Rainey Day: Happy Belated Birthday, Charlie

Charles Darwin would have celebrated his 200th birthday this past Thursday, February 12th. Last night to celebrate, Jenny and I went to a talk by Dr. Charles Berger, a veterinarian and musher who has competed many times in the hardest dog sled races on earth -- the Yukon Quest and Iditarod. His talk "Big Bang to Sled Dogs" was an entertaining, funny and informative journey through time showing how evolution and selective breeding culminated in the planet's greatest endurance athlete -- the sled dog. These 50 pound dogs are descendants of gray wolves, can eat 12,000 calories per day, run the equivalent of 3 marathons per day for a week and have a vO2 max three times that of Lance Armstrong. This talk was timed to coincide with the start of the Yukon Quest, which is a 1000 mile race from Whitehorse to Fairbanks. Each city takes turns hosting the start and this year it was in Whitehorse. The record for the winning time is 9 days. Unexpected entries this year included a young Japanese woman and a Jamaican. Paralleling the rise of the Jamaican bobsled team, this fellow trained on the beaches of Jamaica with a team of strays and a sled with wheels. I wish all of the teams the best of luck over the next week or so.

The starting line.