Today a guest post from an old friend:
Iron Dog
It started in 2011 when I opened an email from an evil pug late in the evening after a long day of watching a GPS tracker and race standings.
I read the email to my father who was visiting to join my solitary voice in the team’s cheering section.
“I’m going to respond to this pug,” I told him with the inexplicable confidence that: 1) correspondence with pugs, evil or otherwise, was completely normal, and 2) the emails —- mine and the evil pug’s —- would be life changing. I had no idea…
In the coming days, weeks, months and years, the Plunderers joined our cheering section, leading the charge in fund raising —-quite literally making our starting lines and finish lines possible, chewing couch cushions with race updates, and bolstering my spirit as I watched the GPS tracker update in eight minute increments.
Just as I had no idea the impact the Plunderers (OFA, that includes you) would have on us, I do not know if the Plunderers truly understand that significance and how much we still appreciate it.
It has been a few years since our collective adventures with Shake Your Bootie campaigns, checkpoint antics and nightly prayer offerings. As we get ready for our next big adventure, my mind turns to that email from an evil pug and all that came after it.
Beginning on February 17th, AJ and I, along with a dear friend will begin our thousand-mile journey to Nome by snowmachine as riders in the Expedition class of the Iron Dog.
A hat tip to the Plunderers and all you mean to us can be found on page 2 of the Expedition Class race bios.
Thank you for being part, a very significant part, of our story.
Plunder on!