Its been hot around here...real hot!
Me and the dogs have been having problems sleeping because its been getting hot in the day and not cooling down at night...
To make this heat wave a bit more bearable I thought I would take a morning off and watch...
A series about the IDITAROD sled dog race in Alaska that was put together for Discovery Channel...
A morning free and a few hours entertainment about a sport taking place in the "cold" of winter..
I drew the blinds in the room and put my two fans on high and then pressed
play...
From the beginning to end this DVD was a surprise...
To begin with its full of barking dogs...
I didn't even consider my own two dogs when I took this DVD out at the library...
Once the story began, I guess it took about an hour for my dogs to finally settle down and stop trying to pick fights with howling sled dogs on the tv... a bit comical but very distracting too.
Both dogs eventually realized that a nap in the basement might be a better way to spend the morning and it was at this point that I started to really enjoy this documentary...
-
I knew the IDITAROD was a gruelling sled dog race held in the north but didn't know much more about it before viewing the series...
Taking place in Alaska this race is over a thousand miles long and takes days of almost constant travel to complete.
Contestants have taken from nine days to over twenty to complete it and the weather can vary from above freezing down to below minus sixty degrees fahrenheit!
The series featured some really interesting, sometimes colourfully eccentric characters competing:
A father and son, a breast cancer survivor, a throat cancer survivor, a diabetic just to mention a few.
Some "mushers" are experienced, having run the Iditarod before while others are first timers...
The year that this film was made 95 mushers ran the race...many drop out along the way...
Run day and night the mushers work their sled dogs to their limits and challenge themselves to survive what the dvd box claims is
the
"toughest race in the world"
For the most experienced mushers the race is to be the "first to finish" while for many of the rest the race becomes a personal journey to succeed by completing the course and meeting numerous challenges that they encounter along the way ...
Its sometimes hard to watch contestants that have to drop out...and the finale has a very interesting twist which Im not going to give away.
I know whats its like to survive in the bush...
I was fascinated to watch contestants competing in this race and how they problem solve their circumstances for their own survival...
Much of the footage in the documentary is from cameras attached to sleds that record actual race footage that is very "real"...
Not only is the story of the competitors told but that of the organizers and volunteer participants too.
I thought the series was great and have to admit to watching the entire 4 hours and 16 minutes from end to end!
A very "cool" documentary that will leave you inspired...I think its well worth the watch!
-Martin
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