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. We're in Tok now, getting ready for the draw. It was an uneventful drive down, except that the truck seems to have zapped our GPS. Doesn't turn on. Bummer. The photo on the right in our room at the Snowshoe Motel.

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.