Cindy Gallea and the Iditarod
Last year, Beatrix and I went on a mother-daughter dogsledding trip that was nothing short of life-changing (here's the blog post on it). There, we met incredible musher and nurse-practioner Cindy Gallea, who at that point had run the Iditarod 14 times. So this year, when she made the choice to run her fifteenth — and last — Iditarod, Beatrix and I became avid followers of the race.
And honestly, it's quite a decision. Cindy is 67. She works full-time. She maintains 53 dogs (or at least that's how many she had last year), and training them is another full-time job. The Iditarod is not a cheap, or an easy-to-achieve hobby. And as I said before, this was her fifteenth run. She's amazing.
I had known about the Iditarod, but not followed it actively before, and it is fascinating! Both he winner and the "Red Lantern" (final one into Nome) awards went to Bethel, Alaska natives, another place I have a deep respect for because it's where my amazing doctor friend Jennifer worked during her "Northern Exposure" years (she even babysat for another Bethel-born Iditarod musher, Jessica Kleika!) I loved watching the results with Beatrix, talking about the dogs, and showing how women could do well with the endurance part of it. (2 of the top 5 were women!) We loved watching video clips of the mushers coming into checkpoints, and seeing the joy of the dogs.
And we loved watching Cindy, going through the photos to see her, watching her standings. She was never in there to be in the top 10, but our hearts were with her the whole way.
Today, she had to make the hard decision, for her dogs' welfare, to scratch at the last checkpoint before Nome. She was so close it broke my heart. But at the same time, I could not be more deeply happy that there is a woman like this in the world — who can have this kind of endurance, but who also can know when it's time to give it up for the good of her dogs who are competing with her.
Lately, I've been floundering a little, saying to a few people that I'm not sure "who I want to be when I grow up." Today, I think it just might be the kind of woman Cindy Gallea is.
(I can't for the life of me find a good, non-copyright photo of Cindy racing her dogs, but I think this snapshot from last year gives you a glimpse into her character):
And honestly, it's quite a decision. Cindy is 67. She works full-time. She maintains 53 dogs (or at least that's how many she had last year), and training them is another full-time job. The Iditarod is not a cheap, or an easy-to-achieve hobby. And as I said before, this was her fifteenth run. She's amazing.
I had known about the Iditarod, but not followed it actively before, and it is fascinating! Both he winner and the "Red Lantern" (final one into Nome) awards went to Bethel, Alaska natives, another place I have a deep respect for because it's where my amazing doctor friend Jennifer worked during her "Northern Exposure" years (she even babysat for another Bethel-born Iditarod musher, Jessica Kleika!) I loved watching the results with Beatrix, talking about the dogs, and showing how women could do well with the endurance part of it. (2 of the top 5 were women!) We loved watching video clips of the mushers coming into checkpoints, and seeing the joy of the dogs.
And we loved watching Cindy, going through the photos to see her, watching her standings. She was never in there to be in the top 10, but our hearts were with her the whole way.
Today, she had to make the hard decision, for her dogs' welfare, to scratch at the last checkpoint before Nome. She was so close it broke my heart. But at the same time, I could not be more deeply happy that there is a woman like this in the world — who can have this kind of endurance, but who also can know when it's time to give it up for the good of her dogs who are competing with her.
Lately, I've been floundering a little, saying to a few people that I'm not sure "who I want to be when I grow up." Today, I think it just might be the kind of woman Cindy Gallea is.
(I can't for the life of me find a good, non-copyright photo of Cindy racing her dogs, but I think this snapshot from last year gives you a glimpse into her character):
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