Nome_AK

Sleep. And lack of it. For the first 4 days I slept two hours. When you pull into a check point, let's say for 4 hours, 2.5 of those hours are spent taking care of dogs (taking off 64 booties, oiling 64 feet, cooking dog food, putting on 16 jackets, taking off 16 jackets, putting on 64 new booties).

After day four I became more efficient and could pass out anywhere. I got by on 3 hours of sleep every 24 hours for the rest of the 11 day race.

Sea biscuit.

And to explain the "fewer dogs" thing - you start with 16. But drop dogs if they get sore shoulders / wrists or get otherwise ill. When you drop a dog, it's flown back to Anchorage and taken care of until the race ends. You have to finish with at least 5 dogs.

Cool ranch, of course.

I mush my dogs most days during the winter. After work and on the weekend.

As for a 1,000 mile race, that's harder to put together. I spent 3 months running the dogs full time to get them in shape. And the costs are immense for the Iditarod. So I don't know if I'll be able to pull that off again. We'll see.