Tom Jarding is 6 feet tall and rail thin with a thick, black beard flecked with gray. Tim Hewitt is shorter, wiry and almost vibrates with intensity. When he tells you that he is, by profession, a lawyer, it comes as no surprise. Both men are runners. Both men are from Pennsylvania.
Most similarities end there.
Jarding, a postman, came to Alaska this year to walk the Iditarod Trail for 1,000 miles from Knik to Nome. He entered the Iditasport Impossible, the longest of the Iditasport series of ultramarathon races, because it offered some logistic support toward reaching his goal. Hewitt, who practices employment law when he isn't running, came to Alaska to win the Iditasport Impossible. I envisioned coming up and doing that. He was the early leader in California's notorious Badwater 100 nine months ago before fading to fifth.