Wednesday, January 03, 2007

On the right track

Today was magnificent. I went out on the Alaska Dog Mushers Association track with a six-dog team and we flew! It feels so good to be on a sled again. Sam came with me to help hook up the team and off I went. On the way back my dogs (Sister and Puck in lead) didn't know the command: 'back to the truck' so instead they dragged me over to Curtis Erhart's truck. For those who don't know (or care) Erhart is a big name in sprint mushing here and I was a little embarrassed to have to call out to him to grab my leaders. I've met him a couple times and he actually remembered me from an interview I did with him some time ago. Back then I wasn't mushing so he was surprised to see me on a sled. I believe his exact words were: 'when the f*** did you start mushing?!' We chatted for a few before I watched him hook up 14 dogs and take off down the trail. Tomorrow I'll take eight...maybe 10.
Tonight I had an ADMA meeting where I signed up for Sunday's race. I drew bib #1, which means I go out first. Luckily there are only two of us in the 19-mile class. There are about six different classes from a few miles to 19. I need to do the longer distance for training and also, my dogs are not sprinters so I'd get schooled if I tried to keep up with those guys. Although 19 is actually a sprint...
I'm just using it as a training run and also to get used to bringing a team through an official start chute with all the people, announcers, other dogs etc.
I'm not nervous yet. I know Sunday morning I'll be a wreck. Even those this will be my third race; the first two don't count because they were strictly recreational races. Sam's coming to the track with me tomorrow to get some pics for the blog, so stay tuned.
Peace.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

In any racing, just remember the words of Arturio Merzario, who, before winning one of the last magnificent Targa Florio races in Sicily, twisted his mirrors off the Alfa T33/T3 and said ".....what ees behind ees of no importance!..."

D & N