Fun Facts About Anna Berington and The Iditarod

Anna is 30 years old. Her twin sister, Kristy, is also mushing in the Iditarod. This is Anna's 3rd race. Many of her dogs are puppies, so she doesn't think she will win. But she is using this race to train her puppies so in 3-5 years she can compete to win. She hopes to finish the race in 10 days. Last year it took 11.

Anna works at a sled dog kennel in the winter. In summer she works on halibut fishing boats and does construction jobs. 

Anna is bringing 16 dogs to race. Their names are Crazy, Dollar, Precious, Straight, Rooster, Zuko, Jandal, Oklahoma, Slash, Bison, Razor, Lincoln, Floyd, Kelley, Corn and Taco. Each dog has a microchip so it can be tracked on the trail.  

Anna will run 12-14 dogs at one time. The others will sit in the sled and will be rotated in as the others get tired.

Anna only sleeps 3 hours a day when racing. She eats instant oatmeal, meat sticks Go-Gurt yogurt tubes, water, Gatorade and candy.

Anna is required to bring certain items in her sled including an axe, rope, dog food, people food, something to start a fire and cook in, and a repair kit for her sled.

Anna's favorite checkpoint is Nikolai, about 1/3 of the way into the race. Once you hit Nikolai, you've passed most of the dangerous terrain.

Anna will race more at night than during the day because the dogs prefer colder weather.  Anna wears a head lamp to see at night. 

They sometimes run into wildlife on the trail like wolves and moose. In years where it is very snowy, moose like to travel on the trail, where the snow is packed down, making it easier for them to walk. Sometimes the moose won't move to let the mushers pass. Moose kick and can be very violent. If a musher has to kill a moose to defend him/herself, the musher is required to stop and gut the moose. No other mushers are allowed to pass until the moose has been properly gutted. So if the musher doesn't know how to gut an 1,800 pound moose, they hope the person behind them can.  The musher has to report the downed moose at the next checkpoint and someone from the village will get the moose for the villagers to eat. 

The first musher to the halfway point gets a bag of gold nuggets and a 7-course dinner.  

The winner of the Iditarod gets a new Dodge pickup truck and $50,000.

We can follow Anna and all the other mushers at www.iditarod.com. The website shows where each musher is on the trail, how fast they are going and how many dogs they have hooked up to the sled. Go Anna!!