Jr. Iditarod champ running own Serum Run on 100th anniversary of life-saving mission
NENANA, Alaska (KTUU) - Last month, Emily Robinson cemented her legacy in the youth dog mushing world as the only person to win the Jr. Iditarod four straight years.
Now, just a few weeks after making history, she is on another unprecedented journey for a junior musher by taking on much of the famed Iditarod Trail.
However, this approximately 750-mile run isn’t just about training for next year’s Iditarod when she is age-eligible.
Emily, alongside her dad, Walter, and younger brother, Stanley, are running the original diphtheria serum run route from Nenana to Nome on the 100th anniversary of “The Great Race of Mercy.”
”I have been running dogs for quite a few years, but this is going to be a little bit different because I am going to be able to actually enjoy the trail, whereas, when you’re racing, you’re way focused on getting to the checkpoint," Emily said while stopped in Tanana, about 150 miles down the trail, the same length of the Jr. Iditarod trail the teenager has dominated over the last four years.
The 17-year-old is both teaching and learning about the life-saving run along the trail, speaking to elementary schools and visiting with elders in various checkpoints.
“Having dogs myself, I actually named a dog, ‘Balto,’ because of the movie,” Robinson said, adding she recently read "The Cruelest Miles: The Heroic Story of Dogs and Men in a Race Against an Epidemic.“
“For high school, I am learning about Alaska history and back in the day, in 1925, this was like the moon, practically, living here in Alaska, and it was very uncharted territory and ... very wild, rugged country.
“So to have all of the dog teams that took the serum to Nome, it was quite the event and quite the expedition.”
Robinson and her family are getting the full Iditarod experience, enduring a “sandstorm” near Tanana that punished many mushers this year.
”It was quite the adventure going through that — for a little bit I was like, ‘Oh shoot, what did I do?’” Emily recalled. “That was [a] very eye-opening experience. Not quite dangerous, but definitely tricky and challenging.”
The Robinsons plan to reach Nome within the time frame of the Iditarod mushers sometime later this week.
“I don’t know how many teenagers have done this trail, historically, but we might one of the first,” she said. “It is a very cool experience being out here with my dog team that have run races or will be my future race team and getting them used to camping and getting them to see the finish line in Nome. ... It is just nice it is not 40 below like it was 100 years ago.”
Follow them on their journey and learn more about the serum run on the Robinson Racing Kennel Facebook page.
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