Participate with Rebecca: 2007 Norman Vaughan Serum Run

My friend Rebecca is many things. She's a friend. She's a former co-worker. She's a Grateful Dead fan. She's a musher. A musher? Yes, she voluntarily lets herself get dragged around in the snow by dogs. To some of you this may seem like a completely foreign concept, but to many in the history of Alaska, it's commonplace. I won't go too much into Rebecca's story for a couple of reasons. The first reason being that she's written a brilliant bio on the Serum Run's website. A second reason is that I'm working on getting her to agree to let me interview her for a podcast.
To participate is a costly endeavor it's a 3 week race and there are lots of expenses. I'm including a clip from her email. I know she would appreciate it if you got involved by either helping to support this exciting opportunity financially with the button below or just by reading her story and keeping up as I know I will continue to post updates as February rolls around.

"A while back I applied for and was accepted to participate in the 2007 Serum
Run Expedition as a snow machining partner. It is a 3 week expedition that
crosses 800 miles of Alaska following the Iditarod trail. Dog sledding and
snow machining partners make the expedition stopping in villages along the
way to provide education on wellness, etc, and commemorate the dogs and
mushers who made the original trip to Nome to provide Diphtheria
vaccinations.

As you can probably guess, supporting a 24 dog kennel and preparing for the
expedition is very costly. Several people suggested setting up a link or
website to take donations. Many mushers accept donations, and I am no
different. At the thought of asking people for donations, I have to swallow
my pride, and remember my dogs come first. So, now the shameless side of me
is coming through…

I have set up a PayPal account for those of you who are interested or
willing to make a donation."

To send a donation, log into PayPal and choose the tab to send money. It will then prompt you to enter the recipient's email address. Enter rsavidis[at]hotmail[dot]com (without the brackets, of course) and I'm sure she will be thrilled at your participation.

You can also visit the site to learn more about the expedition and learn a little Alaskan culture and history. If you have questions about the expedition or Rebecca's role, email them to me (matt[at]mkinmotion[dot]com) and I will include it either when I interview her or in further posts. Oh and by the way, the picture above is Rebecca running the dogs with very precious cargo...yeah, that's me hanging on for dear life. Maybe if you're lucky Rebecca can tell the story of when I went on that run.

Alaska and Me

I spent my last Sunday (for a while) in Alaska doing two very Alaskan activities. Special thanks to “The Coach’s Daughter” (Give me a better nickname and I’ll use it) and “AJ” for hosting me. I visited them in August when my family was up, to see what raising sled dogs was all about. In August, there were 10 dogs (don’t make me name them, because I can). Yesterday; 16 dogs! I honestly can’t think of another time in my life when I’ve been around 16 dogs like that. It was fascinating. I mentioned I took part in two Alaskan activities, there’s the dog sledding, but also I road a snow machine for the first time. It’s very similar to a Waverunner, but hurts much more to crash…yeah, I can say that from experience. I’ve quietly mocked snow machining (snow mobiles, to those of you in the “other 49”) as long as I’ve been up, mainly for the sideways hat wearing 22 year olds that crowd once-cool bars saying “brap” to each other. But after both riding one on my own and seeing one in practical use, I now understand.

Here’s what I learned:

1. These dogs want to pull sleds. With 16 dogs, the 8 that get left behind yelp and howl like a child left out of a game.
2. Some people and dogs consider 30 degrees (above zero) hot.
3. Abandon your instincts when riding a snow machine. If your instincts tell you to put your feet down while careening towards a grove of trees, you’re gonna regret giving into them. If your instinct would tell you to stay on a snow machine if it breaks through a frozen lake, abandon that instinct and jump away. Luckily I didn’t have to deal with the second. I promise, Mom.
4. 16 dogs make a lot of poop.
5. I can’t run fast enough to catch a dog sled.
6. There are muscles you use to handle sled dogs that may not be used for anything else a human would ever do.

There are pictures on Flickr.

Also make sure you don’t have a sucky holiday…click here. I’m gonna add a link to this on the side bar, so you can keep up with this unique outlook on the world.