IDITAROD 2000
BY:  Dayna, Skyler, Hunter, Todd, Tiffany, Alex

 
Many people want to ride with the mushers at the beginning of the race. They enter an auction and the person who bids the highest becomes what is called an iditarider.
Each iditarider can only ride eight miles. They must ride in the basket of the sled. Last year a sick girl rode on one of the sleds. The iditarider can be a girl or a boy, man or woman. I felt sorry for the sick girl. An iditarider is a person that rides in the basket of the sled. The rider can be  any age. It can be a teen if you want.  Some people pay up to ten thousand dollars! That's a lot of money. This money goes to the Iditarod committee.

 

This year the mushers had to follow the Northern Route for the Iditarod. It is a very twisty trail. Mushers and dogs have a hard time on the trail. Many mushers get hurt or have to drop hurt dogs at checkpoints. One year they had to change the trial because a mother moose and her son were hurting mushers on the trail. Some places on the trail are hard to run on so the dogs wear booties to protect their feet. Some of the hardest places on the Northern Route are the Buffalo Tunnels, the Farewell Burn, and the city streets of Anchorage. The Race Starts at Anchorage and ends in Nome. The total length of the race is 1,151 miles long.

 
Rookies have never raced the Iditarod before and veterans have raced at least once.  In this year's 2000 race there are rookies and veterans, women and men. There are 70 more men than women and 52 more veterans than rookies. There are 29 rookies and 11 women. The total number of mushers is 81. In every race there have been more men.

Click on the prints and they will take you to the 2000 Musher list.

 
There were a lot of adventures on the trail in the 2000 Iditarod Race.  A man named Rich Bosela, a veteran musher, was going through the Farewell Burn and his dogs saw a trio of bison. The dogs were chasing the bison for hours.  There was another musher named Dave Straub who had trouble in training and on the trail.  In training, three of his dogs ran out in font of a tractor trailer and got killed. Dave still made it to the starting line. Later on the
trail, Dave hit a patch of ice and skidded out of control. He hit his head badly on the ice and it was over for him.

 
In the 2000 Iditarod Race, eight people scratched. Scratch, in Iditarod language, means to quit.
 
  • The first one to scratch was Ted English because he could not take adequate care of his team. Ted English has completed the Iditarod  five times since his first race in 1981. 
  • The second one to scratch was Harry Caldwell. He scratched because many of the dogs in his team were in heat. Caldwell has completed the Iditarod six times since his first run in 1993. 
  • The third one to scratch was Cindy Gallea because her lead dogs were no longer responsive or willing.
  • The fourth one to scratch was Shane Goosen. He sprained his ankle and knee.
  • The fifth one to scratch was David Straub because he was concerned about his dogs' weight and condition. 
  • The six one to scratch was Mike Murphy.  He scratched because he felt it was in the best interest of the team .
  • The 7th one to scratch was Nelson Shughart because his team was not being as competitive as he had hoped. 
  • The eighth one to scratch was Rich Bolela. He scratched because  his leaders would rather chase buffalo.

Shane Goosen of Wasilla weighs his options:
  going from McGrath or scratching because of his injuries. (RICHARD J. MURPHY /
 Anchorage Daily News)







 

 

Doug Swingley and his dogs win the
2000 Iditarod


Fedor Konyukhov wins the 
Red Lantern Award










Click here for the Official Prize list for the 2000 Iditarod.
http://www.iditarod.com/00-information/00-awards.htm

 Different prizes can be won at different checkpoints.
There are many prizes and many mushers who won the
prizes. 

 One of them is the PenAir Spirit of Alaska
Award won by Paul Gephardt. 

The GCI Dorothy G. Page Halfway Award was won by Doug Swingley ($3,000), Martin Buser ($2,000), Rick Swenson ($2,000), Rick Mackey ($2,000), and Ramy Smyth ($1,000). 

The Alaskan Hotel First to the Yukon Award was
won by Doug Swingley. 

The National Bank of Alaska's Gold Coast Award was won by Doug Swingley. 

Cabela's Outfitter Award was won by Martin
Buser. 

The Sportsmanship Award was won by
Ramy Brooks. 

The Providence Health System's Most Inspirational Musher Award was won by Emmitt Peters. 

The Most Improved Musher Award was
won by Ramy Brooks. 

The Rookie of the Year Award was won by Tony Willis. 

The Golden Stethoscope Award was won by Bob Sept, Nick Vukich, and Bruce Pederrsen. 

The Nome Kennel Club Fastest Time from Safety to Nome Award was won by Bruce Lee with a time of 2 hours, 28 minutes, 5 seconds. 

The Alaska Airlines Leonhard Seppala
Humanitarian Award was won by Bruce Lee. 

The Red Lantern Award was won by Fredor.

The real winner in this year's Iditarod 2000 was Doug Swingley and he won $30,000 and a Dodge pickup truck!
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