How The Iditarod Works

starting in the Pacific Northwest. Yeah, like I said, which is what smells like pachuli and liberalism and uh pine where we go in Seattle in Portland. Right on Friday, April eight, We're gonna be in Seattle at the Neptune, which we were at last time. It was a great venue, of great venue. The next day we're going to be in Portland at Revolution Hall, new venue for us, new venue for us, and we are going back there because two reasons you both treated us so well last time.

And we have a very special podcast Taylor made for your necabou it. That's right, so come see us. You can get tickets on s y s K live dot com, our website powered by squarespace. That's right, and uh, we'll see you guys April eighth and ninth. Come on out, Pacific Northwest. Welcome to you Stuff you should know from house stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and there's

Jerry over there. And there's some delicious ritz crackers of peanut butter dipped in white chocolate, which means this is stuff you should know. Yummy cookies. Yes, but we're not gonna say who sent them just yet because that will fall under the administrative which, by the way, while we're mentioning it, thanks again to Mark Henry. We're pretty sure we thanked for the awesome steel work that we got at the Pittsburgh showy steel and barnwork right exactly. I

thought we'd thanked him it. If we didn't, I want to make sure we did for sure, because it hangs right here above our heads proudly. It looms intimidating lee over our heads. Are you intimidated by it? Now? I'm a little under the weather, though, can you tell? I can? Yeah, mostly because you said so. But now that now that I'm listening for it, I can hear it sort of that. It's like you gotta stick a butter and each Nazia. Oh man, I wish do you you can do that?

How are you? I'm doing okay, I'm not under the weather. Um. I am nice warm here in Atlanta. It's like seventy degrees outside here and like March one. Um. Kind of well, I want to say the opposite, but not necessarily these days things to climate change. Um in Alaska, Leo DiCaprio, where there, I thought that was a great speech, was fantastic, nailed it. Thin guy should be an actor. Uh in Alaska where they're about to do the Ida or they're

about to run it. As a matter back, when this comes out, it will have started a couple of days before, right, so we'll be like right smack dab in the middle of what's called the last great race on Earth, the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, also known as just the Iddarad or the Iddarade trail Sled dog Race. Did I say dog sled? No, you said it, but you just put the emphasist on the weird words or the I did rode trail sled dog race exactly. We could do

this several more times we could. So let's get into this. I'm gonna we're probably both gonna say poopy things about dog racing, aren't we Probably. Yeah, I'm just waiting for people in Alaska to be mad at me. It's gonna be years before they get their hands on this episode. Yeah, probably so, because you have to fly it out, you drop it in from town to town, and everybody has

to get their turn listening to it. Yeah. Thing I learned about people from Alaska is the reason they live in Alaska is because they don't like being told what to do by anybody. No, they don't. They like getting pushed around. No, so they moved to Alaska, where you can do as you please. So yeah, we'll see where this one goes. So the idea Rode, for those of you who don't know, is actually a a grueling endurance race across some of the coldest parts of the planet miles.

That's a long way. And it's not like people are running or snowshoeing or hang gliding. They are on a little sled on skis. You could also call it a mini sligh if you wanted to. And this these mini slaves are pulled by teams of dogs. And that's the race. It's a dog sled race, that's right. Dog sled race held every year since nineteen seventy three. And uh, there's no like set a number of participants that kind of areas from year to year, depending on how many people

want to take part. And uh, like you said, it's rough terrain, it's cold, brutal conditions could be anywhere from it could go down to fifty below zero. That's insane, with harsh winds and blinding snow. Snowblinds. Is that what it's called. That's what azz he called it. Yeah, do you remember the song snowblind? Yeah? I think so great black. I don't think he was talking about snow though, probably not, you know what I mean? Oh, is he talking about cocaine?

I think he may have been. I never thought about that, so, uh, Chuck, you said like up to fifty below I saw sixty below fahrenheight. Sixty below zero fahret heeight, that's cold. But I also kept running across people saying like negative forty degrees fahrenheight. And I remember we said that once when we were talking about seam o Hia, the Finnish sniper. It was like the baddest dude ever, the White Ghosters something something like that, the White Death, White Death. Yeah,

I think that was it. Man, that guy, it's crazy anyway. Um, and we mentioned that he was out sniping people in in temperatures as cold as negative forty degrees fahrenheight, And ever since then people wrote in and said, dude, negative forty degrees is the same, and Celsius and fahrenheight it's where they converge. And ever since then, I've always noticed there's very few people who realize that, Yeah, well I forgot negative forty degrees. You don't have to say fahrenheher

or celsius is amazing. The magic temperatures are so cold, none gives a crap, right exactly. Uh So the route for the iditarod Um, there are a couple of different routes depending on what year it is. Uh, this would be an even year, so that means they're going to follow the northern route last year, and every odd year they have a southern route. And uh they are basically the same route except for three hundred miles in the

middle where it's different. Yeah, between a fear and Uncle elite, I believe I think so, um, and it either shoots up or dips down depending but other than that, it's the same exact route. Yeah, there are twenty six checkpoints along the way on the northern route and then twenty seven on the southern route because you need just that one extra by the southern route. I think, didn't it

say the southern rount is a little harder? Uh? Yeah, I think the general thought is in northern trail is a little easier, but like I think there's a difference in terrain. Typically that makes sense, and you would think, Okay, this is a thousand mile plus trek across snow in negative fifties sixty degree fahrenheight weather. Um, it's gonna take forever, right, And as a matter of fact, the first one in nineteen seventy three did take I think the last place

finisher more than thirty days to complete the race. Nowadays they're doing these things in like eight and change. Yeah, the record the first I did a ROD was like twenty days and change for the winner for the winner, and now the record is a guy named John Baker In finished it. So that would be a southern route even even more difficult, uh, In eight days eighteen hours,

forty six minutes and thirty nine seconds. I saw more recently a guy named Dallas Cev who's part of like An I did a rod Family UM in two thousand and fourteen. He broke that record, but a few hours, eight days, thirteen hours, four minutes in nineteen seconds. I thought the baker was a guy No and baker, I guess top all another guy named Martin Bousser, who um he uh, he had the record for a little while.

But yeah, it went from like what did you say, twenty days for the winner in nineteen seventy three and now it's like just over a week, and within that week is a forced twenty four hour furlough, So technically they might be able to do it in a week if they really tried. Yeah, twenty four hours plus two eight hour breaks. So yeah, I bet if it was up to the mushers, they would press on yes, because aside from those enforced breaks, they do typically press on UM.

They'll stop every once in a while, like feed the dogs or something like that, but for the most part they're not sleeping. They're staying awake and they're just pushing forward, so they get sleep deprivation. They start to hallucinate. Um. I read this really great New Yorker article called the White Wall, where, um, the light from your head lamp

because you're traveling at night. Sure most of the time, Um, the light from your head lamp is reflecting off of the fur around your parka, and it creates this kind of white screen in your field of vision, and it's like right for hallucinations. She just started to go a little batty. Yeah, for sure, I saw where this one lady who uh was a musher said that she slept while she was Oh yeah, that's what she said. She just taught herself to kind of hang on and off,

or maybe she just thought she was sleeping. Yeah, that's possible. And you know, it's freaking out on the snowblind, so we should mention mush. Apparently no one says mush anymore. Oh as far as like the lingo. Yeah, now they say like hiker, all right, or let's go, But mush originally meant like start going. Yeah, it's a fridge from Marcia or marsh, yes, marsh and uh yeah, they still call them mushers. It's funny name. But apparently the mushers don't use the word mush when they're as far as

like their command exactly. Yeah, that makes sense. So you want to talk about the history of this sport, this endurance sport, because the there's really no way around it. The dogs are like peak before, they're like Lebron James, of of of dogs, all of them. But let's talk about the history of sled dogs, about the kind of

dogs that are used for sled dogs. Like most people, including me, assume that if you were um riding around the snow on a sled being pulled by dogs, you're probably being pulled by Siberian huskies or Alaska mala mutes or maybe a samoyad. Yes, perhaps, Thank you for being the one to say it out loud. It's not the easiest one just looking at it to pronounce. Would you say? Some woyd Samoyd. I watched the dog Show the other day. That's why I love that they had who won? Uh

you know? I'd actually well, that's how old I am. I fell asleep before the best in show. Okay, that's all right. Yeah, this very fun as long as you enjoyed yourself watching it. I want to go one year. Yeah, that'd be cool. All that it is crazy, crazy partying. No I think it'd probably be a lot of fun to go see and cheer for dogs, although I'm against dog breeding in general, so I probably shouldn't even go. Um, but the the some what is you say, the samoiede

and the Alaskan malamute and the Siberian husky. They are all a k C registered breeds. They're recognized by the American Kennel Club, and they used to pull sleds, especially Siberian Huskies. There's a guy named um Leonard uh oh man. I can't remember his name, Cippola, I believe it's what his name was, and he was the guy who first started racing Siberian Huskies in Alaska on sleds. But if you go to Alaska today, you're going to find something called an Alaskan husky is typically the kind of dog

that you're gonna encounter as a sled dog. And this is like a mixed breed. It's a mutt breed UM and they have been bred to just basically be mentally tough, physically sturdy, UM not too big but also not too small. The thick coat and um yes, and uh, not just quickness, but a strong inbred desire to run and pull stuff while they're running. Yeah, I saw this. One guy called it. Uh, it's like they have a wanderlust, like there there's always some place else they'd rather be, Like they want to

go go go over there, which is why. Um, if it's when you're taking a break or something with your dogs on the iditar rod, you have to chain them down whereas they're like see you. And they also microchip them as well. I had a friend who had a husky and um, they are not easy. And this husky would get out and see you later. Yeah, for like two days. Yeah, and he always came back, but he came back wearing like a Hawaiian shure. Yeah. That would freak if my dog got out, because my dogs are

big dummies. They wouldn't like that, wouldn't know how to come back. Was this a pretty smart dog? Yeah? I think that's the Alaska husky is pretty smart generally, So it was an Alaska husky, I think so. Yeah. So Alaska huskies are descended, um more from the dogs called Inuit dogs and Eskimo dogs, and they are basically in didigenous dogs to Alaska. They came over with the first humans who crossed the Bearing Land bridge, right, the dogs

pulled them across that bridge, probably, oh they did. So. I saw that they didn't hook dogs up the sleds until like the them this past millennia or the one we're in now that was like a D eight hundred or maybe twelve hundred when they were using sleds. That's what I saw, um, but I also saw that it

goes back to time immemorial. Who knows. What I did see though, is that these dogs, these Inuit dogs and the Eskimo dogs were um definitely hauling stuff like whale carcasses are huge parts of whale carcasses to be butchered back in town. Um, they were hunting dogs, their companions, they were protector dogs. They were just total um butt kicking animals that could stand temperatures well into the negative

twenties or aties or forties degree parentheights. Because that double coat, yes, so the outer coade I think deflects the snow and then they have the inner coat that has waterproof and insulates them. So when you see those dogs laying out in the snow, uh, they're not cold, right, you know, don't think, oh poor dog laying in the snow. I mean there can be problems, as we talked about with the Iddarod when that one dog was buried. Um, they can also get frost bit. They can get frostbite though

depending But yeah, for the most part, which I don't understand. Man, that's crazy. I was like, man, these checkpoints, they have like tents at the checkpoints. How how big are the tents? I mean, what if more than one team has to put their dogs in the tents? And I was like, they're not in the tent. No, they sleep, they put down, they put down. Hey, they might have a bale of hay that the musher has, um and the dogs sleep on the hay in the snow and they cover their

nose with their tails they do, which is adorable. And at kennels for these dogs, some of them they'll have like plastic barrels cut in half with a little hole for the dog to get in and out of when weather is really bad. But for the most part, yeah, especially if it's not snowing or windy. Uh, a Inuit dog or Alaska husky can just sleep outside on the snow exactly. They used to deliver the mail in Alaska

in the late eighteen hundreds to early nineteen hundreds. That was exclusively how the mail was delivered until the airplane became the primary mode of mail delivery. Uh. And the last mail dog in Alaska retired in nineteen sixty three, so not too long ago. Pretty impressive, Yeah, right before hippies. Yeah, the dog didn't didn't live to see hippies. The police used them uh in the in the gold rush of the late eighteen hundreds, and of course Alaska aside. They

have long been used in Arctic and Antarctic expeditions. Yeah. There was actually a very famous antarctic expedition in Japan where I think in the fifties. Yeah. Uh, an antarctic expedition had to be abandoned and the Japanese researchers had to be evact by helicopter and they were like sorry, dogs, well somebody will be back in a few days. We're gonna change you up here. Here's some food, good luck,

fight over it. A year later, a research team made it back to that outpost and they found two of the dogs were still alive, uh, Taro and Jero, and they were brothers, which makes it even more awesome, and they became national heroes back in Japan. Um, And I was like, well, yeah, of course they ate the other dogs. I've read an article that said that there were no signs of cannibalism, that they just like like hunted penguins and seals and stuff like that and managed to survive.

Was it that the basis of the Paul Walker Walker movie Paul Walker, The Fast and the Furious, same guy, Uh, no, longer with us too? No? That car wreck? Yeah? Was he a passenger? He was the passenger in that car wreck, wasn't he? I think he drove. He did have a passenger. What was it called eight below right? Yeah, which is he's not Japanese. No, but he's he It was supposedly him. I think it must have been based on that or something. I haven't seen the movie. I think they thought an

updated version would fair better. They're like, who does everyone like Paul Walker? Exactly? They were used as war dogs in World War One and World War Two, hauling equipment, search and rescue. Helps set up the Alaska telegraph line around World War One. Um, and they also almost invaded Norway from uh the eastern coast of Canada. Yeah. Yeah. They were attached to like the fifteenth Mountaineering regiment of the United States Army. I think it would have been

army for sure. And um, we didn't invade Norway, but have we These dogs would have been there with us yea. And by us, I mean specifically you and me, Chuck, because we were. Uh so you said that they are bred for there not only endurance, but for their for their speed. And they actually have their feet have adapted to take on this train because a good sletter is uh is that a sletter? Sure? Alright? Good letters has wide flat feet. But they also have toes that are

dense and together. You don't alto explayed toes because stuff can get in between them. So basically they have like they they have feet like hammers. It sounds like hammer toes basically, but hammer feet. Yeah. And the gender doesn't matter. Uh Lady, little lady dogs and little boy dogs are just as good. Uh So gender isn't a big deal. Um. They're also big at trail breaking, right, So like, if you want to go out and see if the ice is thicken up to cross, take a team of sled dogs.

And they actually do this in Denali National Park. Yeah, and they do it ahead of the Iditarod. They send out teams to break the trails and make sure it's as safe as it can be. And those trails, chuck were used for a very long time and still were, but then they started in like the six sixties, say maybe early seventies, to be blazed more by by snowmobiles. And this guy named Joe Ruddington Sr. Was really sad to see the dog sled, the traditional um sled, being

replaced by the snowmobile man made machines. And he said, you know what, we need to preserve this heritage. I'm going to start a race in the in the fashion of some of these old ones. There was this all Alaska Sweepsteaks that was much shorter. But like in the ninet hundreds, people were using sled dogs a lot and actually using them, but then they fell out of fashion. So this guy, Joe Ruddington Sr. Tried to preserve it

by starting this race. Yeah the Dorothy Page or they together or were they just uh they were they were kindred spirits. Okay, gotcha. So the first one they organized was a fifty mile race, right yeah, and like the sixties and not like the mile journey that has grown into today. They really stepped it up yeah, and the sprints, they actually have sprint races. They have all different races. A sprint is a thirty mile sprint, like just go

flat out for thirty miles. Thirty miles. That's insane, It is so um there's this very there's this widely um held misconception that I did a rod was created to commemorate this, um this very famous run that happened in right, Yeah, the dip theory outbreak. They ran out of well, they needed to get medicine and they used dogs to get medicine to the farthest reaches of Alaska. And like Gnome, I think there's about to be a dip theory outbreak. So that has nothing to do with it, because that

is all over the internet, including on the IDDA out side. No, if you look at the Idea out side, it says specifically what Joe Reddington's aim was. Yeah, um no, I know I saw that everywhere, including on our own How Stuff Works articles that people believe that they meant to con rememorate it. And yes, this this incredibly courageous emergency rescue operation of bringing vaccine um well at least antiets, and I think it is what it was to the

children of Nome before this outbreak killed them all. Um, it captured the world's imagination. UM, and it did follow the same route half of it, but the first half was delivered by train and UM, the Idda trail was starting to fall out of use by the time Joe Reddington and Dorothea Page came along and wanted to preserve it.

So it's more coincidence than anything that they didn't They didn't intentionally create the idea road to commemorate the dip theory run from Well, if you go to New York Central Park around sixty s it um on the east side, you can see a statue of Balto, the dog who was the lead dog on that serum run. So they said, we're gonna commemorate this in New York, which I don't

get it londs like it would be in Alaska. Well, the reason why they did it there was because, um, like the whole country was paying attention, much of the world was paying attention to this this little tiny this little tiny town up in Alaska was in real trouble. And this doctor put all these telegraphs out like asking for somebody to bring them something. And the closest stuff was in Anchorage, and since this trek took like five days, people were covering it for the for the newspapers, and

people were reading about it all over the country. They got so jazzed up that New York was like, we're gonna wreck the Statue of Balto. But that didn't explain why New York they just got that excited. Yeah, that's the reason. That's exactly why. Uh So in the early nineteen nineties. Well, let's let's take a break, actually, and then we'll talk about the nineties. Yea, So in the early nineties, as I was saying, before they started there,

there's a ceremonial kickoff they do. Now, uh that's not a part of the actual race, so people can come out and cheer them on. Yeah, so they have a big party and people line the streets and they get all the Apparently it's a crazy scene because you know, hundreds and hundreds of dogs, and these dogs, I will say, I mean, we'll get to the the downside, which is pretty grotesque if you ask me. But these dogs want to work, and they want to they want to pull the sled. Um, I don't know if they want to

pull a eleven hundred miles. But they are sled dogs. And so when you get these highly energetic uh, well, they're all kinds of breeds, but mostly the Alaska husky is what they prefer. Uh, mushers prefer. Um. It's a crazy scene because they're not like they're they're not your average lapdog. They're excited and they howl. They have very shrill howls. A lot of them do, yeah, unless they had their voice box removed by their musher, which is

the thing it can be. Um. So they kick off an Anchorage and the reason why it's just a ceremonial kickoffs because there's usually not enough snow these days in Anchorage again climate change. So they used to go up to Vascilla or was Silla? I don't know how they pronounce it up there? Is it was Silla. Yeah, that's

Sarah Palins, I know, I don't remember back then. Um and uh, then they stopped getting enough reliable snow there, so they had to move it up even further to Willow Willow Willow Vilva, phil of Um is two and a half hours north of Anchorage. They always have snow there, that's their motto, right, So they have the ceremonial parade of the dogs the day before, and then the next

day is when they start, and like the race officially starts. Yeah, and it costs a lot of money to uh to put on the race and and it's not cheap to be a musher with a sled team. I mean you can put as much as like twenty grand into your sled team. Uh and the training and you know, it takes a long time. So some of these mushers have corporate sponsors. Uh you can make money to like, um, owning a kennel and leasing dogs out to other I did aod contestants. Yeah, um, yeah, but yeah, I think

corporate sponsorships definitely helped quite a bit. Well. A lot of corporations have stepped away from it though in recent years as far as sponsoring the race, um, because of all the controversy surrounding it, which we will still get to. Uh, you gotta be eighteen. You can't just be some uh dumb fourteen year old or even a seventeen year old, not even seventeen and a half. You gotta be eight team and you have to have completed uh some other

qualifying races and place. I mean, we can get specific if you want uh a Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race or two approved races, and you have to have at least five miles under your belt on those races and have finished in the top or it says here mind bending lee. Another way to qualify for an idd A rod race is to have been in a previous I did a rod race, which I guess. Yeah, I don't think that. What's you. I guess once you're in your first one, then you're qualified. But are you sure?

It wasn't like if you've won, then you get like a lifetime No. I don't think exemption. That's what golfers do, is right, well, some of them, some of the p g A events. If you win that event, then you're automatically and for the rest of your life. Maybe not the rest of your life, but I think for like the next five years or it depends on the Then you get automatically qualified. That makes sense, all right, So what's uh? What's what does a sled team look like?

They look pretty good. You got your musher, that's the guy standing on back telling the dogs what to do. Yes, that's right, um, I mean the gender neutral guy. Um. And then you have a team of dogs and depending on what you're doing UM with the idea in particular, you have to start I think with sixteen dogs, right, and you have to finish with twelve. No, twelve to sixteen, and they have to finish with ten. So you can have up to six dogs die along the way and

not get disqualified from the idea. Rod Technically, um and in the lead are the very appropriate named lead dogs. These are your smartest, fastest dogs. I was reading about these dogs. These dogs are amazing dogs, so smart that they will even disobey their owner if they're like, dude, that's a cliff. Don't tell me too much. I know you can't see because you're snow blind in the Aussie fashion, So just leave it to me to ignore your a

man and steer us to the left. And so when that lead dog starts to go, the dogs immediately behind them, the point dogs or the what are they called the swing dogs? They also are called point too. I think they're the ones who actually get the rest of the team to turn with them. Yeah, and uh, they call them swings because you know you have to. You can't cut it short. You gotta swing wide around obstacles and These dogs are smart enough to know to do that.

So you've got those are the first four dogs you have. Are the lead dogs and the swing or point dogs behind them. You're gonna have a couple of pairs of what are called team dogs. These dogs are just really good at pulling, working well with others. Yeah, they're like the role player on the NBA bench. Yeah, they're the solid basketball players, the Draymond Greens. But sure, but they're not going to be starting an All Star game. No,

but they they they may have enough spunking spirit. You get the rest of the team going, um, yeah, the Draymond Greens. And then at the back, right in front of the sled are the wheels, the wheelers. Yes, and they are the strongest of the bunch, supposedly, And uh, those are the dogs. But the dogs are attached to the sled or else you're in big trouble. You have a bunch of really fast dogs running together and a

mushard who's left behind. How funny would that be? It would be funny to everybody else, but the mush rights and um, the sled connects to the dogs through the main line or the toe line right or the gang line. I think it's the other name for it. And this is basically just a line that goes from the sled all the way up to the lead dogs, and all the dogs are connected to this thing. That's right. Then the dogs are connect to the lead line and they pull on that toe line via tug lines that are

connected to their harnesses. That's right. Uh. And the dog is wearing a color and a harness. Um, they don't. Actually, it's not like they don't have reins. Like a horse, They go on command. Um. I have seen like a whip. They stopped us whips, but they used to fairly recently, got you. Yeah, they go mushus no mush no more mush no more whips. Things are changing big time as a matter of fact. Um. And then you have the So the dog's collars can is connected by a collar line,

I think right. So, Uh, you have to condition these dogs. You know, they don't come out of the uh the womb ready to run a thousand miles. They want to. Yeah, they've got some genetics going on for sure, but absolutely takes some shaping as well. But you have to condition them over time, uh, from the time they're little pups to start them out wearing the collar and the harness to get used to it. To pulling little light things

around the house that's adorable, yeah, um. To building up their endurance in their in their strength over time, just like you know any endurance race, if you're a marathon or the same deal. You don't go out and run twenty six miles. And you also have to be um. You have to understand um verbal commands obscure ones too, like hike not much, though no one says much to a dog. Let's go all right? All those mean let's

let's go right. Yeah, I think that's how they say it easy if you want to slow down and we couldn't decide as a G I think it's g I think I think it's gum. Or come haw to go left or right? Haw is definitely haw uh straight on and then whoa if you're gonna stop. It makes sense like with a horse, and imagine straight on means keep on going. They also definitely need to learn to work together, which is not necessarily in every breed of dogs makeup.

You know, dogs have alpha dogs and their pack dogs, and you have a lead dog that that lead dog and fulfill that role. But you also want dogs that can that aren't like constantly jockeying for position, that they know their place and they're willing to work together with the other dogs. Temperaments a big deal for sure. And then um, you also when you're running the Iditara and you're putting a sled team together, you out you want to pick dogs of similar build, similar gait and speed.

You want them to basically move as one. And so a lot of the selection and your dogs that you put together for a team is going to have a huge impact on the like how they pay well together but not and not just temperamentally but physically and in

the way that they move as well. Yeah, and the dogs, uh, they can be big um, But generally I think for the endurance races, you want a dog this between like forty and sixty pounds and how old are they Well, um, if you want to be a sled dog, you're probably at least two. But you would think you know, like if you look at thoroughbred horse racing, those horses are retired by like age three, I think maybe four. These dogs will pull sleds and compete in like races up

until age ten. Yeah, not bad. And again at the Nali National Park. They get retired at age nine. Uh. They're eating a lot. Uh. They need to eat around ten thousand calories a day while they're doing these races. Uh. That's about two thousand pounds of food per team and it's mostly just meat. But they have this stuff. It's sort of like how can the Appalachian Trail? They have it flown ahead and dropped off at all these checkpoints, so the food in your bourbon is waiting there when

you get there. There was a guy um Man what was his name, Macki Lance Mackie. He was like the number one I did a rod racer for several years and um, he was not well liked among all I did a rod racers because he used to just do things like smoke pot like while he was just riding along on the I did or trail. I saw the

drugs and alcohol was the thing with Musher's. I don't know if that's how widespread it is, but well, it's like a marijuana is a banned substance now even apparently they're talking about legalizing it in Alaska and the I did a rude committee is like not still can't smoke pot? Lance Mackie, we're looking at you. Um. But apparently according to this New Yorker article, great New Yorker article, the White Wall check it out. ESPN has a really good

one too. Um. They said that he quit and did the did the race straight and still one once I think, and then smoke tons of pot right afterwards to celebrate. Yeah. Um. But the along this trail, um, you were saying that that the dogs eat mostly meat. They eat different types of meat. They also eat like, um, nutritional supplements. And in the White Wall the article they describe what Dallas stevis feeding his dogs at One Stop, and he's it's

like a four course meal. He starts with a broth um with kibble and some nutritional supplements, and then they eat some fish steaks, you know, they have some beef and when they finish it all off with chicken skin like all fat. That sounds delicious. Yeah, And the dogs are eating like ten to fourteen thousand calories a day, which is like ten times the cloric intake of an active dog of about the same size, ten times just in a day. Yeah, because well they're they're running like

over a hundred miles a day. It's crazy. Uh, they're wearing little doggy booties now, um, because it's very rough on their feet obviously running over this ice and snow and rough terrain. Uh. And a team will go through as many as two thousand pairs or this has two thousand booties. Maybe a thousand pairs. Yeah, well no, yeah, a thousand pairs. Would it be a pair before? Yeah, a dog pair of before? So five hundred dog pair. We just created a new thing. It's like a Baker's dozen.

So two thousand booties we'll go through. Um, but they're still going to get their feet beat up, their paws beat up pretty bad. Well yeah, because dogs perspire by panting and on the bottoms of their feet, So you can't just wear um booties all the time. So that one of the mushers things that they really have to be paying attention to is a good time to give the dogs feet to rest without the booties, to let

them basically perspire so they don't overheat. Yeah, And I get the feeling that if they're really hauling and they see that they've lost a few booties, they're not like, oh, let me stop and put a fresh booty. You know, They're they're mushing forward so Chuck, let's take a break, um, and uh, we'll come back and talk about some other stuff. All right, we've talked about dogs, We've talked a little bit about mushers. But one thing that makes a good

musher is granted, they are standing. They're not running. Well, sometimes they're running along, but they're basically they're definitely standing. But it's tough. It's not like I get the feeling. It's like if you've ever been snow skiing or water skiing, it's hard on your legs. It's not like, oh, I'm just standing here or taking a joy ride. Ye have over over bumpy terrain um for hours and hours and hours basically for eight days. It's gonna be strong and

have a lot of stamin in your own self. You also have to put up with again you have to be yeah, mentally tough. You have to put up with the hallucinations and um not make really bad decisions while you're on the trail and it's night and you haven't slept. Um. And uh, you also need to pack. Well, yeah, you want to bring everything. It's sort of like backpacking everything you need but as light as you can make it. And you there's actually stuff you have to bring just

to survive. You gotta have a sleeping bag, sleeping bag and axe, snowshoes, a little cooking pot and fuel so you can boil water. Sure, um, and then you also, um, most of them carry a gun. The Dallas CV guy said that he carries a three fifty seven with him and he actually shot a moose with it that was charging him and his dogs. And no, because this is his long time rival, the the young upstart, the clean Liver, whose father Straight Edge U was also I Did a

Rod winner from two thirteen. I think it very much seems like a family thing. I saw a lot of people with the same last names. Um. And then the other big essential gear is the sled itself, which there's not like. You don't go to the official I Did a Rod sled store and buy your sled and go, okay, I'm ready. You you constructed yourself? Oh really, yeah, you definitely can'. I'm sure there's sleds out there that you

can buy, but you can also build him yourself. The I Did a Rod only requires that quote some type of sled or toboggan must be drawn, right, so you want that to be light as well. Um, probably about a hundred pounds empty, more than twice that full. Yeah, plus your own human body. Yeah, which you know, maybe drop a few pounds before the race. And again, I'm sorry to keep going to the same well, but the Dallas TV cat, the reason we I keep mentioning him

is like he is really your hero. He's he's fine, he's I don't know enough about him to know whether he's my hero or not, but he is definitely reshaped the um. I did a rod race um with some of the stuff he's doing. One of the things he's doing is it's making I did a rod racers like more athletic um. Like if they're going up a hill, he'll jump off of the runners and run behind the sled rather than just get a ride with the dogs, which of course increases your time, but it's also easier

on the dogs. It's just you have to be not a tub and you have to be able to run up in clins for eight days when you need to. You know, Yeah, that's it can't be fun. Running in the snow is not fun, No, but it helps you win and it's easier on your dogs, and if you win, you're gonna get some dough. They split the money up. Um, you can actually finish in last place and still get some money. Um, but you're gonna get obviously, the grand prize winner will win a nice fat purse in the

six figure range, a really nice purse, very nice. Uh. Then there are other little prizes along the way, like a field day elementary school. If you reach the halfway the first much are muchure to go to to the halfway point. Um, in odd number of years it would be I did a right itself and then in cripple Uh, in the even number of years, you're gonna get yourself the g C. I. Dorothy pay Age Halfway Award and three thousand dollars in gold nuggets gold nuggets. That's pretty neat. Yeah.

Can you imagine every once a while they're like, we didn't have the gold nuggets, but here's three thousand dollars. I'd be like, I want my gold nuggets three thousand dollars worth. Um, you bite into it, just check its authenticity, and you call the guy who gives your dinner cookie. Yeah. Yeah, that's the Alaska way. Uh. What else? The top lead dog is gonna take home the Lolly Medley Memorial Golden

Harness Award. Of course everybody knows that. And then um there's other towns where if you're the first one to make it to say on Veek or Ruby, um, you'll get a seven course meal and thirty five hundred one dollar bills because it just seems like more not like gold nuggets, but thirty five hundred one dollar bills is pretty great. These are almost like joke gifts. Yeah. Well Wells Fargo, which is five dollars in pennies you know,

slows you down. Um. Wells Fargo, which is uh one of the bigger along with x On Mobile, the two biggest corporate sponsors of the Idea Rode, offers them like a the Red Lantern awards the last place finisher. Yeah, I think that's from the Widows Lamp. At the finish line, they have the Widows Lamp, which is a a lamp that they leave burning until the last musher and team has crossed. And that's from the old days, from they would keep a kerosene lamp burning for people that were

still out there on the trails. Well Wells Fargo is the old timey multinational bank. Look at their look at their homespun logo with the stage coach, and it's pretty neat. They're just Western cowboy bankers, right. And it's funny you mentioned stage coach too, because you're like, wow, this is crazy using dogs and pull sleds and you think what you do with other stuff horses. This is using dogs as draft animals. Absolutely, that's all totally fine. Uh. So

they have veterinarians on hand. Um, this article said around thirty seven, So weird, and there's a little bit of weirdness in this article, choke. But they do have veterinarians on hand to to examin them during the race, uh, before the race, to make sure they're all healthy. Um. But dogs die. Dogs can die of over exertion. Um. They can have trouble catching their breath. They can asphyxiate on vomit um. They can fall through the ice is

a big one. As a matter of fact, falling through the ice is not necessarily a death sentence, even when it's negative forty degrees below. Sometimes I'll run right out of that thing. Yeah, because they're Alaskan huskies right. Um. But there's this very famous story from four there's an I did a odd winner named Susan Butcher. And she

won multiple times. But her team in four UM was let out of after falling through ice, but her two lead dogs pulled the rest of the team out just like one dog at a time until the whole team had made it out of the ice water and continued on kept going. Yeah. Um. And then the next year, that same poor lead dog got kicked by a moose and they didn't finish that year. I believe it had to recuperate. He did had to recuperate for a year. UM. I believe a hundred and forty four dogs have died

since the first race. UH. In the past few years they haven't had any deaths, but generally one or two dogs are going to die. Two thousand nine was a bad year. UM. One of the worst and most recent years. UH. There was like, I think six dogs that died that year two thousand, I think eleven or twelve. There was

one dog that died, but it died terribly. UM. He died from being asphyxiated by the snow after he was left at a checkpoint by his musher in the hands of like the local vets at the checkpoint, and they tied him up and the weather got bad and no one brought him in and he was a snow drift just built over the dog. He couldn't go anywhere and he suffocated in the snow. Um that that was a big deal. Um. Yeah, Pete actually had to apologize. They

condemned the musher. They said that they just left this dog. No, no, like they left him officially. No, no, But Peter didn't say that. Petter said they just left this dog behind it h and had they were had a lawsuit brought against them, and they came out and apologized. Said, oh, actually we know it wasn't on you. You left them in the care of somebody else. And they said the person said that the apology was weak. If you're gonna agitate,

even if it's four animal rights, you should agitate correctly. No, agreed. Can I get your facts straight before you agitate, You know, like there's enough, there's enough there that you can you can get your facts straight and still agitate just as effectively. Yeah, we're talking about dehydration, ulcers, hypothermia, heart problems, and let's

talk about those ulcers. Chuck. There was a study from Oklahoma State University UM of a decent number of sled dogs on the Iditarod trail that UM found a lot of them had anemia because they had stomach ulcers and they were bleeding slowly and developing anemia as a result. And they got stomach ulcers from being fed aspirin and anti inflammatory drugs like advil to keep them going to keep their joints from hurting, and the the veterinary study suggested that UM, the dogs be fed and acids to

combat the ulcers. So they're getting they're being driven a thousand miles miles over eight days, they're given drugs to keep their joints from hurting, they're getting ulcers from the drugs, they're getting anemia from the ulcers, and this VET study

said that they should be given and acids. Yeah. One of the vets, Uh Scott More, he was a volunteer for the race a few years ago, said he saw dogs with torn achilles tendons, dehydration, diarrhea, hypothermia, hyperthermia, inflammation in the wrist, and soreness in the shoulders from the harnesses. I didn't know much about this. I just saw it on the news every now and then. I thought, oh, neat these working dogs out racing. But um, I'm gonna go ahead and say no more I did, or odd

shut it down. Oh yeah, yeah, you're killing dogs for the entertainment of people. I know it's rare, and I know these mushers really care for these dogs and care for their well being and do all they can to ensure their safety. But to me, if dogs are dying at all in training, in the race, after the race, then you just shouldn't do anymore, or at the very least, uh, you know, shorten the race, or do something to ensure that these dogs don't die. Ever, So there's there's a

there's a couple of schools that thought. Peter is very much opposed to the Iditarod and dog sled racing in general. They're like, just don't hook a dog up to a sled. That's our stance. Now are they against recreational sledding? There against all kinds of sledding, every every sleds What I couldn't find if you had like six dogs and you sled it over to your friends and they were your family dogs, Peter says, don't do that. I thought it was just competition. There there's a group called the Sled

Dog Action Coalition. Yes, they are opposed to the iditarod, But they don't have a problem with humane and well done recreational mushing. Um. The Humane Society of the United States opposed to the ididar rod. But um is uh, they don't have a stance on mushing whatsoever. But Peter it says, don't don't use a dog as a draft animal, even for your own recreation. Um. But if you'll notice, the one common thread is that all these groups are

opposed to the idea it a rod itself. They are saying like, even if you have vets on at every checkpoint, apparently the mushers can um overrule the vets ruling. If a vets like this dog needs to come out, the musher can be like, get lost and the vet doesn't have any recourse. Um, And that's totally well within the rules.

But even if you do have vets looking after them, and even if Peter has successfully promoted change and the idea ROD is credited for really facing up to a lot of the problems that the dogs face and dealing with them and having like a very low tolerance for animal cruelty, especially um, the very fact that you're hooking up animals too sled and driving them miles over eight days is in and of itself, to a lot of critics, inhumane for the entertainment of people. Even take that away

for whatever reason. It's it's inhumane, like, well take it away. But it's not like the old days where you needed to deliver the mail's serums. I mean, it's purely for entertainment at this point. And I know it's tradition, and people that are into this are gonna say, like, you know that you could do anything these days. Definitely, this is a proud old tradition, like just stay We've moved to Alaska for a reason. Stay out of my business. Um.

And they definitely do take that stance for sure. But that's not to say that mushers are cruel awful people. By all accounts, most of them are very good to their animals because they want them to perform well. Uh they are like family to them in most cases. But you still hear about these uh terrible things that happen uh in the in the training. And it's not just the race itself, it's the training, it's the pens. They'll they'll they still call animals. There's one guy named Frank Winkler.

Two times I did a ride racer. He was charged with fourteen counts of cruelty two animals. When UH animal control officer are found a craze of dead and dying puppies in his truck. He said he couldn't afford to take him to the vet. So they'll call the dogs like if you have a deformity, if you're just not good enough, they will still kill that's what calling means. Kill the puppies. And they don't call them by injecting them with um, you know, sodium pentethal or some gassing them.

A lot of them, A lot of kennels, even like professional kennels UM will shoot them. And the I did a rod committee. That's that's within their rules. Like you can shoot a dog to cull it. Colling is fine, and how you call it um is okay. Apparently beating a dog to death is not really acceptable. But that's what Frank Winkler did. But for he did he shot some and then I guess he ran out of bullets and started using an axe handle and he was an

I did rod racer um. And that's a problem with the kennels that there are a lot of kennels out there that don't treat their dogs very well. They don't feed them enough, they treat them fairly and humanely, and just the very fact that they cold dogs that aren't good enough is is um reprehensible to a lot of people. Yeah, me included at the u S UH. And I want to say, and me too, like I think this is there's a there's a there's a part of me that I'm like, this is not my thing that's up in Alaska.

But dogs belong to humanity. Well, yeah, it's like when we did the bullfighting thing, like you can take your tradition and stick it where the sun doesn't shine. And again, culling isn't something that all breeders do, all kennels do. Uh. Many of the dogs now that aren't capable or adopted out to loving families, which is great, but culling is still a part of the culture and some kennels, uh the u S crab Lunic Kennel and aspin Colorado UH say that as many as thirty five dogs have been

killed annually by gunshot to the head. And the manager said, you know, culling dates back hundreds of years. It's nothing new. It's part of the circle of life for this dog sled dog. The circle of life, the nine millimeter of the brain is these so um, yeah, wow, it's part of the circle of life. Huh, that's what are you said? And so Chuck. A lot of this stuff is reserved for the I did a rod specifically, and the kennels

that supply dogs for the idea rod. But just having a sled dog in and of itself is not necessarily a bad thing, or even using a dog for a sled dog is not necessarily a bad thing. I don't think I take a heart line as PA. Maybe like if you want to recreationally much Uh, there is a long, great history of it. I have no problem with it because these dogs do love to run. Uh, they love to pull, and that's their job. But I just can't get behind endurance racing if these dogs are being injured

or if they die from it. It's just my opinion. I know a lot of people disagree. We don't put opinions in here much, but one argument I don't want to hear is that we should shut down all endurance racing for humans in because humans can get injured and die. The key difference here is humans have free will and they elect to do so. Uh big difference between animals and humans that it's just not a comparison I think

you should make. Okay, Well, if you want to know more in the meantime about the I Did Rod, you can go watch it. You can go to I Did a Rod dot com. I believe in track the Racers um and you can also read how the I did Rod works on how stuff works by typing those words in the search part how stuff works dot com and uh say said search part, it's time for listener now, Hey guys, I'm a registered dietitian. I realized I spent a lot of my day tech talking about the three

things in my email title, which was poop. Listen to the Poop podcast on the way to work today and really enjoyed it. As someone who regularly discusses poop and digestion, it's great to hear it on a podcast. Also, I think you guys should do a breastfeeding episode. Breastfeeding is super fascinating. Uh so, thanks for being great in car entertainment.

I came across this gem of a conversation a few years back because, uh, you guys were asking for different names for taking a poop, and she said someone had written name your poop after a movie on a bathroom wall, And of course a plenty list ensued. And here are some of my favorites. The Great Escape and by the way, we heard from a lot of people with great names. Children of the Corn, The Exorcist, Operation Dumbo, Drop e

t the Extraterrestrian, I don't get held, I don't. I didn't get the Exors, Rosemary's Baby not bad, the hurt Locker, mud Gross, Apocalypse now not bad, easy writer, and there will be blood gross so gross. So the first part there's actually two emails. The first part was from Sarah uh, and then the boop movies was from read Sarah. I don't want you to be associated with that. What was Sara? He was the one that said that that gress feeding would be good. And she's a dietitian and she talks

a lot about poop. So we should do a breast feeding one again if it canna be a hornet's nest. But we could do it. Sure, we just have to research it because there's no article on how stuff works. They think about it. It's worthwhile. Okay, sounds good, uh, But if you want to get in touch with us in the meantime. You can tweet to us at s y s K podcast. You can join us on Facebook,

dot com, slash stuff you Should Know. You can send us an email to Stuff Podcast that how Stuff Works dot com and it's always joined us out at home on the web, Stuff you Should Know dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, is it how stuff Works dot com.