So, you ask, how does one follow a 14+ day sporting event that is not broadcast live?
This is the age of the internet, no?
The Iditarod Trail Committee (ITC) has a wonderful web site that's chock full of stuff. The ITC offers a subscription for GPS tracking that follows every mushers move and another for insider videos with reporting and interviews along the trail. They also host numerous free forums where Iditaholics can gather to discuss a variety of topics, keep up with their favorite musher, or follow the race in minute (although sometimes frustratingly vague) detail.
It was in one of those forums (2012 GPS Updates) that I parked myself for the last two weeks. We had a core group of hard core Iditiaots. Some had forked over the dough for GPS and insider subscriptions, but were more than willing to share information with the rest of us. Others shared links to musher's kennel web sites that were often posting information via the dog handlers on the trail, or to newspaper articles/reports, or web cams that were operational at some of the check points. We had folks from all over the world. The core group had representatives from Alaska, California, Oregon, Washington state, Idaho, Montana, Arizona, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Texas, Ohio, Massachusetts, Florida, and Pennsylvania; and there were folks from Germany, Norway, New Zealand, and Australia. At any given time we had a running dialogue going on with two or more folks chipping participating. Even in the wee hours of the morning, we could be pretty sure someone, somewhere was going to be able to post updated GPS data and provide commentary so that those who had crashed could catch up on what was going on.
When Dallas Seavey and Aliy Zerkle were vying for first place heading into Nome, we had almost over 300 folks online following along and/or jumping in to root, root root for their favorite.
It was like a late night talk radio program with unlimited open lines. Anyone could participate--and often did. Sometimes the conversations took on a surreal quality as fatigue and sleep deprivation took over, but that was part of the fun and charm.
This was the fourth year I've followed the race on the forums and it was by far the most enjoyable yet. I was able to provide plenty of input and back-and-forth with some of the others. It felt almost like a huge family sitting around the den watching the race on TV--with the sound off and us having to provide the play-by-play. And a talkative group we were, too. When I signed off this morning we had amassed 1275 pages with 12750 comments, photos, GPS updates and 34500 page views.
Next year I may spring for the GPS and Insider (it was only around $40) this year) so I can follow the race even more closely.
Only 50 weeks to go!
(Of course much the same can be done with the Yukon Quest so its more like 46 weeks.)
2 comments:
Interesting thing about life here is that the Iditarod coverage is widespread (go figure). Conversations, newspaper, TV & radio stations ... it's everywhere.
Query: did anyone mention how many of the "up at all hours" chat club were retired folks?
Based upon comments about when they had to take a break, about 50% were retired. Some had taken the week off just to follow the Iditarod. Some "Weekend Warriors" who had to get up and go to work on Monday through Friday but went sleepless (or nearly so) Friday night through (very) late Sunday night.
And, with the scattering of folks in all those time zones (Germany to Australia and coast-to-coast in North America) it's a good bet it was 5 o'clock somewhere.
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