An offer you can’t refuse

WASILLA — When Sue Allen hit the trail as a part of the 2004 Iditarod field, the Mat-Su Valley musher vowed it would mark her first and final trip to Nome — at least by dog sled.

But things change.

Now four years later, Allen once again has found herself a part of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

“Basically, I got an offer I couldn’t refuse,” Allen, a Wasilla High School teacher and coach by day and musher by night, said last week.

Mushing legend Martin Buser, a four-time Iditarod champion, asked Allen to take a team of his yearlings to Nome. And there was no way Allen could say no.

“He flipped the bill and I get to run an awesome group of puppies,” Allen said. “How do you say no?”

Since her rookie run — a race she completed in 13 days, 18 hours, 59 minutes and 21 seconds — Allen was forced to give up many of her dogs as the cost of caring for her four-legged athletes got too high.

She sold some of the dogs, and loaned others to aspiring mushers. Two young mushers in the 2008 Junior Iditarod, MacKenzie Davis and Meredith Mapes, have teams that include Allen’s dogs.

She’s competed in mid-distance events, but for the most part, Allen has kept thoughts of running in the Iditarod far from her mind — until Buser came calling.

“I thought he was kidding at first,” Allen said. “I was totally surprised.”

Allen’s first Iditarod venture was nothing short of an adventure as she approached near catastrophe at points.

Somewhere along the trail Allen’s dogs got into another team’s food and got sick. Allen was forced to take a five-hour break in Cripple, and the stretch from Cripple to Ruby, a length of trail that normally takes 12 hours to complete, turned into a 29-hour trek for Allen’s team.

Now as Allen looks back on that race, she calls leaving Ruby a certain highlight.

“I never thought we’d make it to Ruby,” Allen said.

As Allen prepares for her second trip to Nome, her first experience on that stretch of trail from Cripple to Ruby is something she’d probably like to forget. But that isn’t likely to happen.

“It still sticks in my mind,” she said. “The closer the race gets, the more it sticks in my mind.”

Allen said there are obviously things that’s she’ll do different during her second try. But also when she hits the trail this time, it’ll be for an entirely different purpose.

“The point is to get as many of those dogs to Nome, keep them happy, help them learn the trail and really enjoy the run,” Allen said.

Almost all of the dogs are about 18 months old, Allen said, and the goal is to prepare the pups for a future run in Buser’s top team. Allen said Buser has set a plan for the trip. Each dog is to lead a section of the trail, and rather than the standard rest-to-run ratio of equal time of rest and run, the young dogs will get about one-and-a-half times the rest.

And that doesn’t bother Allen at all.

“It’s like a field trip for me,” Allen said.

Allen is also getting a new sled out of the deal, custom built by Buser and his son Rohn, a rookie in the 2008 Iditarod.

“It’s a beautiful sled,” Allen said.

During the summers, Allen helps Buser run sled dog tours at Buser’s Happy Trail Kennels. So Allen suggested instead of paying her for her time, why not build her a sled. And that’s exactly what Buser did.

As just a few days separate Allen from her second Iditarod run, she isn’t exactly sure if the 2008 race will mark her final try.

Allen said it’s certainly tough to balance a full-time job with mushing, which is essentially another full-time job. Allen makes 30- to 40-mile runs after school, and after those three and four hour runs she spends as much as three hours feeding, cleaning and caring for the dogs.

Although she did say it could be the final time she runs in the race, she does admit her feelings could change — especially if she gets another offer she can’t refuse.

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.