I know I've said it before, but someone, seriously, pinch me...is this real life? How did I end up at the Iditarod starting line for the 2nd year in a row?!? It was a dream come true the first time (last year), but a continuance of that dream coming true this year. This year I was downtown by the time the first dog team pulled in and parked. Over the course of about an hour, it went from a calm [cold], muffled excitement to a loud yipping, howling excitement! While waiting to get checked in and assigned as a handler, I was able to wander around "up close and personal" to the teams as they got ready for the Ceremonial Start. 

What's the difference between the Ceremonial Start and the Restart? Well, there's a highway that cuts through the "trail" in Anchorage, meaning the dog teams can't safely cross and stay on the trail. So, they run their first 11 miles of the race on Saturday from 4th Avenue in downtown Anchorage over to the Campbell Airstrip. This is not a competitive stretch of the race, but rather a time for mushers to showcase their sponsors, interact with their fans and get them excited, and to get the dogs ready for the "real" start on Sunday. There is a fundraiser for the race in which fans bid to be the "Iditarider" - or the person who gets to ride in a musher's sled during this 11-mile ride; the Teacher on the Trail also gets to be an Iditarider! Bib 1 is always reserved for honoring Joe Redington and the musher chosen as the Honorary Musher for the race, so this is where that musher is honored as well. This year, that's Lance Mackey. 

While it was definitely a chilly morning downtown, the adrenaline and excitement of being able to be "inside" the blocked-off area for the race this year kept me from really feeling much of that (we could have been last year as part of the Educators Conference, but they had to limit that privilege due to COVID). I was able to watch Brent Sass get his sled and team packed up, and even do a short interview with press. Across from him Mille Porsild was getting her sled and team ready to go, and who was helping her get ready? None other than the legendary DeeDee Jonrowe, in her signature bright green and pink gear - right there in front of me. I think I had to pick my jaw up off the ground. If you don't know these names, be sure to look up DeeDee's story. Talk about one of perseverance and resilience. I saw the Berington's getting ready and was able to grab a picture of one of their teams all settled and snuggled in their beds inside the trailer - the calm before the race start chaos. Near them was Nic Petit's team. A block over was Bridgett Watkins and Gerhardt Thiart's teams. Bridgett even had a whole tailgating breakfast/coffee set up at her truck (of course she did- love it!)! Emily Robinson, the winner of the Jr. Iditarod for the 2nd year in a row, was out and about chatting and taking pictures with mushers. I saw Wade Marrs and his family getting him ready to head off for his first ceremonial start in a couple of years. I heard an interviewer ask Jessie Holmes if he was planning to race competitively this year after coming in 3rd place last year - to which he responded that he was and that he was "going to come home with no regrets..I'm not hung up on the outcome, I'm hung up on every day making the right move for my team, doing the right thing, and I think that could lead to a potential victory." A bit later in the morning, I felt lucky to have witnessed what I did as I walked past Jessie's setup area again and heard him giving one of this year's rookie mushers a motivational pep talk before they headed to the starting line. One more reason to absolutely love this race and the opportunities it brings to teaching kids - in this case about sportsmanship and kindness. Mushers are truly some of the best when it comes to camaraderie - even so far in this year's race, a couple of mushers have been in need of a new sled or help with fixing something, and the others step up and offer what they can to help their friends and competitors, even offering up their own extra sleds if they can. They aren't hoping their competitors mess up or break their sled - they want everyone to get to the finish line, understanding what an overwhelming accomplishment simply finishing is. 

Walking around that morning, I again saw Raymie Redington perusing the streets (we saw him at the Jr. Iditarod Finish Line on Sunday as well). I got up the nerve to introduce myself to him as a Teacher on the Trail finalist and ask if he would mind taking a picture with me. He said, "You know my dad is the one who started this race?" (His dad is Joe Redington, Sr.) I replied, "Yes I do know that, and it's an honor to be in your presence." *Such a cool selfie Moment*

As it got closer to race time (10am), we were assigned to our musher teams for handling. First, a few of us were assigned to Mille's team - how exciting!  We are told to check in with their lead handler and ask how we can help, usually being told to wait until they get the dogs hooked up and then taking a leash for the walk to the finish line. Mille's team didn't end up needing any extra handling assistance, so we were reassigned to Nic Petit's team. I was able to walk next to his well-known pup Kit Kat on the way to the starting line, who was so sweet and calm amongst all the commotion. 

On Thursday during my presentation, I had a slide that talked about how I see my cousin Jaimie's badge number (68) everywhere - and how it's my motivation and guidance in life. Oddly enough just before we began walking the team out to 4th Avenue from the side street, I looked up, and what do you think I saw? A 68 on the fence. After a brief moment of shock in seeing that, as happens often when it appears out of nowhere in the most unexpected of places, I just had to smile, knowing I was exactly in the place I was meant to be.  No coincidences.  

Walking Nic's team to the starting line and seeing them off was such an awesome few minutes. We then went back to see if we could help with any other teams. Wouldn't you know, they assigned us to Gerhardt's team. This is who Kristin would be taking pictures for on Sunday, and who gave me the musher handler pass for Sunday! I had asked Gerhardt when I saw him earlier in the morning what he was most excited for, and he said he was excited to get 20-30 miles outside of Willow and have it be just him and the dogs after all the hoopla at the beginning. As we got the leashes hooked to his team, they had me walk in the back next to his wheel dog, Angel. As we were making our way to the starting line (there's a lot of moving a few feet and stopping again as you make your way up 4th Avenue), Gerhardt asked me, "Are you having fun yet?" I probably had a ridiculously big smile on my face when I replied, pointing at him and his sled, "That's your dream..." and then holding up my leash, "and this is mine - so much fun!" I really don't think my smile left my face after those Moments of walking those teams to the start. 

Last year we didn't know that there was a shuttle that takes spectators over to Campbell Airstrip - where the first 11-mile run ends. We hopped on and 15 minutes later were able to see at least ten teams come in over there! It was such a beautiful park space (I'm not sure if it's normally a park or not, but several people were out there doing various activities - kick sledding, fat tire biking, cross country skiing...you name it, people are out there being active and making the most of the blue skies and sunshine, even in the cold and snow! 

While it seems like our day couldn't possibly continue in full-on rising action mode after all that (certainly we had to close to an ending, right?)...as we were walking to lunch at Snow City back in downtown Anchorage, we were walking past the Anchorage Police Department when Kristin said, "Isn't that him?" 

Well, I had told her earlier in the morning that I knew Zechariah and Chad Cartledge from Running 4 Heroes, Inc (a nonprofit supporting fallen and injured police officers and firefighters) also happened to be in Anchorage this weekend. I've had some short contact with Chad when both of our nonprofits were first starting off, theirs with Zechariah being a young kid (around 9 years old) running a mile for fallen police officers, just after our loss of Jaimie. Now he's 14 and their nonprofit has grown significantly. They were in town presenting injured Officer Liam Daniels from Anchorage PD with a grant, and also having Zechariah run to honor their officers. I had hoped to be able to find a way to meet them, but wasn't sure how that would work out with us being so busy and them being so busy. Sure enough, right there on the sidewalk as we were walking past, we were able to meet them, chat briefly, and get a few pictures. They kindly gave Kristin and me each a Running 4 Heroes challenge coin, and Officer Smith was able to get Kristin a department patch to take home to her husband. There are just some Moments when you happen to be in the right place at the right time, even all the way up in Alaska...