The second 300 miler

The second of the major 300 mile races which are qualifiers for the Iditarod started this evening out of Bethel, AK far out on the west coast. A lot of mushers who were not in the Copper Basin 300 are showing up at this one. They do have a web site and a facebook page but I am still navigating them and not sure what kind of tracking and data they offer.

I did see some familiar names among the 30+ mushers who are racing, though. The Busers, father and son Martin and Rohn, are there as is Jeff King and a bunch of the Mackey clan. I was surprised but pleased to see Lance Mackey among them. I hope that means he recovered enough from the severe frostbite he got in last year's brutal frozen Iditarod to at least race some. Sons or nephews are there too carrying on the name. I also saw Michelle Phillips who is a serious challenger to some of the better known lady mushers.

Michelle comes from Canada and narrowly beat Aliy Zirkle in the YQ 300 last year as both their husbands raced in the main YQ. Michelle is now deeply involved in the campaign for childhood diabetes since her teenage son has acquired type 1. I need to hook her up with Brenda Novak, a well known romance author big in the same cause!  I'm sure that is a serious challenge and I root for  both Michelle and for her son.

Also Aaron Burmeister (very strong contender in 2015 Iditarod) is represented by his younger brother while he gets surgery and therapy/recovery to fix the bad knee he really bunged up in the very rough 2014 Iditarod. He finished that race with a homemade splint and brace of sticks, duct tape and goodness knows what else but still well in the upper half!! That is the kind of grit these folks have. I met him at the ITC meeting in June and he is a really nice guy! I was very impressed. I hope to see him back on the trails in the future.

The SPK folks are sitting this one out and so are quite a few of the middle-Alaska racers but there are a couple more 300s to go yet. I need to research the rules and see if non-rookie entrants into the Iditarod really have to run one of the 300s. I do not think they do but am not sure. Speaking of the Iditarod, a friend in Alaska sent me an article indicating that the snow is pretty good on most of the regular route despite a warm dry season around Anchorage so it looks like the regular trail will be used this season. That is basically good news, I think, since there is a lot less trail on the Yukon River which is notorious for bitter cold--like they all contended with last year. Fifty below or more--that is enough to make my blood run ice cold!!