Product Description

A vacation turned Lisa Frederic’s life upside down. She and her husband traveled as tourists to Nome, Alaska to see the end of the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. At an age when her life felt fairly settled, suddenly she found herself obsessed with a whole new world. The Iditarod and sled dogs had been vague concepts before the vacation, but very quickly dog mushing and a dream to run the Big One, became both a goal and a frightening commitment. Never described as graceful, learning to drive a team of huskies at forty years old was sometimes funny, but more often terrifying.

The puppy team she trained went on to become champions – winning the 2006 Iditarod with Jeff King – but they were champions long before they won trophies. A tale of unconditional puppy love, this is also an inspiring story about setting goals, facing fears, and accepting challenges. Lisa's self-effacing account will speak to all those who have ever followed their heart and found that the dream realized is even bigger than the one they imagined.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #234145 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 221 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780882406169
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
Running with Champions by Lisa Frederic is a moving account of one woman's quest to fulfill her dream. -- Marie Lamothe, Whisper in the Woods Nature Journal, October 2006

From the Publisher
First Place Winner: General Nonfiction
Alaska Professional Communicators 2007 Contest

Rave Reviews for RUNNING WITH CHAMPIONS:

"This is an inspiring story of a middle-aged woman who sets out to live her dream--pushing herself beyond her own physical and emotional limits--to achieve something she never thought possible. A great journey to follow." --Gary Paulsen

"If you wanted to run the 1,200 mile Iditarod with a crazed 850-pound team of sixteen huskies--then read Lisa Frederic's superb account of misadventures and success. She's forty, slightly built, a rookie completely new to the sport, but full of resolve. After a winter's apprentice with Iditarod Champ Jeff King, she runs the Iditarod--and reminds me that great adventures are more than just good planning." --Joe Runyan, 1989 Iditarod Champion

"I thoroughly enjoyed this vivid account of a spirited individual with a zest for life who managed to go from curious observer of the Iditarod to crossing under the burled arch in Nome herself in just a few short years. I have a hunch some unsuspecting reader of this book will one day make such a life journey of his or her own." --Stan Hooley, Executive Director, Iditarod Trail Committee

"For Lisa, the dogs were champions long before they won a race. Their journey, hers and the dogs, needed no trophy to celebrate success. This is a great story for anyone who dreams of `doing it' - no matter what 'It' is. If I had a tail, I'd be wagging it!" --Jeff King who won his fourth Iditarod with Salem winning the coveted Golden Harness Award 2006

About the Author
Lisa Frederic has been blessed in living the Alaskan dream. After coming north for summer employment, she spent the next two decades fishing for wild salmon off the coast of Kodiak Island. She and her husband built a home in an isolated bay, eight hours by boat from the closest town. They make their own electricity and get mail once a week by seaplane. There are more bears than people in their neighborhood.

A vacation in 1997 turned her life upside down when she visited Nome to see the end of the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. Five years later she was shocked to find herself committed to driving a dog team across the state. In 2002 she completed the 1,049-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race as a rookie at forty-two years old.

These days she writes and gives tours inside Denali National Park, trains sled dogs for Jeff King, and commutes to the ocean waters around Kodiak to fish commercially. She is making plans for her next midlife adventure.

Customer Reviews

Mushing Adventure
Here is a simple yet exciting story about running a dog team in the Iditarod dogsled race -- about the dogs, the trail, the weather, and the delightful musher. Lisa Frederic, the author of this autobiography, grew up in Kentucky, went to college in Montana, and spent 20 years fishing for salmon out of Kodiak, Alaska, before discovering sled dogs.

As a middle-aged tourist in 1997, Frederic visited Nome to see the end of the annual Iditarod race. The next year she became a volunteer at checkpoints along the race trail, but that only whet her appetite for more. She continued to volunteer at checkpoints for each race, and she took an unpaid job as a dog handler in the lot of a major musher, Jeff King. In 2002 she ran King's puppy team in the Iditarod. The dogs were young, this was a training run for them, and Frederic took them the entire 1,200 miles to Nome.

In her direct and modest style, Frederic recalls the humor and the danger of the situations she got into. She describes the process of learning how to mush, the initial races to prepare dogs and musher for the big one, the frustrations, the injuries, the storms, and the joys. This is Frederic's story, yet she weaves in the support of her husband David, as well as the support of friends, strangers, and other mushers. Frederic finished in 47th place in a race that 64 mushers had started and 55 would complete. Not bad for a 42-year rookie.

Fortunately, Frederic is also a talented storyteller and gifted writer. This book is a fun read, an informative account of mushing and the Iditarod, and an adventure story. I highly recommend it.

An engaging, liviely read
Here's the deal: A woman of a certain age decides she needs to change her life, or at least follow a different path. It is not exactly like she has lead a dull, boring existence to this point. She has been a commercial fisher on Kodiak Island, the home of the world's largest brown bears. But she needs something more in her life...so she decides, after helping Iditarod champion Jeff King, to run the 1,049-mile race herself. Here is where the book really gets good because the author does not fall into that old "I-am-a-hero" trap. We learn her self-doubts, mistakes, share her pitfalls, and ultimately her triumph. She engages us with good humor, even self-deprecation at times, and always invites us to share the trip and process vicariously. In short, she is a likeable person, who becomes a friend that we end up rooting for. This book gives the human side to outdoor adventure that is often missing in some of the chest-thumping hero books. After reading it I thought that maybe even I could haul my aging carcass across Alaska on the back-end of a dogsled, all I really need - like Lisa - is the desire to do so. Highly recommended.

Not To Be Missed!
If you have plans for the day, do not begin reading this book. You will not be able to put it down! The author tells of her experiences caring for and learning to train Alaskan sled dogs to run in sled dog races. In the process, she introduces the reader to the winning sled dog team for the 2006 Iditarod. When the reader meets the winning team, they are just a group of engaging puppies. If you love puppies, Alaska, or the Iditarod, you will want to make the acquaintance of the charming author and read her delightful story.