I've really enjoyed doing the Iditarod photo shoots these past three years. It's much different than the usual static landscapes that I do, so I'm always learning.
Plus the race is just so much fun. People up here don't seem to have the qualms about dog mushing that certain of our friends from the south do -- thankfully. The Iditarod is one thing that unites Alaskans of all political persuasions. For a couple of weeks we can put aside our differences and join in cheering on these amazing mushers and their even more amazing dogs. After the race is over, we get back to our usual bickering. :)
Here's an interesting Wall Street Journal piece about the sled dogs that appeared in our paper this morning.
Are Sled Dogs the Planet's Best Athletes?
Nothing against the mushers who guide their sleds for 1,049 miles through desolate Alaskan tundra during the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, which started Saturday. But it's time to acknowledge the incomparable athletic feats of their dogs.
According to Stuart Nelson Jr., the Iditarod's chief veterinarian, the average sled dog weighs around 50 lbs. and will run for about a dozen hours every day over the 10 to 14 days the race is expected to last. It will run up to six hours at a time without rest and consume 7,200 to 8,400 calories per day, the rough equivalent of a 200 lb. human eating 60 Big Macs.
This is hard to fathom. But your average dog makes most human endurance athletes look like puddles of jelly. David Swain, a professor of exercise science at Old Dominion, says a sedentary human uses 35 milliliters of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute (a measure known as VO2 Max). Elite endurance athletes can consume 70 to 80 milliliters. The average dog will use 110 to 120.
To put this differently, a 50 lb. dog will burn 10,000 calories a day for up to two weeks during the Iditarod. A Tour de France rider three times as heavy will burn 6,000 calories per day of that event. According to Dr. Swain, the closest human endurance athletes come to matching these dogs is in the Race Across America, a transcontinental bike race where cyclists often ride nonstop for 22 hours a day.
The random dog you see chasing the finish line in Nome roughly nine days from now will have spent the coldest part of March in the coldest parts of Alaska burning five times as much energy per day as Lance Armstrong would, all while wearing a big sloppy grin.
These aren't your ordinary house pets. :) And for those who are following along, Lance Mackey is out in front, building a considerable lead. We're rooting for the threepeat.
http://www.adn.com/iditarod/2009/story/721643.html
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