metachronistic

The 2009 Tok Race of Champions is over. It didn’t get very cold on Saturday night, so the trail didn’t get a chance to set up after the first day of racing; it was slow and had a lot of soft spots that teams had trouble getting through. Andrea held onto 15th place in the six dog class (earning a whopping $12.50), and Bonnie got 13th place. This year the eight dog course took them along the road for more than three miles so we got a chance to see Bonnie running with her team for awhile. It was cool to see her dogs running next to us, especially since I mostly see them before and after the races.

I don’t know how easily it’ll be to view this, but the following link is a video of her coming out near the road: video of Bonnie.

It was a fun race this year, and we’re at home recovering with the dogs today.

The first day’s racing is over and all the dogs are happy and healthy. There isn’t a four-dog class in Tok, so Andrea borrowed Rubus and Vive from Bonnie to make up a six-dog team. Buddy ran lead with Rubus, Koidern and Piper ran in swing, and Kiva and Vive where at the back of the team. It was 14°F when the first team went out, so the sun hadn’t started warming things up. Andrea went around the track in 18 minutes 39 seconds, which was good enough for 15th out of 25.

Bonnie raced in the eight-dog class, but the results of the first day were thrown out because the first musher on the trail went through a fence, and a series of other mushers failed to make the proper turn with the fence missing. It’s somewhat of an unprecedented move to invalidate the first day of racing.

The photo is of Kiva howling before the race.

Ugh, it’s 13 degrees F outside, and is supposed to be above freezing later. We’re up watering the dogs on our way to our own breakfast. Andrea goes out sixth in the six dog, starting at 9 AM and Bonnie is third in the eight dog class, which starts at 11.

It was colder on the second day, -15°F when we got up, and around -18°F when we got to the race track at 8:00 am. By race time, the sun was out, and the official temperature was up to 0°F. The wind was calm, so the sun started warming things up pretty quickly.

Andrea and the dogs had a clean run on the course, finishing in 17 minutes 46 seconds, 14 seconds faster than yesterday, and her best time in Tok. That finish time, combined with a bad tangle between two earlier teams allowed her to move up to 18th place (out of 30 teams), one second behind the 17th team and six seconds ahead of the team in 19th place.

It was a fun trip. We left Tok after the awards ceremony and made it back home around 9:30 last night.

The first day of racing is now over. The skies cleared from last night and it got down to -10°F before the time the sun came up. The six dog class started at 9:00 am, so it had only warmed up slightly when the first team went out. There was still enough of a breeze to give you a chill if you were facing into the wind and my feet and cheeks got cold from standing around outside most of the day.

Andrea drew the fifth position last night, and the racers go off at one minute intervals from each other, so Andrea went out at 9:04 am, just a few short hours after we got up for breakfast. By 9:30, the race was over for our team. Andrea and the dogs had a finish time of 18 minutes even, which was 55 seconds better than her time on the first day last year. All the dogs did really well, and Andrea was very happy with them. She borrowed Elway and a yearling named Tsuga from her friend Bonnie, who was racing in the eight dog class. In the middle photo you can see Buddy and Elway in lead (closest to the camera), Piper and Koidern in swing (the middle), and Tsuga and Kiva in wheel.

18:00 was good enough for 20th place in a field of 30, but Andrea is only 3 seconds behind the 19th place team, and 4 seconds behind the 18th place team. With a good run tomorrow and some luck, she could move up a few places in the final standings.

Bonnie and her team did really well, coming in fifth place in the eight dog class. She ran a team with four of the yearlings from the same litter that Tsuga came from. The last photo on the right shows one of them, a dog named Salix, who flops on the ground after a race to cool off.

A good day of racing. We’re relaxing before dinner, maybe catching some sleep before tomorrow, since it’ll be another late night tonight taking care of the dogs.

The potluck and race draw are over (Andrea goes out fifth tomorrow, out of thirty teams), and while we were in there, the wind and snow picked up. There’s drifting snow all over the place, and even though it’s not all that cold out (around 10°F), this wind makes it feel pretty bitter. After the draw we got back to the motel and watered the dogs, which is what’s happening in the photo on the right. They’ll need to come down to go to the bathroom a couple more times before they (and we!) go to sleep for the night.

We’ve just arrived at the Snowshoe Motel, and the wireless Internet works as promised! It was an uneventful drive down to Tok, except for when we left the tailgate open after dropping the dogs in Delta Junction. As I sped up to integrate into traffic, three of our coolers slid out of the back, and our soda and beer cans sprayed all over the road. Luckily we noticed it immediately, and no beer was harmed in the incident.

We also stopped at Delta Meat and Sausage Company and I got a package of polish sausage for this summer, and some beef sticks for the races. They also let us feed the dogs in their parking lot, which was very nice of them.

We left Fairbanks at 12:15 and arrived at 16:20, which is almost exactly the timeline from two years ago. Tonight is the potluck and draw at the Tok Musher’s Hall.

The Tok Race of Champions is this weekend, and we’re on our way down to participate. Tok is the last race of the season for us, and because it’s not in town, it’s an entire weekend completely devoted to dogs and racing. The dogs stay in their boxes on the truck while on the road, and as a result, all of our focus is on their care. It’s an exhausting weekend, but the community of Tok really puts on a good race, and it’s fun to go on one last hurrah with everyone else in the sprint mushing community before the season ends.

The hotel we’re staying at advertises wireless Internet, so I’ll try to keep this updated when there’s a free moment.

Day 1

The first day of the 2007 Limited North American was a cold one, with temperatures in the single digits, and a howling wind blowing across the fields. Andrea and the dogs drew the ninth position, and passed the team starting seventh just before the final hill, which took away most of their momentum coming home. Still, the time was the best they’ve done on the 4.5 mile trail this year, and she was in sixth place, 1.4 seconds behind the fifth place musher and one second ahead of the team behind her. A good start, despite the pass.

Day 2

It was about the same temperature on the second day, but the winds had mostly died down and it was bright and sunny at the track. We had high hopes Andrea and the dogs would be able to make up at least a second and advance into fifth place. Unfortunately, as the dogs were going out, Kiva got her right leg over the neck line and wasn’t able to get it off. Andrea had to stop the team, run up to fix her, and then start the team off again. The neck line is a thin rope that connects one dog’s collar to the dog next to her, and because Buddy sometimes hesitates when the race starts and Kiva is always rearing to go, the line between Buddy and Kiva wasn’t taught, allowing Kiva to get ahead of the neck line and accidentally put her foot over it. Andrea’s time on day two was 55.8 seconds slower than her run over the same course on day one and she dropped to eighth place.

Day 3

The third day is longer, 5.9 miles, so there’s an opportunity for teams to move up if they didn’t have perfect runs on the first two days. Andrea was 1.6 seconds ahead of the team behind her, and 9.9 and 24.8 seconds behind the seventh and sixth place teams. The dogs had a clean run, took all the turns exactly as instructed, and they wound up with a total time of 51 minutes 15.9 seconds over the total 14.9 mile, three day course. That was good enough for eighth place in the race.

First place!

The second championship race of the 2007 season was held in North Pole this weekend at the Chena Lakes Recreation Area. It’s been about 25 degrees below normal this week in Fairbanks, and Chena Lakes is one of the colder spots in the Interior. It was -45°F on Saturday and -41°F on Sunday in North Pole when I left the house for the track. The races were delayed until 12:30 so that things could warm up a bit, but it was still a chilly -15°F when the four-dog class went out.

It’s a short 3.8 mile course for the four-dog class and Andrea and our dogs had the best time of 11:43.1 on Saturday. The second place team was 11.3 seconds behind. On Sunday Andrea lost some ground, but she held on to win the overall race by 1.5 seconds, finishing with a total time of 22:59.2. She got a trophy, three bags of dog food and a check for $50, but I’m pretty sure that getting first place in a championship race is the real reward.