Bob Hickel's Iditarod Trail.

• Author: Hill, Robin Mackey
• Position: Executive Fitness

When Bob Hickel's friends and family met him in McGrath to cheer him along the 1990 Iditarod Hail, they noticed a change in the business executive turned amateur musher.'They commented that they'd never seen me so mellow," says the 43-year-old president of Anchorage's Hickel Investment Co.

Months after finishing last winter's 1,162-mile race from Anchorage to Nome, Hickel still relishes the opportunity to talk about the race for which he spent the better part of two years training. He's found it's a topic people - especially other business people want to hear about.

"When I go to a business meeting some place they don't want to hear about what deal I'm doing. They want to hear about the Iditarod,' says Hickel. 'It has a lot of mystique."

Hickel believes the race also has a lot to offer the business person looking for both a literal and mental change of scenery. I think more business-types like myself ought to give it a whirl," he says. "I always thought the race would add a different perspective on life and living, and it did. When you get out on the Iditarod Trail you just focus on what you're doing there.

While I was out there I never thought about business. I hardly thought about my family. Nothing else was important except what you were doing then, what you were planning to do in the next 10 hours. It's very intensive and very focused."

Anchorage consultant and family therapist John Pagan couldn't agree more. When working with business executives, Pagan often encourages his clients to exercise regularly and to take periodic breaks from the corporate world.

'It's like a sabbatical," says Pagan of an adventure such as running the Iditarod or taking an extended backpacking trip. In addition to helping business people refocus on themselves and their business, the temporary respite also helps them to exercise a different part of their brain.

It enhances their creative juices," explains Pagan. They see the world from a different perspective." Unfortunately, he adds, business executives often don't give themselves permission to take up a non-business related activity.

For Nick Pefanis, giving himself permission was easy, especially when the boss also gave him the go-ahead. Pefanis is one of at least two colleagues Hickel has talked into giving mushing a try. Although he's not ready for the Iditarod, Pefanis does have his sights set on a 300-mile qualify in grace this winter. He joined Hickel on several training runs last year.

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