Burmeister Living His Iditarod Dream

An early memory for Nome’s native son Aaron Burmeister was riding in the dogsled with his father under the famed burled arch at the finish of the Iditarod. That short trip proved to be a powerful inspiration for the son of an Iditarod racer, and he promised himself that some day he would cross under the arch with his own team and might just but win it. The first chapter in this dream happened his senior year in high school in 1994. He finished 37th in his rookie campaign of the Iditraod, and he dreamed of doing better. But he had to put that dream on hold when he promised his dad, Richard Burmeister, that he would go to college and earn a degree before seriously pursuing his mushing career. Aaron sold his dog team and put his mushing career on hold for a couple years to honor the commitment he made to his hero.

Aaron began attending the University of Alaska Fairbanks in pursuit of a teaching degree. It was tough to let the memory of the sled trip under the Burled Arch Iditarod finish line go, and before his schooling was finished, he was once again building up a dog team and entering the Iditarod. With degree in hand, he returned to mushing with a vengeance, entering 9 more Iditarods and finishing as high as 13th in both  2004 and 2007. He has said that after the 2009 race he is going to give it another break to work with the ITC board to return the purse money where it should be and he has placed his dog team up for a sale to commence at the conclusion of this year's race.

With a race filled with a field of strong contenders, Burmeister seemed to take off with a purpose challenging the leaders from the beginning. Contrary to the pre-race predictions from many of the race's pundits, he is now solidly in the lead as he takes his required 24 hour layover at the Takotna checkpoint 419 miles into the 1100 mile race. Most of the leading teams including many of those who are supposed to beat him are taking their required layovers at Takotna as well possibly admiring the quality of his very capable team. In a couple days he may find himself under the burled arch again. We know that Nome will be out to welcome their son home and we can only wonder what kind of inspiration he will get this time when crossing under the arch.