GET A GRIP

WILLOW — Before the 71 dog teams took their first step on the 1,000-mile Iditarod Sled Dog race Sunday, they had to make it to the starting line.

More than 1,000 dogs bred for speed and energy must make their orderly way to the front in two-minute intervals. There are different staging points along the way, and natural instinct trumps even the most insistent command.

Trying to stop a team born to pull is like hitting the brakes in a defective Toyota. But this is exactly what the team handlers were tasked to do.

The 71 teams lined up in a U-shape facing inward. The teams were scheduled to leave in two-minute intervals starting at 2 p.m. At about 1:40, the first teams harnessed their dogs.

Once harnessed, the teams went through a series of stops and starts while waiting their turn. This meant human power was working against dog power.

Each team had eight to 12 handlers holding ropes clipped to the main line straining against the dogs. The handlers would jog along side the teams, pulling against the direction of travel

“It’s a demanding job,” said Iditarod restart handler coordinator Sara Lamont. “The handlers who haven’t done it before are usually sore the next day.”

Lamont is in charge of the 120 volunteers who sign up to help the teams get safely to the start. She said about half are Alaskans and half come from Outside, and they do it because they like the work and want to be involved with the dogs.

Each volunteer has to go through the Iditarod’s dog handling class. This year, past Iditarod racer Jeff Deeter taught the classes about the gear, how to approach the dogs, where to hold and where not to hold. The classroom portion was followed by hands-on work with Deeter’s dog team, Lamont said.

“It’s a couple hours long,” she said. “We have one in February for the locals, then two classes on the Friday before the Iditarod starts.”

There is a level of physical fitness required, Lamont said. Handlers have to jog beside the team, and it can be hard on backs and knees, especially when taking a team from the back of the parking lot. The idea is to start at the top of one side of the U and work around then down the other, Lamont said. This allows crew members of the first teams to get out of the way for the later mushers.

“You can tell when the first dog gets hooked up,” Lamont said. “The barking starts and doesn’t stop until they are all gone.”

Ed and Nancy Podgorski are residents of Wasilla volunteering as handlers for their third and fourth year, respectively.

“It’s kind of addicting,” Nancy said.

Nancy works as a teacher for Valley Pathways High School. She said she incorporates the Iditarod into her curriculum whenever she can, and the race has so many great stories.

“We’re originally from Ohio. There you get football and tailgating,” she said. “This is just something so different.”

Ed added being a handler gives you a respect for the towing power of the dogs.

“Each dog is like 40 pounds of dynamite,” he said.

Both said they feel privileged they can participate in the race when so many people spend a lot of money to do it.

On her first trip to Alaska, South African Maria Harmse said she volunteered so she could meet the mushers. They don’t have anything like the frozen trek of the Iditarod in South Africa, she said, and she wanted to see what it was all about.

“I guess I am a bit nervous,” Harmse said. “I don’t want to fall and make a klutz of myself.”

All joking aside, falling is a serious matter, Lamont said. The dogs are certainly more sure-footed than the handlers, and handlers are taught to roll out of the way if they slip.

“A sled going over you is not a good thing,” she said.

Contact Todd L. Disher at todd.disher@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.