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The Drawing Banquet
One of the things that had stressed me out in the weeks leading up to the race
was anticipation of how many times I would get passed during that first leg
of the race. I figured I had probably been passed from behind by a team maybe
5 times in all the training miles I had traveled this year and last. I just
wasn't quite sure how to do it, and it was mostly the unknown which was making
me quite nervous. What would compound this and no doubt make me a nervous wreck
would be if I drew a low number and thus an early starting position. I wanted
a middle to end of the pack starting position and joked that if I pulled a low
number I'd just toss it back in and draw again. One of the dreams/nightmares
I had in the weeks leading up to the race was that I drew number 3.
Well, my time came and there were still some low numbers in the hat when I drew,
but fortunately I ended up with #14 and was quite pleased with that position.
When we got back to the hotel that night after the banquet, I even joked that
I felt that I had now been successful and accomplished at least one of my goals.
Bill had arrived from Fairbanks just in time for the banquet and afterwards
he volunteered to get up during the night to drop the dogs so I could get as
much sleep as possible. This was a great help and took some of the pressure
off JJ, who still got up to help, but didn't have to do all the lifting and
handling of the dogs herself.