Never did I imagine that watching blue dots move across a screen could be so exciting. That was before race season started. Now I find myself checking the GPS tracking leaderboards every few hours to keep an eye on the race and on my favorite teams.
This summer, when the old volunteers gushed about race season, it was all very mysterious and didn’t quite seem real. Even our coverage of the season’s first race, the K300, seemed a little hypothetical, though quite exciting. It wasn’t until there was a race about to come through Nome that I really fell in love with race season.
This week of Iron Dog has been one of my busiest in my time at KNOM, and things are just going to get busier in March. It’s also been one of my best weeks at KNOM though, so all the craziness is definitely worth it. I have loved getting wrapped up in race excitement, and gaining experience running live coverage through the board and in-person at the restart Thursday morning. I’ve spent hours preparing and doing five live race updates, and feel more comfortable and knowledgable each time. And perhaps my favorite part has been getting to be creative and put together race features – one of the highlights of my week was checking out the Teens Against Tobacco Use-sponsored meet and greet with the Team 10 racers, and getting to interview Mike Morgan and Chris Olds about staying tobacco free on the trail.
So for now, with the Iron Dog all finished up, I’m looking forward to one week of rest and preparation before the next challenge: Iditarod. I’m excited to follow the race, do many more live updates in the studio and on the sea ice, and to fall in love with race season even more.
You can read (and listen to!) KNOM’s 2016 Iron Dog coverage here.
