Iditarod 2018 – Day 3

by Bryan

6 comments

1 JuanitaM { 03.06.18 at 8:33 pm }

I’m so sorry to hear that Dee Dee Jonrowe won’t be coming back! That is sad, but if anyone has earned the right to take it easy, it’s her. I just looked up what they had to say about her scratching, and apparently there’s been a flu that’s been going around and several people including Dee Dee has caught it. It may perhaps be what was going on with Zoya DeNure.

Have you noticed that things seem to be becoming rather testy between the mushers and the Iditarod committee? I’m not surprised really. I’ve often thought they can be awfully heavy-handed in their dealings. But then, maybe I’m just irritated because I can’t get more information for free. lol. I remember you didn’t have a high opinion of them either. But then they added some new people to the committee which was supposed to create a better relationship with the mushers. Apparently not.

2 Bryan { 03.06.18 at 9:37 pm }

Let’s see, I touched on the flu in Alaska and the ITC in my answer to your first comment.

I think both Zoya and DeeDee did catch the flu and I know from personal experience how it will wipe you out. If they caught the flu, they can’t take care of themselves, much less their dogs. It is a shame DeeDee couldn’t go out with another finish, but she had plenty of finishes to remember. I’m amazed that Jim Lanier is still doing this at 77.

There is a definite strain of animosity between the teams and the Trail Committee. Whether you think Dallas Seavey gave his dogs tramodol or not, the way that the issue was handled was terrible. If they had said something when they got the test results there might have been some way of proving guilt or innocence. By waiting months they pretty much made that impossible. The Committee lost a major sponsor, Wells Fargo, over their handling of the drug problem and the purse has gone down. The teams want major changes, including bringing in some marketing people.

3 JuanitaM { 03.09.18 at 9:30 pm }

Agreed, the issue was handled awfully, wasn’t it? As far as what I believe, it’s really hard for me to believe that Seavey gave his dogs tramadol in the first place. This is a man who has shown he can win without any enhanced help. Makes no sense to me that he would chance sullying his good name, and secondly (and more importantly for him in my opinion), I don’t think he would force his dogs to run over their own pain. This could be deadly to his animals in the harsh conditions of a race like this, and he just doesn’t seem to be the type to jeopardize his dogs that way. Maybe I’m naive, but it doesn’t sound right to me.

Yes, I would say that you have had PLENTY experience with the flu’s affects! Hope you’re back to 100% at this point. It had you down about three weeks or so, didn’t it? Knock on wood, but I have really been lucky the past 4-5 years and haven’t confronted that demon. Now, I did pick up Lyme disease about 6 years ago, and that was NO picnic, but no flu.

4 Bryan { 03.09.18 at 10:29 pm }

Like you I don’t believe he is dumb enough to have tried this. The top 20 teams are tested, and he certainly hoped to be in number 1. He spent huge amounts of money building a refrigerated facility with a tread mill so he could start training his dogs earlier than his competition. Using drugs that he knew would be looked for requires world-class stupidity.

I don’t see a competitive advantage in using tramadol. Sled dogs will continue to pull even if they are injured. Tramadol will mask the pain, but the injury will still slow the dog down and the tramadol may make them even slower, as almost any anesthetic would. You are risking permanent injury to a dog worth hundreds, if not thousands of dollars and you risk being banned from the sport than is your livelihood.

Where’s the up side? Why didn’t any of the vets at any of the checkpoints notice an injury that needed treatment? Was the second sample tested? Lots of questions and no answers. If there is no punishment and no finding of fault, why was the result released?

Lyme disease is nasty and doctors usually miss it, so getting treatment is a problem. At least there is a simple test for the flu that can be processed quickly and a known treatment regimen. I was down for 3 weeks because I developed bronchitis and followed the 5 days of tamiflu with 10 days of levaquin for the bronchitis.
I’m back, but I missed the Yukon Quest which I like better than the Iditarod.

5 JuanitaM { 03.12.18 at 7:28 pm }

Interesting bit of information about the refrigerated facility. A man that works this hard to win the right way has no need of cheating. He is more than capable of winning on his own merits. The situation could not have been handled much worse, and I can’t blame him for suing. The way they handled it completely leaves his good name open to question from now on.

Yes, my Lyme experience was so awful that I started getting the stiff neck characteristic of meningitis. That’s when it started to get scary. Thankfully, the emergency room physician was very familiar with the symptoms as her husband is an outdoorsman and he had acquired Lyme twice over a two year period. Doxycycline to the rescue. By the following day, I was finally able to get up and sit in a chair on the porch. Whoopee. But I was very appreciative nonetheless.

Yes, I knew you had to be very sick to miss the Quest. I checked in a couple of times to see how you were doing, and it sounded like you were fairly miserable! Glad you’re able to enjoy life again. It’s those little daily joys you learn to appreciate, just getting up and walking outside…

6 Bryan { 03.12.18 at 8:29 pm }

Fortunately I was well enough to get outside while the pear trees were blooming, the camellia was still blooming , and the azaleas had started. I could see them from inside, but the screens hide some of the beauty and you can’t smell or pick anything.

You were lucky to find a doctor with experience. The doctors down here are generally boaters. You have to go to the north county to find hunters.

My real problem was fatigue and a lack of concentration due to dehydration. I was drinking two quarts of water a day was well as juice and essentially liquid meals, but I was still getting dehydrated. It is something they emphasize in all of the different survival schools, ‘watch your fluids and avoid dehydration’, so I knew exactly what was going on, but my systems weren’t working properly. The meds mess with you sense of taste, so it was not always easy to get food down.