Dogs! And More Dogs!

February 25-27 was the annual World Championship Sled Dog Race. It's a big event in sprint dog racing. Teams of 12-20+ dogs race 25 miles daily for three days. On Friday I asked Jake and Viva if they'd like to go see the dogs running. They were quite excited. Then Viva threw up, so she had to stay home. She was not happy, but what could I do?!

Jake tried backing out; he's like that. Leaving the house is not always easy for him. He often balks. I ignored his change of vote and took him anyway. He quickly got over his negativity, although he thought the trip downtown was a little long. "When are we going get there?!"

The weather was fairly warm for winter--34 degrees--so I didn't dress him as well as I should have. I didn't put on his snow pants or boots and I grabbed two right hand mittens.


While 34 is certainly warmer than 0, it's not all that warm if you're standing outside for thirty minutes. Fortunately the location we viewed the races from was a local church and we were allowed to go in and warm up. Mark joined us downtown.

Jake thoroughly enjoyed watching the dogs. The dogs were beautiful--if you ignored their very long tongues hanging out of their mouths and the excessive drool produced by running for 20+ miles. We watched the dogs on their way out of town and on their return back in.



On Saturday we again asked the twins if they wanted to go see the dogs on day two of the races, and again they said yes. This time Viva was able to go. The temperatures had dropped down to 20 degrees, so I bundled the kids up in their snow pants and snow boots and stuffed them into their car seats. Instead of going downtown, we headed over to another good location to view the dogs.

Because it was so cold out, we were only able to watch for a half hour before I had to put the twins in the truck to warm them up. They watched a few more teams race by and then we took them home.


This past weekend was another major dog sledding event--the ceremonial start of the Iditarod. These teams of dogs are a different class than last weekend's teams. They are champion long distance racers--they will run for over 1000 miles in just 10 days. Incredible!

Bentley missed last weekend's races because he was in Las Vegas with his dad, so he was eager to attend this weekend's event. I'm not sure why the children enjoy seeing the dogs race so much. The teams just zoom by and it's over.

Well, zoom is a good term for last weekend's racers; the Iditarod teams were not zooming anywhere. As I mentioned, it's the ceremonial start of the race. No times are recorded. Saturday's event was 100% public relations, so the dogs take it easy and the mushers greet the crowds, sometimes handing out souvenir dog booties. Bentley scored one.


I did not attend this event. Mark went over to get more photos of sled dogs and a short while after that Matt and Kara took the trio so he took a few photos of them, too. I asked him to put together a short slide show because it was impossible to choose just a few shots. (The slide show really is short!)

When I asked how the adventure went, I heard that Bentley had a grand time, Viva had a good time (rolling in the snow?!), and Jake wasn't feeling well. As for Matt and Kara--you'd have to ask them.

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You can follow the Iditarod race at: http://www.iditarod.com/ I really enjoy following the race every March. My favorite musher is Martin Buser, but really anyone willing to take on a 1000 miles of cold trail deserves to win.