The Mudflats

Here’s the second installment of our Voices from the Flats  Iditarod Report from LoveMyDogs who is tending the kennel of Iditarod musher Colleen Robertia while she’s busy with other things!

In her piece, she’s referring to Lance Mackey, the current frontrunner and reigning champ; Jeff King, former champ and until recently the frontrunner in this race; and DeeDee Jonrowe, veteran musher and perennial crowd favorite.

It’s getting exciting as the leaders race along the ice of Norton Sound, with Nome getting nearer by the hour…

**************************

NUMBERS
(In honor of yesterday, Pi day 3/14)

by LoveMyDogs

Numbers, numbers, numbers. Following the Iditarod from home is all about watching the numbers. Position number, Bib number, Time In, Time Out, number of dogs coming in, number of dogs going out, rest time, speed. It could be one heck of a math class (and so much more fun than those old word problems that used to drive me bonkers).

How does one know who is really leading? The numbers to watch are speeds travelling from checkpoint to checkpoint. But more than that, how much rest is taken and where? And how many dogs does each musher has.

Of course this does not tell the whole story. It doesn’t tell you if the musher is getting rest. It doesn’t tell you how the dogs are eating. It doesn’t tell you how they are dealing with weather. It doesn’t tell you if a sled is broken. It doesn’t tell you if a musher camped somewhere on the trail to be able to blow through a checkpoint. It doesn’t tell you if a musher is carrying a hurt or tired dog in his sled bag (thus increasing the amount of weight the dogs have to pull without the help of the dog in the bag). Most of all, it doesn’t tell you what kind of head games are being played.

My friend, Lance, is a master of head games. He almost always has a plan. And no one but Lance knows that plan. Best of all, it can change without warning. He always seems to have a Plan A through Z and can adjust easily to changing conditions. Is he messing with Jeff now? Conserving some of his dogs’ energy? Would he rather chase Jeff? Always keeping him in sight? He knows that he might be able to catch him in the hills (after all, he is younger and has longer legs). But what about Jeff? He is wily and has been doing this for a long time (Old age and craftiness beat youth and vigor?). And is it all about Lance and Jeff? Hans Gatt won the Yukon Quest this year. He has talented dogs and has also been at this game for a long time.

Lance has a way of standing and staring at another team and stroking his chin and then making some cocky, one-line quip that could cut a newer musher to the bone and make him second guess himself and his dogs all of the way to the finish line. This is “old-school” mushing and seems brutal at the time, but getting under your opponent’s skin is often times the only weapon you have left in your arsenal.

Then one looks at number of dogs. What information can we glean from this? It is hard to say. DeeDee has been running for hundreds of miles with 8 dogs while the front runners have 12-13. How can she possibly be staying as high in the standings as she is? Well…more math. 8 dogs, 4 feet each, number of booties… 32. 12 dogs, 4 feet each, number of booties…48. The number of food bowls, straw beds, blankets, coats, hours to feed, take care of feet, stretch and massage sore muscles are all increased if you have a bigger team. All of these chores cut into the musher’s rest. So maybe DeeDee is getting more rest.

And remember, you are only as fast as your slowest team member. You can drop dogs, you can’t drop the musher.

There are mushers who like to be in front. There are mushers who like to lie back in wait and reel the front runners in on the last leg. There are mushers like the Smyth brothers who notoriously wear running shoes between Safety and Nome and run the whole way as fast as their dogs can run.

Anything can happen and a lot of it is luck. The weather is a huge factor. Fatigue seems to be the one thing that levels the playing field. I don’t know about you, but the older I get, the less resilience I have when it comes to lack of sleep.

The test of wills continues. Who will win? Keep watching the numbers….

Every once in a while, I like to share an actual “mudflats story.”  Some might call this a slow news day story, but I think it’s pretty exciting.

A rare seahorse is recovering after being found stranded on mudflats on the UK coast, aquarium chiefs have said.

The spiny seahorse was discovered near Weymouth, Dorset, by Justin Roulland while he was out digging for ragworm.

The tiny fish had become stranded on the mudflats above the waterline after a particularly high tide and was at risk of being attacked by seagulls.

The seahorse was taken by Mr Roulland – the owner of a fishing tackle shop in Portsmouth, Hampshire – to the Blue Reef Aquarium in Portsmouth, which is now looking after it.

Blue Reef’s Robbie Robinson said: “The little fellow is recovering well and appears to be in relatively good condition.

“It’s difficult to be certain how he came to be stranded in the mud although it’s quite possible that he could have been picked up by a bird in the shallows and accidentally dropped.

“Justin said there had been a very high tide and when he found him he was barely alive. Apparently he popped him in a bucket of seawater and then nursed him overnight before bringing him in to us. As he was stranded above the waterline and at risk from the seagulls, it was definitely the right thing to do.”

Blue Reef is currently involved in a nationwide captive seahorse breeding programme. When it has recovered, staff plan to transfer the seahorse to the aquarium’s sister centre in Newquay, Cornwall, to join a pair of female spiny seahorses.

Mr Robinson said that there are thought to be two species of seahorse found in British waters – the short snouted and the spiny.

I love this story.  I love the fact that it got 10 paragraphs in the Belfast Telegraph.  I love the fact that they called the seahorse a “fellow.”  I love the fact that some guy who owns a bait and tackle shop rescued a hapless rare seahorse from the risk of seagull attack on the mudflats and that it made the paper.  When my own state is doing everything it can to systematically kill off one of its biggest tourist attractions by shooting them from the air, this whole incident just makes me want to go hang out in Weymouth for a while.

*****************************************

Oops!  Almost forgot your Iditarod Update!

“My Teams”

#50 – Aliy Zirkle has moved up into the #9 spot! Her personal best in the Iditarod until now has been 11th.  Go Aliy!  She’s out of Unalakleet.

#36 – Michelle Phillips and her fabulous lead dogs are running at #29 out of Kaltag.

#61 – Colleen Robertia (who you can read about in today’s Voices from the Flats) is #37 out of Nulato.

#14   – Newton Marshall from Jamaica is #44 out of Galena.

#4 – Wattie McDonald from Scotland is running #47 out of Galena.

The rookies are hanging in there really well!

And there’s been a little excitement in the front of the pack.  The front runners have reached the coast of Norton Sound, and our new leader is the reigning champ Lance Mackey of Fairbanks who overtook Jeff King of Denali Park for the #1 spot.  (Maybe it was that eight course meal King got for reaching the Yukon first that slowed him down)  King is running close behind, and they are both out of Shaktoolik and heading for Koyuk.  The end is getting near.

Here’s your link to the leader board.

And your link to the race map.

Blog on the Mackey – King Switcheroo

Alan Grayson has really done it this time.  I did not think I could love him more, and I was proven wrong with this one email.  This is possibly the most hilarious anti-Palin piece I’ve ever read – and trust me, I’ve read a lot of them.  I bow to the master of the Palin takedown.

This is an actual email from Rep. Alan Grayson on Palin’s recent visit to Florida.  Don’t be drinking anything when you read it.

Subject: Palin Attacks Grayson; Grayson Applies Calamine Lotion to the Resulting Reddish Skin

On Friday night, Sarah Palin came to Orlando, and attacked Rep. Alan Grayson. This is what she said:

“I got to meet quite a few candidates who are lining up in a contested primary who want to take out Alan Grayson. And I think Alan Grayson — what can you say about Alan Grayson? Piper is with me tonight, so I won’t say anything about Alan Grayson that can’t be said around children. [Good one, Sarah!] But thank you, Florida, for allowing candidates in a contested primary to duke it out over ideas and principles and values, all with the same goal, and that is unseating those who have such a disconnect from the people of America. That’s what the goal is here in this race against Alan Grayson. Please fight hard, and do this for the rest of the country. Fight hard, and send a conservative to Washington, DC.”

Palin, the former half-term Governor, current-nothing and future-even-less, charmed the all-Republican audience with her folksy folksiness and her homespun homespunnery. Atypically, Palin was wearing clothes that she had paid for herself. At the end of the event, she shared her recipe for mooseface pie.

In response to Palin’s attack on Rep Grayson, Grayson actually complimented Palin. Grayson praised Palin for having a hand large enough to fit Grayson’s entire name on it. He thanked Palin for alleviating the growing shortage of platitudes in Central Florida.

Grayson added that Palin deserved credit for getting through the entire hour-long program without quitting. Grayson also said that Palin really had mastered Palin’s imitation of Tina Fey imitating Palin. Grayson observed that Palin is the most-intelligent leader that the Republican Party has produced since George W. Bush.

When asked to comment about what effect Palin’s criticism might have, Grayson pointed out, “As the Knave’s horse says in Alice in Wonderland, ‘dogs will believe anything.’” Earlier, as the Orlando Sentinel reported, Grayson said, “I’m sure Palin knows all about politics in Central Florida, since from her porch she can see Winter Park,” which is part of Grayson’s district.

Grayson said that the Alaskan chillbilly was welcome to return to Central Florida anytime, as long as she brings lots of money with her, and spends it. “I look forward to an honest debate with Governor Palin on the issues, in the unlikely event that she ever learns anything about them,” Grayson added, alluding to Politifact’s “liar, liar, pants on fire” evaluation of much of what Palin has said.

Scientists are studying Sarah Palin’s travel between Alaska and Florida carefully. They hope to learn more about the flight patterns of that elusive migratory species, the wild Alaskan dingbat.

“Bush’s Brain,” advisor Karl Rove had a few words of advice for the Facebook blogger/Fox commentator Sarah Palin today. If she’s getting ready to run for the White House in 2012, she better start now.

Politico did not elaborate on how exactly Rove suggested this should occur, but we can assume it means doing a lot of reading.

Acknowledging that the politics of the day will change between now and then, he still said there’s not a moment to lose.

“This is her year to get ready for the hot spotlight that will fall on her…I don’t know if she wants to, she certainly can, she did very well in the 63 days she was on the national stage,” Rove said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Really?  Was it only 63 days?  Those for whom that 63 days felt like a lifetime cannot fathom an entire four-year Palin presidency.

But will she or won’t she?  That’s the question that nobody seems to be able to answer for sure.  Keeping us guessing keeps her in the spotlight, however, and speculation alone has fueled sales of her book, anticipation of her next book, and supported six figure speaking engagements across the land – to loggers, and bowlers, and liquor wholesalers, and NASCAR fans alike.  So, even if Palin is not planning to sit in the political dunking booth to which she would be permanently confined in the run up to the 2012 election, she benefits handsomely from not telling us that.