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FINGER LAKE - As the first rays of sunlight crested the Alaska Range Monday morning, the leaders in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race were making their way into this lakeside checkpoint 200 miles from Anchorage. First in was DeeDee Jonrowe, her team trotting in its matching turquoise gear. An hour later, Teller musher Joe Garnie arrived in second place. And third? Juan Alcina. Juan who? Exactly. Alcina, running in his second Iditarod, was asking himself the same question: What was he doing running with the leaders? "Nobody knows me," the 35-year-old aircraft mechanic said. "Nobody interviews me. I don't even make TV. When I come on, they go to commercial." Originally from Spain, Alcina lives in Willow with his wife, son and a small kennel of 20 dogs. He was the seventh musher off the starting line. But for the newcomer with mild aspirations, it was heady stuff to be running ahead of race greats like five-time winner Rick Swenson and defending champion Jeff King - even if the lead was short-lived. "I saw people with a lot better dog teams," he said, a smile creasing his stubbled face. "But all of a sudden, I'm in third." Even so, Alcina, who works as an aircraft mechanic, wasn't planning to stay up front. "I'm not racing to win," he said. "I'd like to make top 20. But if I don't, my wife will still love me. My job will still be there." Alcina wasn't alone. By afternoon, a few dozen teams were camped out on this snow-covered lake, many of whom will be lucky to make the top 20. "I don't know how DeeDee and them do it," said Raymie Redington, the son of "Father of the Iditarod" Joe Redington Sr. Redington has been trying to make it back into the top 20 since a seventh place finish in 1974. In his eight races since, he's managed it just once - a 19th-place finish in 1985. While he changed a set of runners on his sled, the 55-year-old commercial fisherman and dog-sled tour operator tried to figure out why he hasn't been more competitive. "There's something they do that I don't," he said. "I don't know what it is. I feed the dogs the best food. I got a good team. I got the right gear. Maybe I don't drive my team hard enough." It's certainly not because he doesn't want to win, he said. "The last thing I'd be out here to do is have fun," he said. As he spoke, he labored to slide a new runner onto the bottom of his sled while a brisk wind blew across the lake. His bare hands exposed to the chill wind were chapped and bloodied from the work. A couple of dozen feet away, Anchorage physician Robert Bundtzen was contemplating his own race strategy in a more restful fashion. Lying on his sled soaking up rays while his dogs lazed in front of him, he admitted his team he wasn't up to par with the likes of a Martin Buser or Vern Halter. "How can you stay competitive when you don't have the dogs?" he said. "You just can't push them as hard. "If everything goes perfect, I could be in the top-10," he said. Bundtzen, 50, has run the race twice before, finishing 40th and 27th respectively. He has the same problem that many non-top 20 finishers have. He has to split his time between mushing and work. In his case, Bundtzen works at Providence Alaska Medical Center, specializing in internal medicine and infectious diseases. Ed Iten, one of two racers from Kotzebue, can sympathize with the difficulty of balancing work and mushing. A carpenter, Iten ran his first Iditarod in 1992, finishing 14th. It took him seven years to get enough money to race again. He paid his $1,750 entry fee with a credit card. "I got miles," he said. A third-place finish in this year's Kuskokwim 300 allowed him to buy a new parka and new boots. But even so, much of his gear is out-of-date, he said, including a heavy, older sled he picked up at a local garage sale. "It's a dinosaur," he said, as he ladled out spoonfuls of gravylike broth for his dogs. Without a lot of sponsors or another source of money, he has to work harder to keep up. "The dogs have to do more work," he said. But while these middle- and back-of-the-pack mushers struggle to keep up with the leaders, they keep coming back to the race, hoping to improve their standings. "It's hard to do, that's why it's good," Redington said. "You're miserable while you're out here, but then you just have to come back." Added Alcina, who by late Monday had dropped to 18th place, "It's a drug. It's my addiction." * Reporter S.J. Komarnitsky can be reached at skomarnitsky@adn.com
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