Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Open North American Championships

This particular sprint race has been run since 1947.  It has been titled The "Granddaddy of 'em All" and is said to be the "fastest sled dog race in the world."  It's a three day race where the musher with the best overall time wins.  They do twenty miles the first two days then twenty-seven miles on the third day.  The race starts and finishes in downtown Fairbanks, and in between navigates up and around the north side of town via the Chena River, Noyes Slough, rec areas and the golf course.  We went into town to see the second and third days of races.  During the second day we watched teams take off from downtown.  The teams began the race with 12 to 18 dogs.  These dogs run all out for an hour averaging speeds around 20 mph.  Just like all other Alaskan huskies, I have never seen such happy and enthused dogs!
Here come the teams down 2nd Ave.





The guy in the pictures above and below (#15) became the 2013 champion, a first for him.  He said it has been a 20 year dream.  This quote came out of the Fairbanks Newsminer, “Beyond my family, this is the biggest accomplishment of my life,” Reynolds said. “I’ve got my Ph.D., and a veterinary degree and believe me this was much harder than getting those two. It’s unbelievable.”
His first day: 20 miles in 1 hr 1 min 30 sec
His second day: 20 miles in 1 hr 1 min 46 sec
His third day: 27 miles in 1 hr 17 min 33 sec
 On the third day of the race we watched from the end of the Noyes Slough section.  Just passed this spot the teams crossed a main road and began the loop portion of the trail.  So after we watched the teams come by the first time, we waited a half hour and watched them come by again on their way to the finish line.






 When they came back through, they were down to the last ten miles of the race and it got exciting!  Many teams were very close to each other and we got to see one team pass another right beside us. 




 A lot of mushers use ski poles to help push the sled and others kick with their foot.
 I guess this musher thought less wind resistance would help.

I thought some dogs needed to be singled out due to their facial expressions.
 This is great!
 Love those tongues!


 I think this dog has the longest tongue I have ever seen!
This was the passing moment.  You can see the passing team behind the closer one.  It was fun to hear the mushers conversing.  You could hear the tension and adrenaline in the passing mushers voice.

 Alaskan huskies are actually just mutts made up of a wide variety of dog breeds including Labs.  You can really see the Lab traits in these dogs above.  Other breeds include Malamutes, Siberian Huskies, Border Collies, Pointers, and Salukis. 


A fun time was had by all! :)

No comments:

Post a Comment