It’s been a year and a half almost since Dries and I finished the Iditarod. Both of us have continued to live our lives. Dries kept adventuring, seeing all corners of the far North. I have succesfully continued my medical studies.
However, the musher inside of me was getting pretty bored. I started missing the dogs, nature, adventure. I felt like this chapter wasn’t over yet. Dreaming about mushing all your life and then, when you finally get there, leaving it all behind…?
So, after a couple of different plans, long conversations with my beloved ones and others Mushing for MS was born. The call of the wild is too strong, I’m leaving for Alaska again, for 6 months. This winter I’m gonna run the two longest and toughest races on earth, The Yukon Quest and the Iditarod. Not only for myself this time. Inspired by and for people with Multiple Sclerosis. My mom has MS and in my own way I want to do something for her.
I want to recognize the daily accomplishments, efforts and performances of MS patients, giving them moral and financial support.
A new website has been designed: www.samdeltour.be . Here you’ll be able to follow next winters stories.
dan zijn er de herinneringen, de verhalen, de foto’s, de filmpjes, de dankbaarheid voor het meegemaakte, de trots op het doorstane, de stempel die de wildernis op ons gedrukt heeft en vooral het besef dat niets onmogelijk is met motivatie, wil en doorzettingsvermogen.
Deze gevoelens delen we graag. Wij plannen nog een infoavond in Leuven en Gent ergens in het najaar. Hebt u interesse ons als gastsprekers uit te nodigen aarzel dan niet ons te contacteren.
Sam Deltour, a young Belgian man with a love for the outdoors and a passion for the north and travel by dog team, could not express the powerful feelings rocking his world in the finish chute. He’d run his dream, and now it was over. He’d completed it, but now came a sense of loss and even mourning for having to walk away from the wilderness, back into the noise and clutter of civilized life. Deltour’s eyes were red and wet with tears as he praised a single dog in his team that he’d had to carry in his sled early on because it worked too hard, but that matured on the trail and eventually became one of his best little leaders. His story ended in sobs that echoed through the PA system set up on Front Street.
Deltour, by the way, is the only musher this year to finish with a complete string of 16 dogs. He said it wasn’t on purpose; just the way it turned out. A handler for Mitch Seavey’s racing kennel, Deltour, along with fellow Belgian Dries Jacobs, was on physical a mission to pilot a young group of dogs to Nome on a steady schedule to teach them the trail. They will have a chance to graduate to Seavey’s racing team next year. But running the 2008 race with young Seavey dogs meant more to Deltour than fulfilling a job.
With the interview obviously over, the choked up musher silently drove his team to a parking area about a block a way, and Mitch Seavey’s wife, Janine, commented, “I think this race does it. They accomplish something that takes it down to raw material.”
Eerste qualifier met succes beëindigd. 200 mijlen ervaring en een heel bijzondere herinnering rijker. Oh, en wees gerust, we hebben nog al onze vingers en tenen. Meer nieuws binnenkort, nu eerst even slapen, ‘t is een tijdje geleden.
The 2008 Iditarod-team: Starting from the left; Sam Deltour, Dries Jacobs, Hudson, Mitch Seavey. If everything goes as planned the next picture will be under “The Burled Arch” in Nome.
Dear visitor,
The story of the Iditarod is not only told on this website. Links to press and media releases come under the head “Media” (at this time only in the Dutch section).
If these changes on this website don’t appear in your browser right away, please press F5 or choose “Refresh”.
Some sportsmanlike news: on Friday, October 5th Sam and webmaster Sem will participate in the West-Flemish championship half marathon in Kuurne (www.rapperdaneenezel.be) to improve their physical condition and to promote the Iditarod!
On Friday, September 28th we organise an info-evening in Wegwijzer, Bruges. With camera footage and images about the Iditarod we will illustrate how our winter will look like. We will try to share our enthousiasm with all of you! Welcome everybody!
On September 24th we fly home to Belgium. On the 26th we arrive in our beloved Belgium.
We have started some serious mushing: the first training runs were great. We hooked up sixteen crazy pups to our fourwheeler and took them for a stroll in the woods. For now distances vary between 5 and 7 miles. Bit by bit we will build them up.
Our dogs look great, we have a lot of talent in our teams. All summer long we trained these guys in the Ididaride Sleddog Tours, the tourbusiness of the Seavey’s (www. ididaride.com). We took thousands of tourists on a sleddog ride this summer, about 1, 100 miles total. Now it’s time for the real stuff!
