Eleven days, 1,100 miles, 16 dogs, one tired Texan. That’s the box score from Randy Chappel’s first Iditarod race.
A Fort Worth investment manager a year ago, Chappel, ’89, MBA ’94, ended an improbable journey in March by placing 29th in a field of 64 at the annual sled dog race across Alaska, just six months after he began serious training. He is the first Texas resident ever to participate in the Iditarod.
Inspired by a dogsled ride while vacationing in Alberta, Canada, four years ago, Chappel helped underwrite musher Aliy Zirkle for two years before deciding last year that he wanted to compete. After a month or so of training with Zirkle, he completed his first qualifying races early in 2002. By June, he had quit his job at Goff Moore Strategic Partners and purchased a team of Alaskan huskies. In November, he moved to a village near Fairbanks with his wife, D’Ann, and infant son, Trenton. D’Ann was pregnant with the couple’s second child (due in April), but wasn’t daunted by the prospect of spending her winter in a 20-by-20-foot cabin with few amenities. “Her only requirement was that it had to have running water,” Chappel says. “She didn’t want to be walking to an outhouse when it was 30 below [zero].”
Compared to the challenges of caring for the dogs and dealing with severe weather and sleep deprivation, driving the sled “is the easy part,” says Chappel. “You have to be a sort of miniveterinarian, checking the dogs’ feet, making sure they aren’t injured, preparing their food [each dog burns more than 10,000 calories per day during the race] and melting snow for the dogs’ drinking water.”
His love for the dogs and his admiration for their athleticism were only reinforced by the experience. One day late in the race, near the tiny coastal village of Shaktoolik, the team plowed through temperatures of minus 18 and winds gusting to 50 mph, recalls Chappel, who averaged about three hours of sleep a day during the 11 days on the Fairbanks-to-Nome course.
Chappel finished second among the 19 rookies and earned a trophy for placing in the top 30 overall. He still owns 10 of the dogs, including Jazz, his star lead dog, whom he took home—along with the family—to Texas.
Chappel went “way past” his $50,000 budget and admits the cost may prevent him from returning. “I would love to do it again, but it’s expensive, and we have a new baby. We’ll see.”
