Ran across this on FB and thought it was a sweet story from another perspective:
Katie Pesznecker
fromĀ· Katie Pesznecker
With Iditarod going on, I keep thinking about 2004, when I went to Nome with Jim Lavrakas to cover the finish. Joel Gay and Mark Lester were the trail team. Jim and I had maybe five days in Nome to do features and then cover the flurry of finishers. Mitch Seavey won that year. When it was time to file a story, all the reporters shared a few cables where you had to plug your computer and dial up the Internet connection. People tried to be patient but with everyone on deadline and the situation so fluid, you can only imagine how that went. And when editors had edits (Mike Campbell, Craig Medred), you had to wait again for your chance to plug in and send your story. Sending photos took forever. It was a really different time, with very different challenges when it came to turning your article in. And it was still very much a deadline-driven news schedule -- no social media posts, no live streams. So if the paper had "gone to bed," then you had to figure out how to write about those finishers who came in at 3 a.m. It was my favorite assignment I ever had as a full-time journalist. I used pencils because pen ink froze and when Joel and Mark rolled in, all four of us shared the world's tiniest hotel room. I kareoked "Good Bye Earl" at one of the Front Street bars on the last night when I was finally done writing, and all the Norwegian mushers looked so confused by the lyrics. It's really cool to be able to say I was one of the few with a press pass to actually stand right up under the burled arch when the teams came through. Best memory of it all was when Jim rented a snowmachine and we made the 20 mile ride to Safety, the final checkpoint, for a story. On the way back, he wanted photos of mushers coming in, so I sat on a little hill up above the trail to wait. John Baker came by with his team. I want to say he finished that year in 10th, or something. And I could hear him talking to his dogs. His team was down to 7 or something at that point. And he said to his lead dog, "Come on little girl. You can do it. I know you can do it. It may seem like a long way but we're almost there. You can do it, girl." It made me tear up then, and it makes me tear up now.