Liz Merrill, the Iditarod started on March 5th. That is the most famous dog sled race in the entire world.

You spent time with a woman who's competing in it for the very first time. And Liz, I'm from New York City.

So this entire thing has mostly just existed in my imagination and in the movies I've seen.

And in those movies, I recall, you know, this team of furry dogs with pointy ears like bounding through snow.

I can hear the human behind them yelling mush. I feel the cold. But you actually experienced this like up close and personal,

right? I mean, you got to know what it's actually like to do this.

Yeah, I didn't go on the sled because I probably would have had to sign a waiver and done

some kind of fitness test that I probably would have flunked. But yes, so they were going on a long run that day, a training run.

And it was one of the last ones before the Iditarod.

And I followed with the dog trainer on a snowmobile.

So we were in front of them.

I can't imagine what it's like to actually stay on that sled for hours and hours and do that.

But, yeah, I was able to get a glimpse of it and watch it from the front from just a few feet away.

Yeah, and in terms of what it takes to stay on that sled and actually do the sport, I mean, Liz, you've covered athletes of all kinds throughout your career.

You've covered incredibly famous NFL players, high school, athletes just starting out.

But the person that you profiled here, this professional musher named Bridget Watkins,

how would you describe what kind of an athlete she is?

Well, she's a 5'6 ER nurse.

On an average day, non-pandemic, what you're dealing with in the AR in Alaska is a little

different than what you might be dealing with in New York, Pablo.

The patients that they come in could be bear mallings, moose stompings. She's dealing with a lot of

stuff, and I think that sort of forges this toughness. I've come to the conclusion that everyone

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