Monday, March 9, 1998
Copyright 1998 Anchorage Daily News
Musher runs with angels
Sponsor puts her back in great race
By BETH BRAGG
Daily News executive sports editor
With an angel on her shoulder and another in her sled, five-time Iditarod veteran Lynda Plettner was back on the trail to Nome on Saturday after a three-year absence.
Thousands of fans lined Fourth Avenue to cheer on the 63 mushers and their 756 dogs for the ceremonial start of the 26th annual Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. The number of dogs will grow by about 250 today when drivers increase their team sizes for the 11 a.m. restart in Willow.
Among those basking in the glorious sunshine was Plettner, a Houston musher whose team featured two dogs - Fisher King and Ballistic - from Joel Kottke's wolf-dog bloodline. Kottke, a Wasilla musher and breeder who died in October at 84, was a mentor and close friend of Plettner's and is one of two honorary mushers for this year's race. He'll be Plettner's guardian angel as she makes her sixth 1,100-mile journey to Nome.
Sitting in the basket of Plettner's sled for the Saturday sprint from Anchorage to Eagle River was an angel of another kind.
Jordan Lolley, a 10-year-old from Kennisaw, Ga., rode with Plettner as part of the Iditarider fund-raising program. Bill and Brenda Borden paid $805 for their son's ride, but long before Saturday they provided a financial boost that made it possible for Plettner to resume her Iditarod dreams.
Plettner ran the race from 1990-94, recording top-30 finishes in her last two appearances. But a shortage of cash and sponsors sidelined her, and during her three years away from the Iditarod she focused on other kennel projects. Among them was a summer business offering kennel tours and sled-dog rides to tourists.
The Bordens, who vacationed in Alaska last summer, were among Plettner's first customers. And before long, Plettner became one of the Bordens' customers.
"She needed to refinance her kennel, and that's what we do. To make a long story short, we refinanced her company," said Brenda Borden, the president of Real Estate Central Inc., of Marietta, Ga.
Plettner said her attempts to secure a loan in Alaska had failed. Without the Bordens' help, she would have fallen about $10,000 short of the estimated $25,000 Plettner said it takes to run the Iditarod.
"I wouldn't be here. It would've been another year, at least," Plettner said. "They managed to secure me a mortgage, and that's not an easy thing to do for a single, entrepreneurial 48-year-old musher whose expenses are in the red.
"My mortgage before was my Visa card. You can't get a mortgage if you're a single, entrepreneurial 48-year-old woman, but you can get a Visa."
Arranging a mortgage for Plettner was tricky, Bill Borden said, because a musher's assets are far different from those a bank or loan company typically sees.
"You're used to getting a normal expense sheet," he said, "so when you get five pages listing dogs as assets, along with their names and pedigrees and values, it's unusual."
The Bordens' investment brought them back to Alaska, and on Saturday they soaked up the sights and sounds of downtown Anchorage during the Iditarod.
Most of Fourth Avenue and several side streets were closed to traffic to accommodate the teams, which started at two-minute intervals. For about two hours leading up to the race and the two hours it took to send all the teams out on the trail, the barking and howling of almost 800 dogs provided background music for a mob of people.
With just a snow fence separating the crowd from the dogs teams, fans were able to interact with the mushers and dogs. Photos were snapped, autographs were given, and dogs were petted. Only in mushing can fans safely approach athletes minutes before the action begins. And only a race like the Iditarod can prompt a city of almost a quarter-million people to truck in piles of snow and dump it on downtown streets.
Fur hats, fur coats and fur boots were everywhere. Vendors sold hot dogs and espresso, while hundreds of people filed into the 4th Avenue Theater to buy a cup of soup and support Bean's Cafe. The line for that snaked around the corner and down G Street. Across the street, the bar Darwin's Theory was doing brisk business - and it wasn't even noon.
Though Saturday's mushing was only for show - the race clock begins ticking today in Willow - that didn't diminish the mood of fans or the methods of mushers.
Martin Buser, the defending champion and a three-time winner, said the ceremonial start isn't that much different from the days when Fourth Avenue used to be the official starting line for the race. If a musher wasn't ready Saturday, he or she won't be ready today, he said.
"I've had my sled packed since Sunday," said a relaxed Buser as he leaned against his truck. "If you're not ready by the week before, well, that's not the recipe for success."
Though Buser brought veteran lead-dogs Blondie and Fearless for the ceremonial start, he primarily chose younger dogs to fill the rest of his 12-dog team. He'll add four more veterans today.
"I tend to take the young ones (to the Fourth Avenue start) so they learn to go down the street and be part of the hoopla," he said. "Blondie and Fearless don't need to learn how to go down the street, but I'll take them down the street because they deserve to be here."
Buser and other Dream Team mushers like Rick Swenson, DeeDee Jonrowe and Jeff King drew the biggest ovations as they mushed off to Nome. But there were enough cheers and applause to make every driver feel like a champion.
Plettner is not among the top contenders, but when she gets to Nome, a handsome reward will await her.
At a mushers banquet Thursday night at Sullivan Arena, Plettner, like every other musher, had a chance to go on stage and thank her sponsors. As her time to speak approached, boyfriend Dan Govoni handed her a sheet of paper that listed her sponsors. She went to the microphone, read the list and then stopped short before reading the final item.
"Will you marry me in Nome?" Govoni had written on the paper.
Yes, Plettner replied to Govoni and everyone else, as long as it's legal.
"So I have to get married when I get there," Plettner said.