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The long, hard race -- Iditasport Impossible
By foot or by bike, athletes follow Iditarod trail to Nome
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Perhaps the worst section came between the Ophir and Iditarod checkpoints. Waist-deep snow and the lack of a visible trail demoralized all the bikers and defeated several.
''We were postholing up to our waists,'' Heading said. ''I think we spent three hours doing the first mile and a half. We'd have to lift the bike, throw it forward, push yourself ahead, lift the bike.''
It didn't take much of that before people began to realize they were going nowhere fast.
''We turned around and went back to Ophir to get more fuel,'' said Heading, who was fully aware that it would take days to make the next checkpoint at Iditarod, and that over those days fuel for the stove would be vital in order to melt water.
It was, Heading said, good that everyone went back.
''Ophir to Iditarod took us four and a half days,'' he said.
By that time, runners Jarding and Hewitt, an employment lawyer, had moved to the front of the race and looked as if they had a shot at winning. The two men, who live near each other in Pennsylvania, had paired up in the Alaska Range after Hewitt realized he wasn't going to be able to run to Nome.
''As much as a runner hates to think of himself as a walker,'' Hewitt said, ''that's what I was reduced to.''
These walkers, however, managed to push the pace.
''We were the first to Iditarod,'' Hewitt said, ''first to the Yukon (River), first to the (Bering Sea) coast. But we knew it was only a matter of time before the machines beat the men. And that's OK, because you're really only competing against yourself out there.''
When they checked in with race officials, it was mainly to find out who was left on the trail.
''We were rooting for the people out there as it went from 16 to 12 to 10 to 9 to 8,'' Hewitt said. ''It's a lot like living in the in the same foxhole in combat.
''When the wind is blowing so hard it's almost driving you backward, and your eyeglasses are frozen to your face, and you can't hardly see . . . it's pretty easy to turn back.''
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