Clovis High grad to race Iditarod

Eastern New Mexico has not seen enough wintery weather this season to build a snowchild, nevermind run a dog sled.

But one Clovis High graduate will compete this year in one of Alaska's most popular races, the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

Tom Schonberger, a 1985 CHS graduate, moved to Alaska in 2000 when he was transferred from Florida as member of the Air Force.

Schonberger quickly found a new hobby in dog running and later accepted a position with the Alaska Air National Guard so that he could stay in the Great White North.

Now he is preparing to travel more than 1,000 miles through the snow and wind of the Alaskan wilderness at this year's Iditarod scheduled March 3.

"I'm really excited," Schonberger said. "It's one of those started off as a dream kind of things. You hear about it and you see it and you start running dogs and all of a sudden it's like. 'Wow, I think I can do this.'"

It didn't happen overnight.

"So first you do your qualifiers and stuff to see what it takes, but yeah (I'm) really excited about doing it," he said in a telephone interview on Friday.

"One thousand miles with my dogs and just me out in the middle of what Alaska has to offer and what Mother Nature wants to throw at you."

Schonberger said he and his wife got into dog running soon after moving to Alaska when they met some friends at a dog show who invited them to give mushing a try.

Now the couple runs the kennel TouchMeNot Siberians, home to 32 dogs including the Siberian huskies Tom will compete with at the Iditarod.

Schonberger said he keeps each dog even when their competition days are numbered and only breeds when he needs to add to the kennel.

Schonberger said he enjoys the tranquility of the woods he's able to experience while running dogs.

"It's just being away from the hustle and bustle of everything because you can just go out in the middle of nowhere, no cell service, and just go exploring," he said.

Dog sled racing does not come without its challenges though. Schonberger said communication between the musher and the dogs is key but can be difficult because, well, they're dogs.

"Dogs don't talk to you so you don't know if there's any kind of problems, plus you're doing everything with voice command when you have all these dogs on the line; so your leaders, you have to be in tune with them and they have to be in tune with you," Schonberger said.

He said the part of sled-dog racing that would be most surprising to someone from eastern New Mexico is just the low temperatures he has to endure.

On a recently completed 150-mile camping trip, the warmest temperature was 10 degrees below 0. That's a far cry from the 60-degree weather Tom's dad John Schonberger Jr. has experienced in Clovis this winter.

John said his son's time in the Air Force and the Boy Scouts have served him well in the Alaskan wilderness

"The first part of his (Air Force) training is where they would throw him out for survival. They taught him how to build a snare and gave him the materials to make one," John Schonberger Jr. said. "There was snow on the ground, he snared a rabbit, chowed down a rabbit and slept in the snow. No sweat, he's an Eagle Scout."

George Crowl, a Clovis Scout leader during Tom Schonberger's time in Clovis, said he does think Boy Scouts can prepare a body for the challenges of sled-dog racing, though he is still impressed by Tom's ability to qualify for the Iditarod.

"I don't know what their qualifications are but to put in the effort to get that done means that you have worked really, really, hard and you have figured out ways to work with your dogs to keep them in good health and have them properly prepared," Crowl said.

Tom Schonberger said he completed the Copper Basin 300 Sled Dog Race and the Northern Lights 300 Sled Dog Race in order to qualify for the Iditarod.

Dog running takes a lot of time, plus a financial commitment. Tom Schonberger said he has to drive at least an hour from his home in Chugiak, Alaska, in order to find a location with suitable snow, and then the setup alone can take almost two hours.

Then money wise, Tom Schonberger said when you consider the total cost of supplies and entering the race, competing in the Iditarod costs as much as $20,000.

So sponsors are essential. Schonberger said he has a number of businesses, dog clubs and people that have donated to make this Iditarod appearance possible.

While other competitors will be racing for a paycheck and trying to cross the finish line first, Schonberger said he just wants to complete the nearly 1,100-mile trek from Willow to Nome.

"My only goal is to get to the finish line as a rookie ... Like I said, we're not racing for a paycheck. It's just one of those we want to see if we can get our breeding program down the trail to Nome, and that's really our goal," he said.