Friday, March 6, 2009

day one in Fairbanks

   Day one is in the bag. Windy, snowy day. The snow has fallen. There is lots of snow and more on the way.  The groomer started working at 2 am to get the trail in shape. He has a big tracked machine. Something that you would see on a ski hill. There was so much snow that it even got stuck. He did the best he could and it ended up to be a pretty good trail considering. Slow but better than what we imagined
   Rachel ran the four dog race. She ran two new leaders. One we borrowed the day before the race from Arleigh reynolds and the other one is one that ran on lead in training but then the dog was taken out of lead for various reasons. She also ran a yearling on wheel with an older dog. We were not totally sure about these two either. Rachel had a great run all the dogs did great and looked good on the way home today. The team ran a 4.9 mile. Rachel won it today. Can' remember the time. I think it was 16 minutes and change. 

Ben also ran a good race with six dogs. There is five in his class of racing. He had a pretty clean run but poor overtime had trouble with the speed. The trail is soft after all the snow that fell and the dogs struggle to hold speed on it. Overtime is an older dog and was a team dog most of the year. He leads okay but his best position is closer to the sled. He struggles on lead the most today. Ben's main leader is willow and we left her at home because she is in heat. His world championship team this is not. It is the best that he thought he could put together for the Jr. North American Championships. He was in fourth today but only a couple of seconds back from second and 55 seconds off of first. If the weather cools off and the trail gets hard it will be better for Ben's older leader. It is suppose to cool off and the snow has slowed down now. He ran the race in 21 minutes which is slow for 6 miles. That distance is usually ran in 18 minutes and change. Ben may change out his leaders tomorrow and see if that helps his speed any. The race is not won on day two so the kids will have to bear down and keep up the speed. We know the dogs can handle the speed and the distance so it is not unfair to ask it from the dogs. 
   I will let you know what happens tomorrow. 






1 comment:

Connie said...

Sounds like a good day, even with the powder. Keep it up Ben and Rachel.
Printed the Yukon News article.
So nice to have this means of keeping up with you guys