Dhe Redingtons had tried again and again. 51 years, over several generations. They all wanted to win the Iditarod dog sled race in Alaska, which the American Joe Redington Sr. started in 1973. It never worked for his sons, his grandchildren and even for himself in 71 attempts.
Until Tuesday noon. Until Ryan Redington, 40 years old, waving wildly and accompanied by the cheers of the fans, ran the last few meters on Front Street in Nome, western Alaska, lined with dense rows of spectators, next to his dog sled to the finish. After eight days, 21 hours and 12 minutes for the 1,600-kilometer route through interior Alaska, he brought his grandfather’s trophy back to the Redington family for the first time.
“This win means everything to me,” Redington said after feeding the dogs and embracing the world and the heart. “Even as a small child my big goal was to win the Iditarod. I can’t believe it worked out now.” It took a lot of work, patience and support, including from his two brothers, who had previously tried it themselves and from whom he had repeatedly sought advice during the race. In the end, it was a mammoth non-stop 14-hour stage from Koyuk to White Mountain that gave him the decisive advantage on Monday. He finished a gap of one and a half hours to the second-placed American Peter Kaiser.
Just over a year ago, a serious training accident threw him back when a snowmobile driver crashed into his dog team and injured the animals, some seriously. Redington was only able to raise the cost of the necessary surgeries through tens of thousands of dollars in donations from fans and supporters. Now Wildfire, one of the dogs who died, was part of his Iditarod winning team.
The Iditarod, the toughest dog sled race in the world, is a traditional American mixture of folk festival, pioneer nostalgia, trapper romance and life-threatening adventure sport. It dates back to the “Serum Run” in 1925, when diphtheria ravaged the gold rush town of Nome on Alaska’s far west coast, and a squadron of dog sled drivers brought the saving medicine to the remote town in five and a half days through storms, ice and snow. Even today, icy cold, snowstorms, exhaustion, overtiredness and lack of sleep take their toll on dogs and mushers, as the dog sled drivers are called. Temperatures sometimes drop below minus 50 degrees. “You have to dance, even if the music is bad,” is a popular saying among mushers—and in Alaskan winter, the music is often bad.
This year, of course, the unusually mild temperatures threw up some racing plans. Even so, Redington had to survive critical moments just before the end, when visibility in a section notorious for violent winds was so bad that he could only see his first two dogs. “My eyes froze shut, I couldn’t see, the wind was unbelievable.”
The reward for the suffering was the prize money of a good 50,000 dollars and various extra prizes along the way, which brought together another 5,000 dollars, gold nuggets worth 1,500 dollars and, among other things, 25 pounds of salmon and a hand-sewn beaver hat. But family history was more important to him. His grandfather, Joe Redington Sr., had come to Alaska in 1948 and built his own canine team. However, the tradition of dog sledding soon threatened to disappear, with air transport and motorized snowmobiles taking over. To keep the tradition alive, Redington organized the first edition of the Iditarod race in 1973. He took part 19 times himself, but never got better than fifth place. He last finished the race in 1997, after 13 exhausting days – at the age of 80. Two years later he died.
Over the years, Ryan Redington said, they kept alive the dream of winning their grandfather’s race. It was a “very doggy life”, a life determined by dogs, which they led, seven days a week. Now everything finally came together. Ryan Redington had eaten Chinese just before the race and had the fortune cookie in his mouth when he realized he hadn’t read the prophecy. He looked it up and it said: The number 5 will bring you luck in the future. At the Iditarod 2023 Ryan Redington wore the start number 5.
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