2009 11th Place Beargrease 8-Dog 112 Miles
***Photo taken coming into the finish***
My team did a super job for me and showed they have a lot of heart! I was very proud of them for how well they did considering our late start in training and low miles! They really powered me up those hills! The last leg of the race we did most of our passing in the hills! They just motored right up! I felt nauseous and wasn't able to help them out as much as I would have been able to if I had felt better, but they never stopped pulling and just kept going and going. We narrowly missed out on my goal of a top ten finish but I made a few mistakes, things I defiantly plan to change or do better next time, and to top it off, left late out of Finland.
Thank you to my awesome handler crew, my mom, Leah Richter, and my cousins, Sarah & Holly Oberg who showed up as a surprise to help out! I couldn't have done it with out all your help, you gals are awesome! My mom didn't get a wink of sleep, even though its not her thing she was a trooper and did awesome! Leah, you were amazing and on the ball! I still can't believe how fast you tied that spare neckline on to replace the chewed one as they are counting down in the starting chute! Sarah and Holly, you guys are awesome, always looking to help out in any way you can, thank you so much for the support!! And thank you to my dad, who followed me on all the late night training runs with the snowmobile to make sure everything went ok and I didn't run into an angry moose or anything:) He stayed up late building dog boxes in the trailer the night before the race and helped pack everything up... I know he wanted to be there with me but someone had to stay home and feed dogs and man the generators! We missed you!
While I am thanking people, a huge thank you to Blake & Jennifer Freking and their friends who helped pull our trailer out from being blocked in by vehicles after the pre-race ceremonies!! You guys are our heroes!!
I sure enjoyed running my powerful crew, even my helpers at the start of the race commented that my team was the strongest (and craziest) they had brought up yet!
The morning after the race you could hardly tell my team just ran 112 miles! They all were peppy and happy!
It was fun to see old friends and make new ones! Congrats to all the winners and finishers alike!!