Last weekend we finally got a race in! The team and I participated in the Goose Bay Tug 150 in Knik. We started in 10th place and finished in 3rd place, which surprised me as we haven’t made any 75 mile runs yet. The dogs handled it better than I thought. The 12 dogs I took were, Brown, Black, Yukon, Maple, Grizzly, Kodiak, Aspen, Leo, Marble, Slate, Willow & McKinley. 
The run to Talvista was nice with good weather and great trails, but some areas were a little slower. I snacked the dogs several times during the run. We arrived at the lodge in 2nd place, and it had started to snow already. I took care of the dogs and they all looked great. Once I ate and took a few hour nap, I fed the dogs again, bootied and off we went at 6:53am after our 8 hour rest. The trail was very soft with the new snow, and it continued to snow throughout the evening. It sure was a completely different trail from the day before, very slow, drifting, low visibility, still snowing,  which took us a lot longer than I thought it would. We also stopped several times to snack. Cim Smyth was in front of me and I could barely make out his tracks in some areas. The dogs sure got a workout. Slate was loaded in the sled about 50 miles into the 78 mile run as he didn’t seem to be pulling like he should. He was in the sled for about 10 miles until he wanted to be back working again. We made it back to Tug Bar with a happy, healthy team and musher!
Thank you to Tim Cornelius & Terri Cornelius for putting on the race, Louis Schrader for the trail work, the vets, all the other volunteers, Talvista Lodge for the great hospitality, GB Jones & Stacey Cardy, Tanjala Budy Eischens & Al Eischens for helping at the start and everyone else that helped out. Thanks also to Stacey Cardy and Amber Johnson for taking care of Oak, who was recovering from his injury. Without their help, I most likely wouldn’t have been able to run the race. Oak is doing good and is on his way to recovery.