Well, I wasn't sick this year at Midnight Run and its a good thing because while there aren't a ton of hills to run like in Beargrease, I did end up ski-poling and pedaling most of the 50 miles back to Marquette! Last year the dogs cruised along effortlessly, this year we all worked our butts off ;) While I much prefer faster, firmer trails instead of the slogathon this year due to all the recent snowfall, it gave us plenty of time to appreciate the beautiful scenery:) Kudos to the trail crew for all their hard work in almost impossible conditions! Heard Marquette area received 4 feet of snow in a week and a half with 8-12 inches coming down the night before the race! Having been coming to this race since 2012 I have never seen this much snow in Marquette! We had a good run on the first 50 mile leg into Chatham, first half was a bit slower but they started picking up the pace the farther we went. Passed all the 8 dog teams and quite a few of the 12 dog which was difficult with the very narrow trail and snow almost half as high as me in places on the sides of the trail. Not much room so had some issues getting by a lot of the 12 dog teams and even some of the 8 dog teams. Was in first place after the first leg roughly 13 minutes ahead of 2nd place and 17 minute ahead of 3rd. Had to drop two dogs at the checkpoint so left with 6 for the 50 mile run back to Marquette finish line. Second leg was slow and seemed to take forever! When Larry Fortier caught me making up a bunch of time with his amazing dog team, several miles or so from the snowmobile trail that runs flat and mostly straight for 16-17 miles into Marquette, I was just hoping to hold onto 2nd place if I could:) BTW Larry, it was really good timing for you to catch me as I had just accidentally dropped my ski pole so handy for you to come by and pick it up as you went by!! Thank you!!! ;) My 6 dogs stuck right behind his 8 so hoped we could just hang with him:) We ended up passing back and forth several times on the snowmobile trail but eventually my team began to gradually pull away around 4-5 miles from the finish I think? I never use a GPS so just going by what the road crossing folks told me;) My one leader Tamar would start crying with excitement making the whole team speed up as they all knew we were getting closer to the finish! They sprinted into the finish and did so amazing I was so proud of them! Our 3rd MNR win and 2nd in a row!!!!!! Team was Viva and Tamar in lead the whole race, Elektra, Nikita, Bayfield, Zorro, Warrior and Soldier! Larry finished like 4 1/2 minutes behind me and Joann Fortier had an absolutely incredible 2nd leg making up a ton of time to finish only 36 seconds behind Larry!!! Amazing runs for both their teams congrats on your super finishes Larry and Joann!!!! And to all the finishers, that was a tough trail!!!! Thank you to the race organization who all work tirelessly to put this race on.. the volunteers, trail crew, sponsors, amazing vet crew!!!!! Thank you to my dad for his excellent job handling for me, he set up a super cozy area for the dogs with wind blocks on both sides and under the trailer so the dogs would be protected from the wind! Great to rest in a warm truck with heated seats vs. our old and cold diesel truck that we used to go to races with lol! What a great time with all our friends, only its too short!!! Can't wait to see ya'll at the Copper Dog in a few weeks!!!