Officially qualified!

Well, my eyes are blurry and saggy from lack of sleep in the last 2 weeks, but I am officially qualified for the 2007 Iditarod. I ran the 200 mile Cantwell Classic last weekend and the 300 mile Kusko 300 in Bethel this weekend. In both races the weather was as nice as you could ask for and the dogs did great.
The Cantwell race started on Friday the 12th at the beginning of the Denali Highway at high noon. 28 teams began the race, each with teams of 12 dogs, some with dreams of winning the race and some with dreams of simply finishing. I was somewhere in the middle of the two. I started the race with 11 yearlings and one 4 year old. The greatest challenge in this race, believe it or not, was warm temperatures and too much snow on the trail! The trail got over a foot of snow days before the race, and long with temperatures hovering near freezing, the trail didn't have a chance to set up before the race. As a result, the going was much slower than expected. For young dogs, though, this was perfect. It was a great chance to toughen them up mentally and see what they could do.
Overall, I was running the race non-competetively; my goal was to finish with a healthy happy dog team in good timing. I achieved this goal by passing over the finish line a little under 48 hours after I began the race with all 12 dogs in the team. I had to carry the 4 year old, Aspen, for the last 6 miles of the race because of the fast trail conditions on the last run, but I was tickled to death on how the 11 yearling performed. We had our moments during the race when their focus was lost completely, much like first graders losing focus in the classroom, but it was quickly regained.
The kusko 300 is known as one of the toughest mid-distance races in the world. It also has the highest purse of any mid-distance race in the world; $100,000 is split between the top 20 teams, including $20,000 to first place. This year 19 teams began the race, which meant even if I finished dead last I would still get some money! Even to get to the start of the race is a challenge for the kusko. The race begins in Bethel, several hundred miles away from the road system, which means in order to get there, you have to fly yourself, 14 dogs, sled, dogfood, and other gear. This equates to not only a lot of effort but quite a bit of fininacial obligation as well.
All things aside, all 19 mushers left Bethel at 6:30 on Friday night as the last glimmers of daylight were fading in the Western sky. The night start provides a pretty spectular event for the hundreds of spectators that show up, and put this together with fireworks put off minutes after the last team leaves, and it's quite an event! The 300 mile course the kusko follows is almost all on river systems and thus is flat and fast. There is only 10 hours of mandatory rest on the entire trail. To win the race, this is only what you can take.
However, I again was not trying to win, but I was trying to be more competetive than in the Cantwell race. I began this race with a mix of yearlings and older dogs. I broke the race up into 5 runs between 50 and 90 miles long each, and rest breaks between 2 1/2 and 6 hours between the runs. This is a grueling schedule, especially for young dogs. Thus, before the young dogs looked too tired, and while they were still happy and eager to go I dropped them before the 200 mile mark of the race to continue onwards with only the older dogs. This left me with 9 dogs, of which I dropped two more: both for sore wrists which after a day of rest are already healed.
In the end, I finished in a little over 48 hours in 14th place. Remember that in the Cantwell race, I finished 200 miles in just under 48 hours! The best part of the race, other than spending all of the time with the dogs, was spending time in the native villages that served as checkpoints along the trail. The generosity and willingness to open up their communities to a bunch of strangers running dogs through the area was unbelievable. Many of the native villages in Alaska are having troubles adjusting to the onslaught of western society, but these villages showed all who visited that the native spirit is alive and well.
This was the last race I will compete in until Iditarod, so from now on out all I will be thinking of is Iditarod, Iditarod, Iditarod. A little over one month and we will be on our way!