How to Prepare for the Iditarod

Getting yourself and your team ready takes considerable time. But it's as much about mental preparation as it is about the minutiae of organization.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Dog Food
• Food

1. Organize your supplies. Bring together the food and gear, divide it into the necessary portions for all of the 25 checkpoints, then send it off with the Iditarod Air Force for insertion along the trail to Nome.
2. Get or stay in shape. There are numerous times that you'll need to pace the sled or pedal alongside to help the dogs up hills. It's best to have the strength to do so. Good health also helps heighten your endurance and your ability to stay awake and standing for 20 hours on a sled.
3. Prepare your thoughts for the trail. "For the musher to be successful," says Iditarod veteran Shawn Sidelinger, "it's much more of a thinking and mind game than a physical one."
4. Spend time with your dogs and get to know their personalities and tendencies. "The mushers are not only the coaches, we are the cooks, the nutritionists, the masseuses, the psychologists and the nursery school teachers."

Tips & Warnings

• "With anything you do in life, the better physical health you're in, the more you enjoy it," Sidelinger notes.