Returned to Fairbanks after a very fun trip down to run the Northern Lights 300, and was greeted by the coldest cold snap of the winter so far! -35F, oh yeah! So basically I have been feeding dogs and woodstoves since my return. Outside chores at these temps take twice as long, not to mention the additional time of dressing for them.  But today temps warmed up to a nice comfortable -17F, the dogs enjoyed a good run, and I now have some time to catch up on the blog and let folks know how the race went.  As you know from my last post A Strange Strategy for Success~ I had a fun, if yet unproven, group of young dogs on my team .  And long story short – they rocked it!

But when have I ever made a long story short 😉

Lets start at the beginning.  I drove down for the race and stayed with my awesome friends TC and Dave, who were the hosts with the most!!!!  I had an perfect place to park the dog trailer, set up my chains and spread out straw so the dogs could relax comfortably while we were there. TC was my navigator making sure I got my drop bags turned in to the correct location, and then the next day made it to my vet checks on time. They were also my crack handling team for the race, getting me off in style! And taking care of me and the dog on our return.

Check out the Northern Lights 300 Facebook page for more race photos.

Out on the trail the team settled in quickly to what would be a good challenge for the young dogs. In 300 miles they got a little taste of what the Iditarod has to offer them. Varying trail conditions, from low snow to blown in drifts, icy conditions on vast lakes, twisty turny technical trail on the way into Finger Lake, headwinds, tail winds, warm afternoons and cold nights. Busy checkpoints with teams parked together, coming and  going, resting on different schedules.  I could not have asked for a better smorgasbord of situations for my team.  And they handled it like champs! I was pleasantly surprised how little they responded to the teams around them while at the same time keying into me and what I wanted them to do. Weather it was eating everything I put in front of them, or getting up from a nap and heading back out on the trail, the team was ready and willing.  Actually they were voracious when it came to eating!!!  And that made me super happy!  Every time I put food in front of them they sucked it down.  And as a musher when you are feeding your team and hear that noise of every dog face down in their dish sucking up the chow it just makes you smile. That is the sound of a team that will finish strong.

In addition to giving the young dogs a positive race experience I also hoped to see how some new leaders handled the crowds and chaos of racing.  Thistle, younger sister to race leader Sparrow, got her first chance to lead a race team.  And it is safe to say she will be getting the change again, soon. Watching her pass teams and trot out of checkpoints happily you would have thought she had been leading all her life.

Another leader being tested was Gremlin. He has a real capacity for speed, but has taken awhile to gain the confidence to lead a big team of dogs. So I was very happy to see him, with his buddy Chase Um,  step up and take over the lead on some of our longer runs to give the girls a well deserved break.  On longer races it is nice to be able to switch out leaders, so no one set of dogs has to shoulder the responsibility of lead for the entire time.

Thanks to the fact that the Northern Lights used Spot Trackers there was excellent coverage of the race progress. You can even go back and see exactly what I was doing when – here is my GPS data.  And with some great tutorials from our friend at Mushing Tech, you can learn how to better read and interpret the Spot Tracker data. In particular the info about reading the Speed vs. Time Plot* in her blog post is very helpful.  And looking at it you can see that my runs were solid, we lost a little speed over time, but had a healthy amount of rest and ultimately a strong finish.
* My plot can be seen at the bottom of the page showing all my Spot Tracker data.

Folks following along at home noticed that one dog got dropped from my team in Finger Lake.  That was Barry, although she was eating like a champ, still happy to go, and not actually injured it was still in her best interest to stop running at that time. Basically she was being a bit of an air head, you know flakey like young girls can be.  And so she was not running as smoothly and with as much focus as I wanted to see for the difficult and uneven trail conditions we were encountering. So basically I was worried she might hurt herself and I was not willing to let that happen.  She is a good young dog, and in time I am confidant she will mature into a fine race dog. No need to push it now.

And now to answer the question…  did my strategy for success work?
Well Yes & No

Yes – in that the team of young dogs got an excellent experience and rose to the occasion, making me very proud of them. They did everything I asked of them, were happy to do it, and we had a blast!
But because of that, my job of trying to decide which of the young dogs would be joining me on the trail to Nome has not gotten any easier. Other then Barry who showed me she needs some more time to mature, ALL of the young dogs showed me that they are ready and willing to go. Which all things considered, is not really a bad problem to have.

Thanks again to all our sponsors for making this race possible!!

And Mush Thanks to all the race organizers,trail crew, and volunteers!  They did an amazing job!
And I can not say enough good things about the hospitality at the checkpoints: Yentna Station Roadhouse, Talvista Lodge, & Winterlake Lodge at Finger Lake.

Note on Post Race Festivities.
Jan 23rd was my birthday, and I celebrated it by doing what I love most – seeing new trails with my beautiful dogs.  Then thanks to my amazing friends: TC & Dave, Theresa, Jenny & Rick, Lindsey & TJ, I got to have not 1 but 2 birthday dinners!  The first just 3 short hours after I crossed the finish line.  I was showered (thankfully! No one would sit near me if I hadn’t), but had not slept yet, so I was a bit loopy (for lack of a better word) and hopefully our waiter will excuse me for it 🙂
I stayed an extra day down in Willow to avoid the Fairbanks cold and on the second night went out for some excellent sushi, this time I had slept well and was as “normal” as I ever am. But both nights the excellent company ensured a good time was had by all.