MARCH 21, 2022 cont'd
Last night was the MUSHERS BANQUET where awards are handed out, a great dinner is served from the MILLENNIUM HOTEL in ANCHORAGE, all the mushers are introduced and each one speaks (reason it took so long). BRENT SASS and DALLAS SEAVEY had a lot to say. They are both great speakers and have wonderful stories of their adventures. The crowd loved them! There is a 4 wheeler there and each mushers gets to try a key. The ONE that works wins it. That was CHAD STODDARD.
FEW HIGHLIGHTS: 1,500 Volunteers help with the race. They are invaluable.
It does" take a village" to put this IDITAROD on. Everyone seems to come back every year so I think they enjoy it. I know I did and hope to again. Just a note--Hank and I volunteered in the DOG YARD in NOME. After the race the dogs are brought to one area. There is a vet there all the time and volunteers to care for the dogs. It is such a wonderful experience. Beautiful, usually well behaved and fun athletes. You would never know they just ran 1,000 miles!!
I wrote about the awards given to the 1st in many of the checkpoints. That musher was given the award at this time. There were many of these and most of them won by BRENT SASS. He got so many awards that he didn't have room at the table for his dinner plate!!! A few awards not known till the banquet:MARTIN BUSER , the SPIRIT OF THE IDITAROD. Voted by the checkpoint volunteers and vets. SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD to TRAVIS BEALS. The FASTEST TIME FROM SAFETY TO NOME to JOAR OLSOM-- 2hrs 26 min. SUPERIOR DOG CARE to DAN KADUCE. MOST INSPIRATIONAL AWARD for good attitude etc to MATT FAILOR. DALLAS SEAVEY will now take some years off to do other "things" and then may be back. He is a favorite!! Do hope GERHARDT and BRIDGETT will be back and not have such troubles with the weather.
There are HOST FAMILIES in NOME that house the mushers. Some mushers have had the same host family for years. They are now their FAMILY. Many of them were mentioned in their talk.
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