John Schandelmeier finds himself running a race he has no desire to run after a last-minute Iditarod substitution

NIKOLAI — Most mushers plan for a year, at least, to run the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. John Schandelmeier had an hour.

Schandelmeier said Wednesday morning in the frigid cold at the Nikolai checkpoint that he no longer has the burning desire to race sled dogs. To him, there would be no difference in finishing or winning the Red Lantern, the prize for the last musher to cross the finish line in Nome.

Schandelmeier was a last-minute substitute for his wife, Zoya DeNure, who withdrew from the race just before the restart in Willow because of a heart condition.

“We had as much of a discussion as we could over the phone, and I got the OK from the race marshal, Mark Nordman, to run the team just prior to the start,” Schandelmeier said.

“So, I started borrowing gear.”

Schandelmeier said DeNure has a preexisting condition called atrial fibrillation, an irregular heartbeat she was diagnosed with three years ago.

Schandelmeier said it’s acted up once in the past year or so, but DeNure had to be hospitalized the day of the race start.

He was able to talk with her briefly in Finger Lake and said she is doing all right, but he hasn’t been able to talk to her since.

“She’s doing fine, she was headed home,” Schandelmeier said. “She’s seeing a heart specialist … Beyond that, I can’t tell you much.”

So, on Wednesday, Schandelmeier found himself feeding dogs frozen chunks of salmon in near 30-below weather, wearing other people’s clothes, running another person’s race.

“I have 1,000-mile race experience, but the biggest thing is trying to wrap your head around a 1,000 (mile) race in an hour,” Schandelmeier said.

“It’s not like, ‘Oh, I want to run the Iditarod.’ I’ve never had that desire. It’s not something on my wish list,” he said.

All things considered, he said he was doing fine and the dogs were happy. He said there was no added motivation in running the race on his wife’s behalf, but it was important to finish.

Schandelmeier competed in the Iditarod in 1993, but scratched. He won the Yukon Quest in 1992 and 1996. He said he lost his desire to run dog races a few years ago. He said he stopped running dogs competitively in 2007, then ran the Yukon Quest in 2014 just to see what had changed in the sport over the past seven years.

He writes a weekly outdoors column for the Daily News.

“It’s been interesting. I feel like a rookie, which I guess I am for this race. If I was more prepared mentally, I might enjoy the trip a little more,” he said. “But I gotta say, I’ve had really nice dog runs.”

In addition to a lack of competitive drive this year, Schandelmeier is battling the weather. He pieced together gear at the starting line from six mushers — he doesn’t even know who — and it doesn’t all fit together well. On Tuesday night, in minus 40 temperatures, he got a little frostbite on his hands and feet.

He’s also battling a bacterial leg infection he got in November, which caused him to be on antibiotics for two months. He’s hobbling a bit, he said, but getting through it.

“I’m doing all right, I’m walking around,” he said. “I got down the (Dalzell) Gorge.”

And as other mushers get to look forward to taking a 24-hour break in Takotna, where they will settle into fresh, comfortable clothes after a shower, Schandelmeier will have to put on his same, worn mushing gear. His bags are empty.