Watch out for Charging Moose!

Today marks the start of the ceremonial start of the annual Iditarod dog sled race. I slept in until 8:30am to try and regain some of the sleep that I felt that I was lacking. Melissa and Doug called to arrange a time to meet up with me to have breakfast...and there our day began!

We met in the lobby of my hotel about 35minutes after we spoke. They were staying in a hotel about 7 blocks away from mine and were walking over to meet me for breakfast and to watch some of the Iditarod. Our breakfast was great, and to be honest we talked about it for days afterwards!

After we ate we took off to watch the ceremonial start of the Iditarod. We walked 3 blocks down from my hotel and then several blocks over to catch site of the dogs and their mushers. As we walked down the street we could feel the excitement in the air. People had come from all over for this...and I was here to see it! The dogs and sleds were going to be on the some of the same trails that all of us skiers would be on the next day! Amazing!

We spent the afternoon down near the race start and then headed back to the hotel. After realizing that I had missed my team's mini practice, I went to my room and took a nap. I hadn't slept too well the night before, so that nap was much needed! After a several hour nap, it was time to get up and go to the team's pasta feed dinner.

After we all grabbed our food and were seated, the organizer for the Tour of Anchorage came to speak to us about the course and what to expect while out on the course. He said something to us that I knew that I would never hear again, "Watch out for moose while you are skiing. This time of year they are tired and hungry and might charge you if are so inclined." My teammates and I all looked around at each other and started to nervously laugh, you could see the following questions and statements on people's faces; "Is he serious?", "Will we really see a moose or several moose on the trails?", "Will a moose really charge me?", "It will be my luck that a moose would take me out while I am trying to finish!", "Will I look tasty to a moose in my tired state?", "Should I try to out ski the moose or should I stop and play dead? Or should I make a lot of noise like you are supposed to do if and when you see a mountain lion?", etc! Once we settled down he continued his speech and told us that the trails that we were to ski on are multi-use trails. We would be skiing where the iditarod dogs had run just that day, people on horseback will be on the trails, people running with their dogs will be on the trail, people mountain bike riding would be sharing the trails with us, and other skiers not in the race will be on the trails. After his speech Debbie, our team leader, got up to speak to us. It was then that she informed us of our fundraising total as a group....we had raised roughly $230,000 for Leukemia and Lymphoma! We were so happy that all of our months of fundraising had resulted in such a huge number for the society! Debbie's speech that night touched us. She reminded us that we were special b/c we were skiing to cure cancer. We all left there feeling prepared for race day!

Once we were done there, I had to buy water to fill up my hydration pack the next day for the race. Melissa, Doug and I walked 6 blocks to the store. One the way we saw a reindeer in a caged area! Definitely something that you wouldn't see in San Francisco! Once arriving at the store we saw the biggest king crabs that I have ever seen.

After collecting all the water that I needed, we left the store and started out short trek back to my hotel. Anchorage seemed to like Doug that night, he had found some money in a few different areas! Too bad we were so far from casinos! If only he could pass on some of that luck to me for the race!

That night I crawled into bed around 10pm, chatted with my roommate for about an hour and tried to catch some shut eye. I, apparently, was more anxious for the race then I thought, I really didn't get much sleep that night....and before I knew it it was time to get up and race!