is your favorite snack/meal on the trail? How about the dogs?

Good luck in the toughest athlete competition! I'm voting with every email I have!

What is your favorite Iditarod route, north or south? Is there a particular reason for your choice?

Lots of mushers fall asleep on the trail, do you have any special routines to keep you from dozing off?

I have a goofy question too: In a few years time, when Hollywood will discover mushing, who would you like to play you in a blockbuster movie?

All the best,

Stig Olsen/Norway

Rachael - Just wanted to thank you for helping us out here with our addiction. While traveling to Crater Lake and K Falls last week, we had lunch at Big Mountain Cafe in Chemult, and I picked up a copy of your book for my mother who's 84. She is so thrilled with it so far. Wanted to clue the others in to No End In Sight: My Life As A Blind Iditarod Racer - by Rick Steber. I haven't read it yet - hopefully I can pry it out of my mother's hands later.

What do you do in the off season? Do you have a regular job ten/eleven months out of the year? Where do you train around Bend, or do you spend a lot of time acclimating in the North Country? What's your favorite treat from Trader Joe's for your mom to pick up for you? What was your most "What Am I Doing Here!!! moment out of all your races?

Thank you Brian,

the hardest part of iditarod, for me, is definitely the gorge. Two of my three runs through there have been about the least fun one can have on a dog sled.

A lot of little things happened, last year, that contributed to my scratching but the main reason was that I ran out of dogs. I made it to cripple (halfway) with 15 strong dogs and after that, I started dropping them. Of course, dogs are dropped all the time and people finish with small teams every year but all seven dogs, I dropped, between Cripple and Koyuk were leaders- four of them were dropped in one day. I still had three strong leaders when I arrived in Shaktoolik and when I left I was down to one; I had to drop her in Koyuk. At this point I had two decent leaders left and just before departing Koyuk, I had to drop one of them which meant I had to rely on Wrinkles and some team dogs who had run lead before but were not, by any stretch of the imagination, leaders. When we got out on the ice we were moving painfully slowly and I noticed that two of my team dogs were limping. The team did not quit, they wanted to go, we simply did not have the front end power to keep going without everyone having a miserable experience.

Thanks again,
Rachael

I have had quite a few of those.
I would have to say that my funniest moment was at the Seeley Lake 200 when my partner threw out his back and I had to go to the vets and get rimadil for him so that we could finish.
My scariest moment was going through the gorge when my dog, Toni got tangled in the line and passed out and I had to mouth-to-snout her. I then spent the rest of the run fighting to keep her from ripping my sledbag apart. When I got into Rohn I had three vets look at her and they all agreed, she was fine and she was able to go on. That was not just the scariest moment of last year, it was the scariest moment of my career.

flowerpower wrote:Wow Rachael, we are so honored to have you join us here!! Thank you so much!
I haveH a few questions,
What was your funniest moment this year?
and
What was your scariest moment?

Are you doing anything different in training this year as a result of your experiences?

HAHA, MGFB-once again I see I have come in second! (a reference to our monthly trivia contest-I always wind up in 2nd place! )