10 Things You Didn't Know About Paul Ellering
1. He's Competed In The Iditarod
After leaving wrestling in 1999, Ellering focused on a new sport - dogsledding. He raised his own Huskies in a kennel and had been mushing since 1991, but in 2000, he competed in the world-famous Iditarod race.
Held each year in Alaska, the race takes place over 1,000 miles of Alaska's harsh terrain, with whiteout blizzards and temperatures as low as -100 degrees Fahrenheit. The race takes well over a week to complete (the currently record is 8 days, 11 hours), making it a truly gruelling endeavour.
Ellering has participated in the Iditarod on multiple occasions, and while he never won (he reportedly finished in 54th place in 2000), he narrowly avoided a scary fate. In one year's competition, his goggle lens froze to his eye and he was nearly blinded, but he ultimately recovered.
Ellering documented his experiences in both the wrestling ring and the dogsledding world in a book called Wrestling the Iditarod.