North Pole Championship- Day 1

I knew it was going to be a fun day when the Mayor of North Pole, Doug Issacson, turned up at the start of the race and agreed to be the turnaround judge.  Mayor Doug was the original driving force behind this year’s race sponsorship.   Having him involved in an important role was great!  As I went past I yelled hi to him and his face beamed! I just spoke to him and he had such a fun time he is coming back to be our turnaround judge again tomorrow!

We also had the North Pole Patriots football team holding sleds for us!  Young strong boys – what else do you need?

I drew 12th last night and had a perfect draw.  The start of the race was easy and being in 12th it was fun because I was relaxed and could take my time.  The temperature was around 0F, perfect temperatures for a dog race!

I had the dogs in the same positions as the Gold Run, and they were very happy there.  We started out and I was holding back the team at the start, but we were still cruising at 22 mph.  The trail was incredible, and a completely different feel to last week.  The trail area were the silly man who drove his truck around the trail last week and put in foot-deep gouges into the trail for a mile was not to be seen.  Hard and fast was the whole trail.  I commend the Chena Lakes trail groomers for doing an incredible job with the trails out there.

I have nothing of interest to report on except my team felt powerful and it was just amazing to be on the runners of the sled.  They are looking very chirpy and ready for day two.   We placed 2nd today out of 13 teams, and I am thrilled with the position.  If the dogs are running well then the place is not the only important thing.  I always want to finish the races with very happy dogs.   We always seem to do best on day 2, so let’s hope we have another great run.

My friend Melissa was out there today with a camera so I will try to post some photos later of my team when I can wrestle them from her.

Tomorrow is another day!