Alright, mush? You probably don’t need reminding but today marks the 41st anniversary of Libby Riddles becoming the first woman to win the Iditarod Dog Sled Race. While dog sledding – or mushing – may be far from your mind in this spell of balmy weather that we’re enjoying, let us pause for a moment to contemplate Libby’s achievement.
The Iditarod, named after the Iditarod Trail, which in turn was named after the gold rush town of Iditarod, which was itself named after the river Iditarod, which… (alright, stop it there – Ed) is one of the ultimate endurance races. Covering a thousand miles across the wilds of Alaska, from Anchorage to Nome, mushers and their dogs have to endure blizzards, white-outs, hours of self-reflection and temperatures as low as -100 degrees Fahrenheit, as they mush their way across the frozen tundra and skirt the Bering Sea.
Day after day they mush – the record time is 7 days, 14 hours, 8 minutes and 57 seconds (call it 9 minutes); Libby won it in 18 days and 20 minutes. Contestants have to take three forced layovers – the rest of the time, the really keen ones camp out and just keep going. Dogs die. People get really cold toes. It’s no walk in the park.
Why do they do it? Well, not for the money. The winner gets about 45 grand and, considering it costs about 15 grand to get your dogs and equipment race ready, the returns are less than eye-watering. F1 it ain’t.
And why is it called mushing? Well, it’s believed to come from the French “marchons!”, meaning “let’s go”. It’s what the mushers shout at their dogs. There’s not much other conversation. Mush in this instance has nothing to do with the condition of the snow, or any reference to porridge, which is where we get the more common use of ‘mush’ – a soft, pulpy mixture, possibly derived from ‘mash’.
And why did I begin this with ‘Alright, mush?’? (ooh, two question marks – spooky!). Because ‘mush’ (as in ‘bush’, as opposed to ‘mush’ as in ‘rush’) is one of my favourite terms of endearment. Originating in the Southampton area (it says here) from the Romani word ‘moosh’, meaning man, it’s quick, friendly and comically archaic. It takes me back to the 70s, and anything that does that is a good thing in my book.
