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Floor Speech
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Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I am here today for a really fun update. Some of you have been here before when I have had occasion to speak about the Last Great Race. The Last Great Race in Alaska is really all about the Iditarod.
I note the presence of my friend from Vermont, who was sitting where the Presiding Officer is last year, and he was so captivated by the story of the Iditarod. He said: Lisa, when you come back and you give the great announcement, let me know.
So I am pleased to be able to regale you with yet another Iditarod.
This is an extraordinary tradition--51 years in Alaska--where dogs and mushers have left the starting in the Willow, Wasilla area to head north on an almost 1,000-mile--and in some years, an over 1,000-mile race--test of a musher and K-9 against all of the elements.
And it is always a bit exciting, but this year, I am really excited to be able to announce that we have made history yet again with the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Dallas Seavey has won for the sixth time in a row. This is the first time any musher has ever won more than five Iditarods. This extraordinary young man from an extraordinary mushing family has made history in a way that is absolutely worth celebrating.
Again, for those who are not familiar with the Iditarod, it is about a 1,000-mile sled dog race. It goes from the Anchorage area, where we host the ceremonial start--I was there a couple of weeks ago--and then they begin their actual race the following day, on Sunday.
They proceed all the way up to Nome, and this is not easy terrain. You are going over mountains. You are going over ice on the ocean. You are going over rivers. The terrain is challenging, and, certainly, the temperatures are challenging. This year has been a test for all of our mushers. On certain parts of the trail, they were seeing temperatures down in the negative 40 degrees. When you get yourself moving behind a dog team and get that wind in your face, it is no pleasant journey by any stretch of the imagination. It is tough. It tests the mushers. It tests the canine athletes. But it is an extraordinary, extraordinary race that was based off of a relay effort to get diphtheria serum to Nome during an outbreak in the 1920s. We no longer carry the diphtheria serum, but we carry strong messages about, again, the role of working dogs, the role that mushers and their teams have had in a State like Alaska.
I want to speak a little bit about the Seavey family because, as we are celebrating and recognizing Dallas's extraordinary achievements, having won now six Iditarods, it is important to know that he comes to this race with the Iditarod literally in his veins.
The family tradition started back in 1973. This was the very first Iditarod, and Dallas's grandfather participated in that race. Dan Seavey ran the very first Iditarod. He ended up placing third--pretty respectable, absolutely--but he stayed with it. He stayed with the Iditarod, and he raced in four additional Iditarod races.
Then there is Dan's son, Mitch Seavey, who took the reins from his dad. He started his own racing kennel, and Mitch went on to win three Iditarods himself. He raced in a total of 28 different Iditarods. That is a lot of racing. That is a commitment to the race.
Mitch had four sons, three of which have taken on the Iditarod themselves. The oldest, Danny Seavey, raced three times in the Iditarod; Tyrell Seavey, he has raced twice; and then, of course, Dallas, who has competed in a total of 14 Iditarods. I think it is also worth noting that Dallas's wife, Jen, has also herself competed in the Iditarod. So this is a family, again, who is extraordinarily committed and dedicated to dog racing and, particularly, with the Iditarod.
I think it is somewhat unique to know that it was just a couple of years ago that Dallas and Mitch--his dad--were competing in the same race. How many different sports activities, competitions--intense competitions--do you see a father and a son as competitors? It is really quite remarkable how the Seaveys came to this race and how they have committed to it.
When Dallas started racing in the Iditarod, he was the youngest competitor when he entered the race. It was just 2 weeks before his 18th birthday. So he started pretty young and has stayed in it since 2005.
At 25, he became the youngest competitor to win the Iditarod. He also holds the record for the fastest Iditarod ran. This was set back in 2021. In that race--the fastest race ever--he completed that race in 7 days, 14 hours, and 51 seconds--7 days to race 1,000 miles. So, now, with his sixth win, he has overtaken another five-time champion, Rick Swenson, for the most Iditarod championships of all.
Dallas is going to be inducted into the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame this year, which, again, is certainly appropriate, given all of his accomplishments.
One of the things that is so great about the Iditarod, one of the things that is so great about these mushers, is they will tell you: It is not about me. I am the individual who is standing on the sled. I am making sure that they are getting the water, the food, the rest that they need. But this is about the mushers. This is about the canine athletes.
Dallas gives due credit to the lead dogs that got him through the race: Arrow, Sebastian, and occasionally, one of his older dogs, Prophet. He kind of joked. He says: You know, just about every dog on my team could be that leader--except one. Frank, apparently, is the name of the one. Dallas says: Not that he won't do it. He will run right up there. I just don't trust him. He would rather pee on things. That is Frank. He runs in the back.
So we all have different challenges with friends and people who we work with. And sometimes the people who we work with are not people, but they are dogs. Frank is exactly in the place that he needs to be.
There is never an Iditarod where there isn't a story that captivates--captivates--the news. The weather was significant. I mentioned the 45 below. You come to a place on the ocean where they are going across ice. There is an area where it is so windy they call it the blow hole. There are accounts of several of the mushers not being able to see their hands in front of their face, much less the dogs in front of them. The markers on the trail are gone. The winds are so intense that it blows the sleds and the mushers off the trail. This is not easy stuff. That is toward the later end of the trail.
One of the incidents that got everyone's attention was just about at the first 100 miles. Our champion, Dallas Seavey, is coming down the trail, and there is a blind spot, a blind corner, that he comes around. And right there, in front of him, in the middle of the trail, is a moose. Moose and sled dogs and teams do not get along well. The moose are ornery and cranky. The dogs are looking at them and barking at the moose. It is not a good combo. Dallas knows that this is not good. But the moose kind of gives the first half of the team--he has 16 dogs in harness. The moose kind of gives the first half of the team the go- ahead but then turns around and starts charging the latter half of his team.
We have had dogs that have been severely injured and have died on the trail because of moose attacks. They are just ferocious and cranky, particularly this time of year when the snow has been so deep and it is just hard for the moose to walk. So Dallas does what he needs to do. He dispatches the moose. He has a revolver, and he takes it out of the sled.
There are actually rules of the Iditarod that tell you what you have to do if you encounter an animal that you need to take out that is threatening yourself or your team. The rules require that if it is an edible animal, you have to gut it properly and notify the authorities at the next checkpoint.
Remember, this guy has won five Iditarods. He wants to win the sixth. He has got a mission, and gutting a moose was not necessarily part of his travel plan. But he gets out his knife, and he guts the moose. In his own words, he doesn't do the best job that he could, but he does an acceptable job. He then moves on.
Keep in mind, he is one man with 16 dogs that are in a bit of a tizzy because you've got a moose on the trail; you have heard a gun; you now have blood. They are in the middle of a race. They want to go. Dallas Seavey is not going to be able to haul that moose off the trail. So he leaves the moose on the trail. He goes up to the checkpoint ahead and notifies them that there is a moose on the trail.
Three mushers come behind, the same blind corner. They come around the corner. The dogs see this thing in the trail and leap over it like horses going over a jump. The sleds are flying. The stories of the mushers about it being almost surreal to be using this moose like a speed bump.
Anyway, the story ends that the moose was taken to the village and shared with the villagers. So it was good use of the moose. But it is one of those things that you think: Wow, only in Alaska.
What has not been shared as much as the dispatch of the moose, however, was the very first musher to come around that same blind corner and see the moose in the trail. He was able to stop his team quick enough--Jessie Holmes. Jessie sees the moose. He needs to get the moose off the trail. He punches the moose in the nose.
Now, I don't know whether that is bravado; I don't know whether the moose just looked like he needed a punch in the nose. But, anyway, Jessie was able to move past the moose safely with his team.
These are some of the things that make the stories interesting and amazing. A lot of people swear like that is the craziest thing ever. Why would you do it?
I think it is important to note that Dallas not only won in 9 days, 2 hours, 16 minutes, and 8 seconds, he did so--he finished ahead of Matt Hall, who came in in 9 days, 6 hours, and 57 minutes. So Dallas was 4- hours-plus ahead, and he did that with a 2-hour penalty that he received from the Iditarod for not properly gutting the moose. So the Seavey stories continue.
Dallas's time--again, think about it. Think about it, my friends. We do some things around here where we say this is a long slog. When you are standing behind a sled, when you are running next to your team, when you are guiding them through not only extreme, bitter temperatures but howling winds, to be on your feet for about 9 days, 2 hours, 16 minutes, and 8 seconds--Dallas finished with a total of 10 dogs in harness. Their average speed was 4.42 miles, so they are clipping along. It is a tough, tough, tough endeavor.
There are some stories from other mushers that you hear. A rooky musher, Josi Thyr--she is still on the trail right now. But she was having trouble staying awake going across the frozen Yukon, so she switched her sled up to a version where she could kind of sit down. She is on the flat of the river, and you are literally falling asleep behind your dogs. That is trust. That is trust, when you know your animals can take you, guide you, while you get a few minutes catnap. But it is tough when you are doing that.
I mentioned Josi as a woman there. I think another history-making fact for this year's Iditarod is that four women finished in the top 10 of the Iditarod. This was the most ever women in the race's history to finish in the top 10. We had Paige Drobny, who came in fourth; Mille Porsild, who finished seventh; Amanda Otto, eighth; and Jessie Royer, who finished tenth. The top 20 for the Iditarod has seven women this year.
A lot of times you think, in order to do this extreme sport, in order to handle a dozen dogs, in order to take all of this on, you have to be some tough, burly guy. Women are doing an extraordinary and exceptional job.
One of my dear friends and a longtime musher, DeeDee Jonrowe, mushed 33 separate Iditarods. DeeDee is about 5 foot 2 and maybe 100 pounds, blonde hair, and blue eyes--a great, beautiful woman, 70 years old. She didn't mush the Iditarod this year, but she did the snowmachine trail all the way up. Just go out for a 1,000-mile snowmachine ride. Tough women, let me tell you.
There were 16 rookies in the race this year. Four of those rookies have dropped out, 2 have finished, 10 are still racing. So right now, as we speak, there are 11 mushers still out on the trail. Seven mushers total have dropped out, and 20 mushers have finished the race so far. So it is an extraordinary endeavor.
As the rest of the teams finish up, we are praying for their safety, and I am sure they are praying for a little bit of a nap when they come in. But congratulations and commendations to everybody who participates in this. There are no losers. They are all winners. From the mushers to the dogs to the amazing volunteers--very few paid staff, but the volunteers who come, whether it is to put on the banquets, whether it is to be dog handlers, whether it is to help make sure that there is straw for teams in certain locations, the Iditarod Air Force-- which is an all-volunteer Air Force that helps move everything along the way--the veterinarians who come from all around the country to volunteer a week of their time to make sure that the dogs' care is taken care of, those in the communities who come out, who sponsor gourmet meals for the first-place person to come into Cripple, or in Unalakleet, the pizza place that is called Peace on Earth, where if I want to make sure that a particular musher gets a nice, hot pizza when they come into Unalakleet, I can call up. They will write a nice message on the box and give it to the musher when they come in-- so it is everybody coming together to make this extraordinary event possible.
Nothing better captures the grit, the determination, the ruggedness, the perseverance, the spirit, or just the sheer audacity of Alaskans. So I am delighted to be able to come and celebrate Dallas Seavey and the Iditarod once again.
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