Eagle Cap Extreme Part 1

    After more than 1,000 miles of training, without seeing another dog team, the dogs and I were eager to get to race. Eagle Cap is the best race I've ever run - well organized, the whole town treats you like a celebrity, and a blast for mushers and handlers alike.
    We got to the vet check early and it was good to see old friends before the school kids came down to meet the dogs. Even shyer dogs like Belle get excited and like to show off for the elementary kids.
   Vet check done, we checked in with our host at a bed & breakfast before going down for the community potluck/bib draw. I drew 3rd and before the end of the night also dropped off my 3 drop bags so I wouldn't have to worry about them in the morning...the start was at 2pm, so I wanted to allow myself and the dogs an easy morning. That evening I had a quick call in to Scott to go over my race strategy and, my schedule set, went to bed.
    A dog sled race is a lot of "hurry up and wait." But with Eagle Cap there's lots to keep you busy, besides getting my sled ready for a 200 mile race...

The View:

Dropping dogs for one last time to stretch before we hook up:

I had help packing my sled:

Mingling with the school kids:

And, finally, the hook up...giving a hug to my littlest handler at the start line:

    It was very warm at the start. I watched my stopwatch and kept the dogs to a trot as we moved into the afternoon. When it's that hot if you let your dogs go all out they'll be burned up and exhausted...while my team moved better as the run went - moving quicker into the night.

    We got passed by some of the 8-dog 100 mile teams and I was appreciative of the kind words from Bino Fowler, who has always been very encouraging to me - the year he came in 3rd for Race to the Sky 350, I came in 3rd for the 100 mile Jr Race to the Sky and we raced the weekend later at the American Dog Derby. I almost crashed going around a tight corner shortly after he passed me and he gave me a "woohoo!"

    When you stop on the trail to snack, you always want to keep it short - because for every minute you're stopped, the other teams are moving - gaining 2 minutes on you. So when I stopped to give a wet cooler at 6 hours, I knew I'd made 8 minutes at least on two 200 mile teams who'd I'd passed earlier...which was nice to know, even though they beat us into the checkpoint. One nice thing about having run the race before is that I know a little better what to expect; but the last few miles by the river always seem the longest, because I kept expecting the checkpoint to be around each bend...and it never seemed to be!
    Ollokot is an amazing checkpoint with great volunteers. It's also the only checkpoint in the 200 mile race and is run by the best volunteers. This year I also got to see my brother there, who was shooting video footage for a proposed sled dog documentary. Here's some pictures he took:

To be continued in part 2...