Jr Iditarod is over!

The ten contestants all ran a good fast race. Kevin Harper won, beating second place Andrew Nolan by about fifteen minutes. Third was Bailey Schaeffer, a rookie, who was about an hour behind the top two, both of whom have run before. Kevin won for the second time. Ksenia Deits was the last in, taking the red lantern award. Six young ladies were among the ten contestants. This was the last year Kevin Harper can run; I expect he will be following big brother Ben's runners right into the Iditarod next year. One must be eighteen to compete in the big race. I congratulate the young mushers on a fine race and look forward to seeing some of them in the future!

As to the Iditarod, it looks like eighty six racers will be starting. And Martin Buser will be one of them. I am surprised and yet, not really. He is a very dedicated racer and competitor and although I would think another win would be unlikely at this point, I can understand his running this race, partly in honor of Nikolai who is fighting a good fight of his own to recover from the accident. Rohn did withdraw; so I guess he will be taking care of the kennel while the race is on.

Deedee's Go Fund Me page has raised $55,000 and counting. She has assembled most of the gear she needs and has been working hard with her dogs. She put a very nice thank you video on the page and I  am so proud of her and happy to have had a small part in helping her to make this race. She says she is sponsored by the generous and caring people of Alaska. She is almost universally loved in the north 49th with a lot of friends and admirers in the lower 48 as well.

This week will see a number of pre-race events happening in Anchorage. I would love to be there but will still work toward being there in the future, next year if at all possible. This time next week they will all be on the trail! I will be with some of my favorites in spirit, at least!