More Tails and Trails

I watched Aliy come in on St Patrick's Day with mixed feelings--there was joy and pride but also some sadness. Some of the self-proclaimed pundits wondered why she "let" Jessie Royer get ahead of her. I don't think she did but in the interview she admitted she realized before Koyuk in that nasty snow that Dallas Seavey was the team to beat and then that she was not going to be able to do it unless she drove her dogs much too hard. At that point she determined to finish the race as best she could but it became more about the dogs, especially several teammates that are aging out and very likely will not be running next year. That was a real sad part because they are well known and deeply loved by many. Of course it is the most sad to Aliy because she has an incredible bond with all her dogs and a particularly strong one with Quito, Chico and Nacho and a couple of other older dogs.

The last stretch from White Mountain she did not push them and savored the final trip with them to the last minute. She was clearly emotional at the end. The first time also that her face has revealed a bit of age and I think I spied a strand or two of gray in the hair that blew out from under her cap and hood. Hey she just ran, poled and pedaled 1000 miles with temps as low as -60 or so some have said! However, this is not really an event for young people and she has a number of good years yet barring unforseen accidents. The descendants of some of these great dogs will run future races and bring honor to SP Kennels. I'd stake my life on that. She called her mom on a phone someone handed her--they cannot be carried on the trail--and I am sure Allen watched at the checkpoint where he was holed up due to the weather. How proud her parents must be of this great human being they raised; I met them in August and it is easy to see they are great folks and part of the foundation behind Aliy.

Here from the ITC files is Aliy with Scout in Nome; he ran co-lead with Quito or at times another dog for most of the way and promises to be a very good leader too.

I'll do some more on the Red Team soon and also on the "yahoo" team as they are fondly calling the pups that Allen is running on the Black Team for their first Iditarod.  I have the roster of both teams from the SPKennel "Dog Log" blog, also on Blogspot. Here is the link if you want to check it out! http://spkenneldoglog.blogspot.com/


And here from SPK blog are two Black Team dogs resting. Isn't that a precious picture? They are running mates and partners and that's very clear.  The one on the left is Beemer, an older dog helping break in the pups and not sure the other one.