Palmer woman gears up for second Iditarod

KNIK — After taking a year off from running the Iditarod, Palmer High grad Meredith Mapes is giving The Last Great Race another go in 2020, this time with a dog team of her own canine athletes. Mapes has a new strategy after learning during her first trip down the trail and again last year as a member of the trail crew and blogging for Iditarod.com.

“What I enjoy about it is just being out there with the dogs of course and seeing Alaska in a slower light,” said Mapes. “That’s the part that I like the most is slowing down taking in the sights around you and having a chance to be out there living the way that people did thousands of years ago.”

Mapes grew up in Palmer and got interested in sled dog mushing at an early age. Despite the lack of mushing history around Palmer, Mapes sought after sled dog mushing to earn a badge while she was a member of the Girl Scouts. While she shares the trail with male mushing counterparts, Mapes said that it makes no difference what gender the driver of a sled dog team is.

“It’s the equalizer part of it, it’s the fact that out there on the trail you’re just a dog musher. Nobody knows if you’re a man or a woman, the dogs certainly don’t care, so it’s the fact that you can just go out and be yourself,” said Mapes.

Mapes was given her first two sled dogs by a family friend when she was a 12-year-old and began her Fun On The Run Kennels shortly after. After finishing her degree at the University of Alaska Anchorage, Mapes ran the Iditarod as a rookie in 2018, finishing in a time of 12 days, 17 hours and 35 minutes.

“Finishing the race is the weirdest experience for me because suddenly you have people that are there to help you,” said Mapes. “My plan this year is just to go with the flow and watch the dogs in front of me.”

Mapes has changed her strategy up from the race she ran in 2018. Now a 26-year-old, her team called Fun On The Run has grown into a sled dog team of half adults and half puppies that Mapes has bred and trained. With the arrival of winter, Mapes has begun taking the team, including younger dogs without race experience, on their first long training runs while making stops in her back yard. Mapes and her dogs live out in Knik where she has dog mushers for neighbors.

“It’s so nice being here in Knik because there are so many trails around here,” Mapes said. “I can just do loops in my neighborhood and come back and camp in my yard and then take off again from here.”

Mapes’ strategy for the race in 2020 has changed from when she last ran the Iditarod in 2018. Rather than planning out each checkpoint of the race, Mapes is allowing the reaction and performance of the dogs to determine how she uses her mandatory rest periods along the trail. Mapes will distribute her 24-hour rest supplies along different checkpoints, allowing her to rest her dog team wherever she feels it would be best.

“Being a vet tech, I have a little bit different perspective than some of the other dog mushers do, so I like a little bit more science-based things,” said Mapes. “Their care is constantly evolving. We’re constantly learning things with scientific studies about the dogs and how we can improve their life out there in the trail which in turn makes our life easier out there as well.”