::an entry from the bssd forum::
**Rick is a featured musher on the bssd mushing forum…and well since he spent a little time answering many questions on the forum {and thought some of you may have also had the same questions}…i decided to transfer one of his responses…i am pretty sure it will give you insight to how his race went…and i think you will certainly appreciate his honesty and candor**
“Since there are quite a few questions about things learned I thought I would combine that with high and low points then wrap up with the super dog question and address the GPS.
The Iditarod, for me at least, was mentally and emotionally exhausting. Physically I held my own, dealt with sleep issues and was able to ride and handle the sled and push, run, pedal, pole when needed to help the team get to the end. I even felt that as tired as I was I was able to handle my own check point routine without loosing track of what I was doing or wasting too much time. (Obviously it could get much much better but what we did fit my plan and experience level.)
The mental and emotional challenges were inflicted upon me by no one other than myself. I was the one who created the additional challenges. The long hours on the sled does leave you with considerable time to think about all sorts of things, some I mentioned earlier, but I also spend time thinking about how to do things better. I am a continuous improvement freak and I also teach others how to use various quality tools to be more efficient, create better plans and courses of action and to collect data on the practices they are currently deploying. SO…. with a hyper critical eye turned towards myself I can and did over analyze, berate myself for not knowing more and for not being more skilled in various areas (dog health, my own sleep, feeding practices, motivation). At my very lowest I had come to the conclusion that I am a dog musher (I can stand in the back and do what needs done) but I am not a dog trainer, and because I am not a good dog trainer, my dogs will question me and what I am asking them to do, my dogs will not know what to do in certain situations (b/c I did not know they we need to know those things, and they will not be able to perform at their optimum level).
It was interesting to me that I was so harsh on myself (I even knew to watch out for this). In general, for the vast majority of folks I meet I believe that they do the very best they can with the knowledge and skills that they have….everyone I meet: the guy in the car next to me, the parent with their child in the grocery store, the student in my classroom, my own children and the dogs I work with, all do the best they can given their situation, knowledge and skills. I don’t always agree with their choices but I believe in their minds they are trying to do their best and given their stress level, current physical condition, skill and knowledge level. Given a different set of circumstances and additional skills they may very likely come to a very different solution. I did not place my self in that group and I think many of us tend to do this.
My two lowest points were going into and out of Cripple where I was having difficulty with dog health and motivation, and then coming into Unalakleet where I could not see how I was going to go any further with the leaders I had left in the team. There was one solution to both problems…wait and trust the dogs to do what they have been trained, let the team come to the solution, let those most involved with the struggle resolve the situation. In both cases I started out at a crawl and let it continue until the dogs picked up the pace, and in the end we accomplished both tasks with a beautiful run. I learned that I had to trust the team to take the skills and knowledge they had to do what needed to be done. Trusting others when you are having difficulty trusting your self is an exceptionally difficult task and a very hard lesson to learn.
The other revelation occurred when headed into Unalakleet. I have many wonderful friends in Unalakleet and one of those friends did an amazing and unexpected thing…they placed signs along the trail with our kennel symbol and a reminder to “play harder” I cried when I saw them and realized that not only was I not having fun and enjoying the challenge of what I was trying to accomplish, but I had forgotten about the 100’s of folks who told us that they would support us. Not just those folks down the trail in Unalakleet, Shaktoolik, Koyuk, Elim and White Mountain but my wife, my kids, my father, grandmother, old High School and College friends, co-worker, neighbors, friends or friends and not all offered financial support (sure that helps) but that they ALL believed in us, our family, our dream, that they would watch for us, cheer us on, and be there to lend a hand, a smile, a kind thought or word when we needed, drop an email, cheer when they saw us leave a checkpoint online, that they too were now part of the Iditarod and that whether we finished or not did not matter in the least bit to them…in their eyes we had accomplished our dreams, we were their in the race…that was overwhelming. I collapsed on the back of the sled and cried that I had ever thought about not finishing (and at that time I was thinking scratch) It was then that I decided that I would for sure stand under the arch.
Likely more than anyone really wanted to read 
GPS did not bother me at all to have in the sled and family and friends seemed to love being able to follow. I have no secret spots on the trail and don’t think the GPS will give me or anyone the chance to beat someone else…although, I support the idea and think it would be a difficult task to keep off the internet during the race… even then not really sure that would impact the race just add another element.
Super dogs…we had several and what made them super was that they all have different strengths and skills that were valuable at very specific times in the race, just like all of us. What they had in common were work ethic and appetite.
Thanks for reading “
