This year my Grandma was up for an adventure and came to be my handler to help my mom. It started with an early drive to Missoula to pick her up from the airport. My favorite airports are Fairbanks and Missoula...simply because Fairbanks is smaller than Missoula. But Missoula is pretty great - not much of a crowd and easy to navigate. We loaded into the truck and drove to Helena for the musher's dinner and vet check. Oh, I almost forgot - first we did a school presentation.
I'll never rely on Google Maps for Helena directions! It had us going in circles - the wrong way! At last, we found the school and did several hours of presentations for the kids. I was kept on my toes, since some of the groups of kids had short attention spans; but it's fun to talk with them. The dogs loved the attention and the kids loved putting on my mittens and standing on the sled.
One of the challenges of Race to the Sky is the amount of waiting. First is the day of meetings/vet check, then you've got the 1st leg which is a stage race and then a late afternoon start for the continuous portion of the race. I always have too much time to think over strategy...getting worked up and nervous. There's also the added pressure and stress of making sure the handlers and truck are good to go between checkpoints and overseeing everything at the checkpoints - where in non-handler races like Eagle Cap you send everything out the morning of the start and if you forget anything...too bad; you'll just have to make do! Anyway, I tend to worry WAY too much and an unassisted race is mentally easier for me...I'm still trying to figure out how to run Race to the Sky and not worry so much about handlers, truck and all. Also, down in the lower 48 February is usually warm and the trails start to disappear or get soft and slow.
One of the best parts of Race to the Sky is our amazing host family in Helena, the Njos. My handlers and I always get pampered! It's nice to have a quiet place to drop the dogs and rest. Plus, being in Helena it's not far from the 1st leg start at Camp Rimini and we can crash there after the Butte finish of the stage race part; rather than having to drive all the way to Lincoln, when the continuous race doesn't start until 2 or 3 PM. We also get fed very well...and I love food almost as much as my dogs do!
The race stage leg start was pretty uneventful. The weather was fine, it's always a bit warm, and there was better snow than in 2013 for the first couple miles, before we turned up the mountain. The trail goes steeply up on a fairly good trail, and then it got punchy/wind blown. This was the second time I'd run the trail, so I had a better idea of the length but it still seemed to go on forever! I tried to be cautious because it was soft, forcing the dogs to work extra hard, but we still got pulled into a soft corner and had to get unstuck.
Once through the technical part (tight trees and narrow trail) I stopped and snacked the dogs. When we got going again I enjoyed the scenery and around a perfectly wide curve drove the sled right over the side and flipped over. It was my fault for enjoying the scenery too much! The dogs glared at me and yanked the sled back onto the trail. Fortunately no one saw me...
My team is not a speed team and I was disappointed that we were slower than 2013, since it meant an extra 2 hours of additional rest we were required to take. It ended up causing me to brainstorm for ways to change my race rest strategy and I decided to try something new...
I should note that Race to the Sky, and 2014 in particular, is a challenge for me - mostly mental - which affects the dogs because they feel everything through the gangline. It's hard to fool the athletes you've spent thousands of miles with! I've learned a lot each race and although 2014 and 2015 did not turn out as I'd hoped; I've learned a lot of valuable lessons. I've come to realize that if I stop learning, then I've got a problem!
Here's a photo - we made the front page of the paper!
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