3.....2.....1.....GOOOOO!

Ryan was the 4th of 6 mushers to leave the starting shoot of the Western Alaska Championship Sled Dog Race at 12:06 today. This is Ryan's first race, think he had fun. I know the dogs did.

This year's running celebrates the 50th year of the race and Beaver Round-up (our annual spring festival). Three mushers have come down from New Stuyahok, one flew over from Iliamna, Ryan and another local fella make up the rest of the field. The four out-of-town teams are competitive and finished pretty close together in two groups of two. Then Ryan came in 15 minutes later and Keenan another 20 minutes after that.

Ryan's running my dogs. They are not sprint dogs and never do very well in these races, but it's still fun. They covered the 18 1/2 mile course at 12 mph, much too slow to compete in sprint races. True sprint teams run at 16 to 19 mph depending on the trail. My dogs lope for a while, but eventually settle into their comfortable trot. It's how they run, how they work, and I've got no desire to change that. We'll do much better once our new sprint team is up and flying. We're all pretty excited to get that going, especially Ryan. He's a competitive guy and will enjoy running twoard the front of these competitive races.

Keenan Herrmann is the other Dillingham musher. Keenan is 17 years old, running four dogs (three only 10 months old) on a sled he built from milled spruce and birch. His family operates the only farm in the region on a piece of ground 13 miles out of town. The Herrmann's are a great family and have enjoyed seeing Keenan and his sister Libby taking so well to dog mushing. They're natural with animals and aren't afraid of hard work. They give me a call from time to time with questions and such. I was so proud of Keenan and Libby seeing their dogs run the 18.4 mile course. They did it in fine fashion crossing the finish line with plenty of gas in the tank, tails wagging, and Keenan grinning ear to ear. He says he's going to beat those "Stuyahok boys" some day. If he sticks with, I believe he may.

KDLG is broadcasting the race at 12:00 Saturday and 1:00 Sunday. You can listen on-line at kdlg.org. There should be a few race stories and musher interviews on the site tomorrow as well.

Snow is falling and the forcast is for more snow and even rain. Although our dogs don't particularly like warm weather, it wouldn't hurt to get a bunch of snow on the trail to slow down those hot-shot teams!