You might say Al Hardman is living an engineer's dream. After working as a construction engineer for several companies, he started his own firm, Hardman Construction Company in Ludington, Michigan. As a heavy construction company serving the Midwest, Hardman Construction specializes in foundations, geotechnical work, and bridges. The company has 100-150 employees and does $20-30 million of business annually.

At the relatively early age of 55, Hardman became so successful he could semi-retire and turn his attention to more playful pursuits. But he didn't exactly choose casual warm-weather hobbies like the usual golf, fishing, gardening, or lawn bowling. He took up sled dog racing, and with a zeal that has him training his own dogs and running the famous Iditarod race in Alaska.

Hardman ran his first Iditarod in 1997, calling it "The best adventure I've ever undertaken," and he has since completed the 2000, 2002, and 2004 races as well. Showing the results of his training, Hardman completed his first Iditarod in 13 days, 58 minutes and then cut it down to 11 days, 11 hours in 2000. His best finish came in 2002, when he finished in 10 days, 4 hours, and 20 minutes. "Every time you go, you get a little better."

A native of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, the 63-year-old Hardman stumbled -- or more precisely, wheeled -- into engineering at an early age. "When I was a kid about 14, I wanted to be either a mounted policeman or an engineer," he says with a laugh. "I was too short to be a mounted police at the time. A paving company came to town in Blind River, Ontario, and they were paving there and needed a weigh man. They were looking for somebody just for a couple weeks to weigh the trucks, so I went out there with my bicycle and got the job. They liked me, and I liked the work, so I went to the next town with them. I had a job with them anytime I wanted after that. When I got ready to go to college, I figured OEwell, I liked construction, and I liked the outdoors,' so I stayed right in it." He would go on to receive a degree in civil engineering from Michigan Technological University.

When he finished college, Hardman went to Missouri to work for Western Contracting as a cost engineer on a dam project. He didn't like that much, so he moved to Ames, Iowa, where he became a field engineer with Martin K. Eby working on an auditorium. Then he came back to Muskegon, Michigan, where he worked for Muskegon Construction, a general contractor. He later came to Ludington, Michigan, where he worked for Towns Construction, an excavation and sheet piling contractor.

The opportunity for Hardman to start his own construction company came in 1979. "I liked that kind of work, so when I went into business, I went into excavation and sheet piling and foundation piling, anything to do with the underground," he recalls, adding, "It was more or less what you call fate and good luck."

At the time, Hardman was working for George Towns, owner of Towns Construction, and Towns' wife had cancer, so he decided to scale the business down to devote more time to her. At the end of 1978, the firm had finished all the contract jobs it had lined up except for two. Towns asked Hardman if he would stay on and do the jobs and then leave after that. He said yes, but the two couldn't agree on a salary, so Towns suggested Hardman buy some equipment and do the jobs on his own. "I laughed at him. Then one thing led to another," Hardman relates. Towns made a list of equipment Hardman would need to do the jobs. "Since he was going out of business, I had access to all his people. So I decided to take a chance and do it. I got a line of credit set up with the bank. I jumped in with both feet."

Hardman's new business branched into new areas such as augercast piling, earth anchors, and chemical grouting. "Nobody in the state was doing that, so I was able to get my little niche. Because the foundation work was not enough to keep us going all the time -- it was feast and famine -- we got into bridge building because it used all the same equipment, all the same people. And bridges have pilings."

Then, with the business prospering, Hardman got into dog sledding in 1990. "I had a couple samoyeds, and they were nice pets, and I trained them to pull a sled and pull kids on a toboggan," he recalls. Then for Christmas one year, his employees gave him a real dog sled. "That was nice. I could go on overnight camping trips with the dogs." In 1991, he tried his luck with his two dogs at a local race in Michigan for three-dog teams and came in 17th out of 25 teams. "It's hard to explain. It's just something you get a thrill at. You think,'these two dogs did so great, wouldn't it be nice if I had ten dogs,' So that's what I did. That spring I found a guy selling his team. He had ten dogs and four sleds. He was selling everything."

Further explaining the thrill of his new hobby, Hardman says, "I looked at it as being my health club. It was something I could do in the winter time, and it kept me busy. I just hate to go to a gym or work out. Just handling the dogs, feeding them, looking after them became good exercise, plus the long training. I like the long distance because I like to camp out with the dogs. We run 100 miles a day, day after day."

In 1993, Hardman and his wife Carole flew to Alaska to watch the Iditarod, and this marked the beginning of his addiction to sled dog racing. "I told my wife, OEyou know, guys have to be crazy to do that.'" She agreed. "At the time, I had absolutely no intentions." But then in 1997, his thinking changed. "What prompted me was that I had a really good team at the time. I thought, if I was ever going to do this, this would be a good team to take. I just decided to do it. It gets a hold of you."

A grueling affair that has mushers going days with little sleep, the Iditarod starts in Wasila, Alaska near Anchorage and goes some 1150 miles to Nome on the Bering Sea. The race commemorates the efforts of sled dog drivers who carried medicine to diphtheria victims in Nome 77 years ago. Hardman describes it as "the Cadillac of all races. It's the Indy 500."

Also in 1997, Hardman realized his construction company had became so successful that it needed less of his attention. With his first Iditarod occupying much of his attention, he found himself not working as much in winter. At his wife's suggestion, he decided he could take parts of summer off too. He would work one or two days a week, retaining 100 percent control of the firm and handling duties like bonding and banking. "It just grew, and then I enjoyed it. I got my fingers in other stuff. I'm busier now than I think I ever was." Among other things, he trains his dogs at a cabin he bought north of McMillan in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

In March, 2006, Hardman sold his company to four employees. "I'm kind of a consultant," he says. They agreed in the contract to pay him off in five years. "Until I'm paid off, I guess I'm technically around. They bounce stuff off me, because I look at things a little differently than they do." Balancing work with sled dog racing pursuits in the frozen north gives him a perspective for doing this. And it allows him to continue his dream, too.

Progressive Engineer
Editor: Tom Gibson
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©2006 Progressive Engineer