Seems when Iditarod starts some areas of the State go brain dead and no other racing occurs. The Chugiak Dog Mushers, a sled dog racing organization a stones throw from Anchorage garners an extensive trail system in the Beach Lake area. With a club house, time tower, and large holding area it is a mushers dream come true for organizations, conducting both speed and moderate distance mid-distance races throughout much of the season.

Today's event, 10 dog max, is known as the Chugiak 36 but my GPS recorded 37.74 miles. After the Anchorage Rondezvous debacle (no race, grrrr) we re-evaluated the training format and decided to edge the dogs up in training miles in hopes of running a 200 mile race at Tug Bar which is near Knik that race to be at the end of the month "IF" the weather holds. I felt it would be nip-n-tuck to get the group ready for this style of race on short notice but thought we would give it a go. If I didn't feel they were ready we wouldn't go. So, we had just started nicking training mileage up and did our first run over 30 miles this past week.

I'm always a proponent of taking dogs to races. Many drivers feel that a good day of racing is worth 2 or 3 days of training, a 2 day race worth 5 or 6. This stems from the heightened mental activity the dogs experience; in the holding area, watching teams start, and encountering teams on the trail. They just seem to get a bit more mental push all on their own when they get to events away from the home trails.

There were 10 teams entered, four of which could be consider hotshots and 4 Siberian teams (that has to be a record for a race in Alaska).

We had 4 dogs under 2 years and one leader who had never led in a race before. My intent was, no excuse, to run a conservative race so the crew would come away with the best possible postive experience. With that, my role was to be a governor for the team constantly evaluating every microscopically detected detail during the run. The Chugiak trail is quite twisty-turny over hilly terrain so I judged this would be a good workout considering the group had this past week  their first run over 30 miles. In addition, the race started at 5 pm so later in the race a headlamp would have to be used.

For the first two miles I stood with everything I had on the dragmat finally getting the team to settle down. Once in a rhytmic trot, on numerous occassions they would surge trying to push the pace but since I didn't know how they would handle it I held them at a level I felt adequate to accomplish the mission of establishing a very positive day at a race.

Mission accomplished; the four youngsters did very well, no slackers and the leader untried in a racing venue did very well as well. I was pleased to feel/see them attack every hill and maintain a drive to establish as consistent of a pace that one could get on a trail with multiple numerous hills. We covered the 37.74 miles in 3 hrs. 23 minutes and change finishing 4th overall. We were 18 minutes behind 3rd and 12 minutes ahead of 4th. Two stops were necessary; one when a team passing literally dove into our group so I had to help untangle the mess and the other when there was no clear definition as to which markers to follow. After hurried evaluation I commanded the leaders through the snow to get on what appeared to be the correct trail and it was.

We jetisoned the idea of entering the Open North American in Fairbanks in favor of getting a look at the group in a longer format for possible pre-prep to mid-distance races next season. Next weekend there is a one day 40 mile race out of Knik. If not too warm we'll enter so I can  rotate other youngsters into the team and give them some race experience as well.

Wheel	Team	Team	Swing	Leaders
"Lolo"	"Lutsen"	"Queen"	"Quinn"	"Jude"
"Tanner"	"Toby"	"Quick"	"Durango"	"Rowdy"