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Elder of Iditarod Trail, 71-year-old Jim Lanier keeps Five-decade Career Going

March 11, 2012
Editor and/or Contributors

If you happen to find yourself at an Iditarod checkpoint and notice someone walking around wearing hockey gear, you’ll have spotted race elder Jim Lanier, 71. He got tired of getting beat up and started wearing the protective padding about two years ago – not a bad idea considering the bumps and bruises that the race reliably delivers. Even this year in the Nikolai checkpoint on the western side of the Farewell Burn, some mushers had said they’d wished they brought soccer pads to defend against blows delivered by shin-whipping tussocks. The pads Lanier wears protect his chest, shoulders, elbows and knees.Read more here: http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/elder-iditarod-trail-71-year-old-jim-lanier-keeps-five-decade-career-going