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Story Last modified at 4:47 p.m. on Thursday, August 31, 2006
Shortly after signing up in 2005 for his 2006 rookie run, Rogers, 59, was laid off from his job at Alaska Native Technologies, where he worked as a theoretical physicist and performed acoustical analysis. In hindsight, Rogers called the layoff one of the "nicest things" that's happened to him because it enabled him to devote all of his time to training even though he had to live off savings to do so. A week after committing to the 2007 race, his wife of 34 years, Marti, found out she would be losing her job as director of faith formation for a Catholic church in Anchorage. In a July 20 e-mail, Rogers wrote, "If this trend continues, next year even the dogs will be unemployed." Rogers said Marti shares his love of all things Iditarod, despite the dirty luck that seems to come with it, and is supportive of his dream to keep running it, get good at it and continue to tell the stories, which he began writing and posting on the Internet in 1999. As training began in earnest the second weekend in August with early morning 2-mile runs on Beach Lake trails, which have since increased to 3.5-mile runs, Rogers said he hopes a proposal for a book will lead to an advance that will help pay the bills. "I'd like to see between $50,000 and $100,000 come in a combination of winning the lottery, sponsors, corporate sponsors, book advances, any way that I can put that together," he said. "We're cashing in the 401Ks right now,"
"I think I can get through the race and am hoping I'll be able to do that without taking a second (mortgage) out on the house," he added, although he admits the attempt would be both interesting and tight, especially with 17 dogs to feed and outfit for the race. Rogers said his budget to get through the race is $100,000, which includes one year's worth of expenses such as kennel expenses for 21 dogs, groceries, the mortgage, truck payments and costs associated with running other races. His rough budget for the 2006 Iditarod alone was $20,106. He estimated his actual costs to be $12,000 to $15,000, which included the $1,850 entry or membership fee, $700 to ship food drops, $1,350 for 30 50-pound bags of kibble, $1,600 for 2,000 pairs of booties and $1,000 to fly himself and the team home from Nome. "Martin Buser says if you're going to do Iditarod, it has to be a business, and as I look at it, he's exactly right," Rogers said. "So I'm trying to make kind of a three-legged stool with sponsorship, and I'm writing a book, and I'd like to put some talks together see if I can do some presentations for folks." Rogers said his tale, as it's being written in "A Rookie's Journey," begins when he was a child. "I absolutely love Alaska. It's been a magic place since I was 5 years old watching 'Sergeant Preston (of the Yukon),' which is where the book starts to sort of set that groundwork," he said. "That's where it all started. That's where it all comes together."
"The race is based on trust," Rogers said. And the journey, at least in print, ends with his March 21, 2006 arrival in Nome when he said he "wanted to do it again right then." "The 2006 race, there wasn't a lot of time there that I can point at and say that was fun, but it was incredibly rewarding. It was more consistently difficult than I expected," Rogers said. He said he is also trying to secure freelance work and plans to send some of his stories to magazines. Self-described as someone who "took English as a second language, with mathematics being his first language," Rogers said he's been a lifelong avid reader and has always enjoyed telling stories but recognizes the humor in the fact that the only class he ever failed was freshman English in college. "I don't think the formal English classes where you worried about punctuation and stuff are critical to telling a story," he said, adding that he believes practice is essential to the art. And, at least in his case, it doesn't hurt to have a knack for storytelling in your blood. "My mother was a storyteller," Rogers said, adding that she got so good at it she won state recognition for her portrayals of a Fort Collins, Colo. pioneer named "Auntie Stone." While working as a museum docent in the 1970s, his mother, Margaret Rogers, began donning costumes to speak and play the part of Elizabeth Hickock Robbins Stone, a local legend credited for building and owning the first home and even some businesses in Fort Collins. "She got very good at it," he said. Rogers said Margaret passed away in 2000 and never had a chance to read her son's work. While working a "regular job" that same year, Rogers penned the essay "Why I Run Dogs." In it, he explains it's all about "Being part of the team - part of the history - part of the greatness that is sharing your life with dogs." A sentiment he said that still holds true today. "The bond between the dogs is the reason I do it," he said. "And I love to see the country." As for the next race, Rogers, who placed 68 out of 71 when he and his team arrived in Nome this past March said, "I'd like to finish maybe 40th, in that ballpark. I left lots of room for Most Improved Musher, didn't I?" On one of many rainy days in August, Roger's optimism burns bright. "The team's looking good," he said. "The team's looking really strong." Although he's gotten the rejections that everyone expects, he isn't deterred in his literary pursuits either. Rogers said five personal rejections stated the proposal was a well written but his memoir just didn't suit the publisher's list. Memoirs, he said, are a hard sell unless you're famous. "We'll just have to see. I think the story will sell. It just has to find the right person to resonate with," he said. "You just start at the top and work your way through and keep beating on the story." For more information about Rogers or the team, visit www.rnorthbounddogs.com. Reach the reporter at kate.tracy@alaskastar.com. This article published in The Alaska Star on Thursday, August 31, 2006. |
