Iditablog.com – Iditarod 2012 News & Coverage

Well, the past few days down here in Anchorage have been great, nice and relaxed while at the same time hectic. Thursday I rewarded myself a little bit by sleeping in until after 9:30, I went back to the Iditarod Headquarters and hung out for a while. I also made a major Costco run and did some other errands. I got back to the Bronczyks in time to get dressed for the Musher’s banquet. I wasn’t sure what to wear to a banquet where there was going to be over 150 tables and this is Alaska, it takes a whole lot for people to get formal. I went with dark slacks and a dress shirt, I brought a tie along just incase. The dinner started at 6:00, and lasted until about 10:30. We had steak for dinner and watched the mushers pick their starting position. Each musher would then give a “thank you” speech like they just won an Oscar. With 80 mushers, things took a while to wrap up. I took pretty detailed notes all evening long to ensure that I could phone in a good report the next day to the radio station.

Friday morning I got up at 8 and called into KICY. I first left a message with my report so that someone could take it off the phone system and insert it into the news later that morning. I called back and got on the FM morning show, and then got on the AM morning show. I spent some time on the phone trying to connect with Iditarod contacts and make final preparations for Saturday morning. I left the house around 11 and ran errands at Iditarod Headquarters, the malls, and spent a while downtown anchorage. I had lunch at a brew house, and then went over to an Art Gallery that was hosting a send off party for Iditarod champion Jeff King. After that I headed back to HQ to see if there was anything going on. I picked up Hannah from the airport around 6:30 and showed her around Anchorage taking her to Iditarod Headquarters, and then to downtown. We went to a restaurant for dinner where they had this funky trivia game that you could play electronically at your table while competing with people all over the restaurant..pretty crazy. We headed back to the Bronczyk’s to plan out the attack for Saturday morning.

Its looking like a 6:45 wakeup so we can be down at the start by 8:00, two hours early. It should be a blast!

(ok, I’m stretching it with the titles but its all about branding).

I am in Anchorage. I got in late last night, got the rental car, and drove to my Aunt & Uncle’s house without getting lost! Can I just tell you how much I like Anchorage? Its so cool here, and its nice to be back in civilization. I ate at Red Robin this evening red robin! I had Costco pizza and a hot dog for lunch!! All stuff that you can’t get in Nome, I was thrilled.

I did some shopping today, got a sweet tan corduroy sport coat at value village for $15! I also got my hair cut, just as planned. At 2:00 I attended the Iditarod media briefing and registration. I picked up all the media passes for KICY, and then listened to them talk about the race for a few hours. I’m very excited, but also now I’m getting more bummed that I won’t be on more of the trail. There were tons of people there, and hopefully I’ll get hear some stories about where all the media people are coming from too. They gave us media guide packets with Bio’s of all the mushers and I’m already starting to write stories about them…hopefully I’ll be able to get all the interviews I need!

I’m also working with camp to figure out if we can get Hannah (and possibly myself) down to Alaska Christian College about 2 hours outside of Anchorage to recruit while she is here. Maybe if I had asked around more than just a week ahead of time; planning like this would be easier, but I didn’t and it isn’t. We will see what happens.

I think that’s it for now folks. Tomorrow is a day to sleep in a bit, slowly shop, and then in the evening its the world famous Musher’s Banquet.

P.S. This is my 100th post. I think I’ll reward myself with a trip to Anchorage .