The Big Ones are getting close!

It's not even two weeks now until the Yukon Quest starts, this year in White Horse, Yukon Territory, Canada. I was just reading on the SP Kennel blog about the preparation of their drop bags which were just delivered to the Fairbanks HQ of the quest. I know Allen Moore will be running the Black Team this year. I am not sure if Aliy will have her dogs in the YQ 300 or not, the shorter version of the race. Then in just four weeks more, the Iditarod will begin. They start this year on Feb 7 for the YQ and March 7 for the Iditarod.

There are no flowers around the YQ Headquarters today. On their web site and Facebook pages you get a snowy current view but this was how I saw in in August. It was about -30 in Fairbanks today but I still wish I was there to be getting ready and helping in some way. I am praying and hoping and working to make that happen next year! Meanwhile you can bet I will be keeping very close tabs on each race as it progresses and sending lots of good vibes and energies out to my favorite teams and their drivers!

I recently read the to-date life story (he's too young for a biography!) of Dallas Seavey, the young man who has beaten Aliy in the Iditarod twice in the last three years. I figured it was important to know as much about him as I can for my future book, a bit of how and why he is a champion. Of course it does run in the family. His grandpa Dan was in the first Iditarod and his father Mitch has competed a number of times and beat Aliy in between Dallas' two wins.

But what really piqued my interest was how Dallas met his main sponsor, a couple from Michigan vacationing in Alaska. J.J. Keller is mainly in the transportation business but was impressed with Dallas who was a champion wrestler before he got back to driving dogs competitively after some injuries in his other event.  Keller saw something in the young man that won his respect and he has supported him for the years it took to make that first win.

Well, on a long shot I thought hey, maybe they would be willing to invest a bit of support in an old dog with a new trick and help my project so I have written them a letter. No reply so far but eventually I have to hit the right spot and find someone for whom my story will resonate. I keep trying but meanwhile keep slogging along on my own as best I can. You do not mush a thousand miles in a day or two.

I'll be posting more as the races take place, I am sure, probably duplicating what others are saying but sharing it all from my own perhaps peculiar perspective! Ready, hike!