So here goes:
In the beginning of March I completed my first Iditarod qualifying race, the Two Rivers 200 up near Fairbanks, AK. Woohoo!!
Going into it I was pretty nervous. I was so incredibly grateful to have my brother (Scott) and sister-in-law (Toni) along for the ride. They flew up to Alaska from California not only to be my handlers for the race, but to be my moral support as well and help calm me down when the nerves got too much to handle.
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| My support crew and I on our way up to Fairbanks |
The quote for the weekend was "You're fine." Growing up, no matter how physically hurt I was (I could have had a broken leg, blood gushing out of my eye sockets, and a torn off limb) my brother would just stand over me and say quite nonchalantly, "You're fine." A frustrating statement as a child when I was hurt and crying, but surprisingly calming as an adult when I know the statement's meaning has changed from "Don't be such a sissy and stop crying" to "Hey, you got this and I'm here to help you." The beautiful transformation of sibling love at it's finest.
Anyways, we loaded up my sled, gear, and dogs into my trailer and headed up to Two Rivers Lodge outside of Fairbanks on Thursday for the bib number draw that night. I drew number 9 for my starting position out of a line-up of 22 mushers.
We then headed to North Pole, AK just south of Fairbanks to stay with my friend, Mary Swanson. She was such an amazing hostess and all three of us were extremely grateful for her hospitality!
The next morning we headed out early to the race start at Chatanika Lodge.
I was a bit of a nervous wreck. I've run one other 200 mile race before, but it was on familiar trail in a very relaxed setting when I was running dogs out of Unalakleet, AK back in 2012. This was completely new territory for me. New trail, new mushers, and the only people I knew were the ones I had along with me ... and they knew nothing about mushing, lol.
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| Keeping busy. Rechecking my drop bags for each checkpoint along the trail. |
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| Scott was my official pooper-scooper :) |
At that point I was just ready to get on the trail. I knew once I was out there with my dogs, away from all the people and craziness that ensues at the start of a sled dog race, I'd begin to relax and the nerves would disappear.
Ajax and Cleo patiently waiting to get started. Toni was manning the sled, Scott was in
charge of keeping the dogs lined out
while I hooked dogs up.
Sure enough, once I was in the start chute my nerves were already ebbing away knowing in just one minute I'd be alone on the trail with my furry friends. The count down began and when they yelled "GO!" I took off with my team and my nerves were gone. It was then just me and my dogs on another one of our adventures.
My 12 dog race team line-up included: Ajax, Tucker, Cleo, Flurry, Charlie, Nuka, Bravo, Bluto, Flounder, Kaze, Libby, and Cosmo. (3 of the dogs belong to Kristin, and a few of them I have not introduced yet in my blog).
All my dogs were ecstatic to get going, especially since our training runs for the previous 1 1/2 months were running circles on the same icy trail over and over and over again. It was a warm winter with not much snow and too much rain, so trails were lacking. Fairbanks however had snow and great trail conditions.
There were three checkpoints along the trail where we could choose where to spend our mandatory 10 hours of rest: Start at Chatanika Lodge -> Two Rivers Lodge -> Pleasant Valley Store -> Angel Creek Lodge -> then finished back at Pleasant Valley Store.
The first leg was close to 50 miles and was the more difficult part of the trail. Lots of hills. Straight out of the chute we started climbing and we gained elevation quickly. Once we reached the ridge, it was a series of hills. Since snow was lacking in the Big Lake area, we didn't have many hills to train on. I took this first leg fairly slow since my dogs weren't used to that kind of running this winter.
About 8 miles from the Two Rivers Lodge checkpoint, Flounder started having issues. He wasn't acting himself and I had already decided that I would drop him from the team and pass him off to Scott and Toni to take care for the duration of the race. I slowed the team down even more for him, but it wasn't enough. Around 6 miles from the end of the first leg, Flounder collapsed on me. I panicked, I have never had a dog collapse on me before. I quickly stopped to help him. He was simply exhausted and his breathing was irregular. I immediately put him in my sled (not the easiest feat for a 5'1" frame with a 70 lb dog) and continued on our way as fast as we could to get him to a vet at the checkpoint.
When I arrived at the checkpoint I was greeted by cheers from my "pit crew"! Oh how I loved having my brother and sister-in-law there :) They helped guide my team to where I'd be resting them for a few hours and I began bedding down my dogs while a vet came to look over Flounder.
They were certain he had Atrial Fibrillation (an irregular heartbeat) which made it difficult for his heart to circulate oxygen and blood efficiently. He was of course left in the care of Scott and Toni for the duration of the race and a vet appointment was set once we returned home for further tests. The appointment confirmed that he in fact has A-Fib, and that sadly means he can no longer be a performance sled dog - I am heart broken to say the least :*(
I rested my dogs around 4 hours at the first checkpoint and was back out on the trail around 11:30 pm. It was a chilly night (hovering around -15 F dipping down to -25 F at some points on the trail) and my dogs loved it! They were cruising!
That next section of trail from Two Rivers Lodge to Pleasant Valley Store was clocked at 65 miles. My dogs hadn't run 65 miles straight this year, so I stopped every 20 miles to give them a snack and let them rest a few minutes. I was taking my time. I wasn't running to win. I was running to gain experience and to prove to the Iditarod committee that I could take care of my dogs and finish with a happy, healthy team.
After my second time of stopping to snack the dogs (around mile 44), I suddenly found myself at the second checkpoint! I was extremely confused (didn't help that it was 4:45 am and I had been up all night long). I thought I missed some trail. Turns out the trail crew made a mistake and the 65 mile trail was reduced to 44 miles. I could have finished that leg a lot faster if I had known that! My dogs can run 44 miles without stopping to snack easy-peasy! Oh well, like I said, I wasn't running to be competitive.
The problem with that mistake in trail marking was Scott and Toni weren't expecting me in at the checkpoint until between 8:00-9:00 am. I was in 3-4 hours early! Part of their responsibilities as handlers was to bring me my drop bags to each checkpoint before I arrived (which contained food for both me and dogs and gear I needed). They were still sleeping back in North Pole! Fortunately, we made friends along the trail :)
I met and ran with a man named Alan on the trail during the first leg of the race. We had a lot of fun and we were both there to just enjoy running our dogs on new trails. We ran together with headlamps off for a short awhile just watching the northern lights dance above us. It was nice to share it with someone. While Alan and I were out on the trail running together, unbeknownst to us, Scott and Toni were apparently making friends with his wife, Tanjala, at the checkpoint.
Once Alan and I were back out on the trail from the first checkpoint, Tanjala was going to head straight to Pleasant Valley Store and sleep in her truck to wait for Alan. She offered to take my drop bag for Scott and Toni so they could head straight to North Pole to get some sleep. Boy was I grateful for that!! My bag was already there and I didn't have to wait for it to arrive with Scott and Toni when they showed up at 8:00 am.
After my dogs got another 4 1/2 hour rest, we suited up and headed back out to the third checkpoint, Angel Creek Lodge.
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| Putting booties on my dogs before taking off for Angel Creek Lodge. |
It was a great run. Sun was shining and the dogs were looking great.
However, about 5 miles from Angel Creek Lodge we come up to a small creek with overflow. Now Ajax is an incredible leader, but on occasion he will decide he doesn't want to do something and he is stubborn as a mule. He did NOT want to cross that overflow. We started heading towards it and at the last second, he turned around and bee-lined it backwards. !! I had a tangled mess on my hands. Even when I was able to get them mostly untangled, I could not get him to move forward. I tried replacing him with other leaders, but they all were still following his suit and refusing to cross the creek.
I was figuring out a way to get them across when another musher passed by with her team and without hesitation she stopped her team, hopped on my sled and I walked my dogs across while she steered my sled. Phew! I love the camaraderie in the mushing community. Mushers are always willing to lend a hand when a fellow musher is in trouble or having difficulties, even while being competitive in a race.
After thanking the musher profusely, we continued on our way. Ajax and I weren't on speaking terms for a bit, and he was out of lead for a little while. We made up at the third checkpoint however :)
Once I reached Angel Creek lodge, I only had 1 1/2 hours of mandatory rest left. However, I knew my dogs needed more time than that, so we stayed about 3 hours, making my total rest time 11 1/2 hours.
The trail to the finish was the same trail going into Angel Creek Lodge. So yes, we had to cross the creek with overflow again. I was hoping I could keep the team going fast enough so that Ajax wouldn't know what hit him until we were already crossing the creek, but that smart little bugger was on to me!
He did the same exact thing going out as he did on the way in: he back tracked straight into the team. Sigh. I was ready to unhook my snow hook holding my sled in place and drag the team across knowing full well I'd have a tangled ball of dogs and gangline once we reached the other side when a musher came up behind me. Just like the previous musher who helped me get across the first time, without hesitation he stopped his dogs, ran up to my leaders and walked them across while I steered my sled. Again, I couldn't have been more grateful. After making sure his team made it across the creek without problem, we continued on our way to the finish.
When leaving the third checkpoint, it was a bit hard for the dogs. They were tired and not entirely enthused to be getting up and running so soon after stopping. After a few miles and working out the kinks and tiredness though they were once again cruising! A good portion of this run I had to keep my foot on the drag mat to slow them down even! I was impressed.
We pulled up to the finish line at Pleasant Valley Store around 9:00 pm and all my dogs were still raring to go! I was so happy and proud of all of them :D
It was a fantastic run to say the least. I'll admit there were a few times I thought to myself "Why am I doing this again?" These thoughts came to me at times like at 4:00 am when I was quite tired and starting to get tunnel vision, or when I was going about 20 mph downhill because the snow was too soft and deep for my brake or drag mat to be of any use while dodging trees and missing them by mere centimeters. At the end of it all though I was very proud of myself and my dogs and will gladly do it all again!
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| Thanks Scott and Toni for all your support!! |
