- Ben

The Iditarod Veteran
by Ben Hendler

         The Iditarod is the longest sled-dog race in the world and is said to be the most grueling. The race starts in Anchorage and finishes in Nome, Alaska. Only about 60 people enter the race every year and usually some do not finish. In order to be in the race you have to go through a two hundred and three hundred-mile qualifier race. Raymie Redington is just one of those who have raced in the Iditarod.
         Raymie Redington’s interest for dog sledding was sparked early because his dad started the Iditarod race. Raymie has raced the Iditarod fourteen times. One of those times included him coming in seventh out of all the teams that raced. Raymie’s two sons, Ray and Ryan Redington, also run the race now.
         “You’re going to be in there [the race] and sometimes you wish that you weren’t,” Raymie said. He said that the hardest part was cold weather. “Sometimes it can be fifty to sixty below,” Raymie said. “And the wind chill, it gets down to a hundred below, it can get pretty miserable.”
         Materials are of course a very important part of the Iditarod. If you want to be successful you have to have the right stuff. “You got to have a sleeping bag, and a pair of snowshoes, an axe, and a dog cooker to feed the dogs, and booties for the dogs to protect their feet,” Raymie said. “There were about 30 veterinarians along the way to help with the dogs.”
         When asked if the race has changed from Raymie’s first race to his last, he replied “The trails, and the sleds, and the technologies. The dogs are exactly the same, just better feed [for the dogs]. There was also this new thing called the iron dog, and it puts a good trail in, it made a lot of difference.”
         “The hardest races for me were the races of 1973 and 1974,” Raymie said. “It was mostly because of the trails. We didn’t know where we were going. Some of them were unmarked.”
         Today, Raymie lives in Palmer, Alaska where he has lived his whole life, and will continue to live there. He volunteers at the Iditarod Headquarters in Wasilla, Alaska. “I come here and give people rides [with the sled dogs], and train my dogs for the race. My sons will be using these dogs in the Iditarod,” said Raymie.
         The challenge of the Iditarod didn’t stop Raymie Redington from entering it. Once he experienced it, he must have liked it a lot, considering he went back thirteen more times after that. It just goes to show that even though something may look and seem terrifying and hard, you may actually enjoy it in the end.