The Iditarod Starting Banquet, last night, was full of enthusiasm, celebration, competition and friendship. It was also long! But so goes the Iditarod tradition. At about 9 PM Aliy drew her starting number. She will go out in spot number 17. Allen drew his number at about 11 PM. He … Read More
Thom Swan is AWESOME!!! Thank you so much. www.aliyzirkle.com is back up and working like a dream. We will update you with the dogs that Aliy and Allen are taking on the trail as well as their start positions on Friday morning. Aliy and Allen headed down to Anchorage this … Read More
We are currently having technical difficulties with aliyzirkle.com. We hope to have it back up this evening. Sorry for the inconvenience.
It is 11 AM AST. Aliy and Allen have taken the racing dogs on a final 20-mile training run , to stretch their legs and boost their enthusiasm. It is 5 degrees F above zero and the sun is dazzling. It is a spectacular day in Interior Alaska. At 3 … Read More
“The trick now is to keep the dogs in shape (just like us) but kind of protect them, so they don’t bump a toe, pull a muscle or get a belly ache,” says Aliy, 10 days before the start of Iditarod 2008. The dogs are in top shape right now. … Read More
Iditarod 2008 starts in downtown Anchorage on March 1, two weeks from today. The crew at SP Kennel is well into final race preparations. ‘Drop bags’ for both Aliy’s and Allen’s teams were delivered to Iditarod race officials on Monday. These bags, each filled with 50 to 60 pounds of … Read More
Change of Plans Allen was released from the hospital and arrived back home at about 4am this morning. He was diagnosed with a severe case of bronchitis and will be on medications and bed rest for several days. As we said earlier, and is now Aliy’s mantra, “This race really … Read More
“A Race that Wasn’t Meant to Be” – Aliy Zirkle About 50 miles into the YQ 300, Allen became quite sick and was driven to the hospital emergency room in Fairbanks. Fortunately, Allen and Aliy had been running together at the time. When they stopped to rest at Valley Center, … Read More
Through North Pole Dog Drop Both Aliy and Allen have passed through the North Pole Dog Drop, 33 miles down the trail from Fairbanks. I didn’t get an exact time that they went through, however it was right around 8:40pm. All of the teams passed through the checkpoint within a … Read More
THEY’RE OFF! The Yukon Quest 300 started on the Chena River in downtown Fairbanks one hour ago. Aliy departed in the first position at 5 PM AST. Allen followed, in 7th position, 12 minutes later. A total of 9 teams started the race under crystal clear skies with temperatures hovering … Read More
