Always a fun race but I have to admit that I enjoyed last years format/trail more:) I knew going into the racing season that my team had lost their speed and attitude when we started doing lots of trips beginning of Jan. and never ran the same after. It was very discouraging which is why we have decided to no longer do trips as it messes up my race dogs too much. The team was flat on the first leg and also it started snowing heavily, so thick that at times I could barely see my team! (Also the last several years I have noticed my long-distance vision being more blurry at dusk/dark and have a bit of glare due to the laser surgery so that has been a bit frustrating to strain to see directional signs ect at night. I will be getting my eyes checked this summer!!) It was a long slow run into Chatham. The team ate and rested pretty well at Chatham though one male was just screaming to get at the females in heat on my team. My mom spent an hour and a half trying to calm him down! The dogs were more fired up on the second leg and we went from 12th place to 6th place passing six teams ahead of me and were gaining slowly on the 5th place team near the end. Two dogs started limping pretty badly roughly halfway through so I had to slow way down and baby them into the finish. There was about 6 inches of fresh snow on the trail so that slowed things down some but it sure was beautiful! Sure enjoyed seeing everyone and look forward to coming back to this race again in the near future:)