Mush

This year's – and possibly the last ever – Australian Grand Prix has been run, with Tim Blair live-blogging it for his readers. Great job, Tim.

But, if you're like me, you probably didn't take much notice. Sure I'm delighted the F1 boys were out there doing their bit to prevent Global Freezing but, really, it's pretty hard for me to get excited about these guys whizzing around the same circuit 58 times for 307 kilometres in their high-tech, corporate sponsored, multi-million dollar machines. It's the perfect sports event for TV: every second and every inch can easily be covered by cameras; there's lots of glitz and galmour; and the babes, don't forget the babes. There's only one problem, like its European cousin soccer, it's boring.

The Iditarod, on the other hand is a race. Ten days or more mushing dog teams through 1,100 miles of treacherous, frozen Alaska. You've gotta have balls to compete in a race like this, but not necessarily a full complement of fingers:

Fearless, foolhardy or just plain stubborn, four-time champion Martin Buser cheerfully started the 1,100-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on Saturday, a few days after the middle finger of his right hand was amputated above the second joint.

Buser loaded up on painkillers, antibiotics and anti-inflammatory pills, wore bandages and a special splint on his mangled hand — he also had stitches up the inside length of his ring finger and two stitches on his index finger from a table saw accident Tuesday — and stuffed it inside an oversized black mitten.

As anyone with more than a passing familiarity with the race will know, the race doesn't really require balls, except figuratively, and doesn't require eyesight either:

Rachael Scdoris, who sees her dogs and the trail only as blobs and blurs, became the first legally blind musher to start the Iditarod. Aided by a “visual interpreter” running with a team ahead of her — former powerlifter, professional wrestler and 2000 Iditarod competitor Paul Ellering — the 20-year-old Scdoris fulfilled a lifetime dream when she put on her No. 10 bib and took off from 4th Avenue and H Street at exactly 10:10 a.m.

Jeez, talk about equal opportunity, a blind woman is going to compete, aided by a spotter who calls out directions to her. The FIA guys need to put on their thinking caps to come up with some innovations like this.

I've watched a number of Iditarod documentaries over the years and always found them compelling viewing. Micheal Moore should do himself a favour and drop the politcial "documentaries" and focus instead on the Iditarod. On second thought, Moore would probably end up focussing on the right-wing leanings of the mushers to account for their greedy, callous disregard for their dogs:

Hundreds of dogs are abused and exploited every year in Alaska’s Iditarod dog sled race—a grueling trek of more than 1,000 miles. Today’s race has virtually nothing in common with the original Iditarod, which was intended to deliver an emergency supply of diphtheria serum. Today’s participants, almost none of whom are indigenous Alaskans, are motivated by only one thing, the cash prize, and they will do almost anything to attain it.

Can the left suck the fun out of life, or what?