The Start
The
clock was ticking down and about 45 minutes before my designated start time of
10:26am, we dropped the dogs once more and started to harness and bootie them.
We didn't have much time to spare and to underline that point, the volunteers
who were helping to get the teams to the start kept getting closer and closer
to our truck.
The starting chute was set up in front of the local radio station, and the staging
area where we were parked was set up across the Glenn Highway in a big parking
lot. This required the dog teams to some how get from one side of the road to
the other safely and under control.
Even
with a person helping to hold back every dog, it still would have been difficult
to do had they not had snowmachines to act as anchors with each team. So as it
was our time to go, I took one of my snowhooks and hooked into a loop of rope
on the front of a snowmachine which pulled up behind me and we gradually guided
the team across the road.
This was my first dog sled race ever and while I had seen the start of a couple
of races before, it was a bit intense this time around as I was the one standing
on the runners. The adrenaline rush as we slowly made our way up to the starting
line was incredible, and as much as I was getting pumped up, the dogs were even
more so. The team I was running is not typically known for being loud and excitable
- after all about half of them had never been to a race before and may have been
a bit overwhelmed. If they were, they didn't show it; instead they were digging
in as hard as possible, intent on dragging that snowmachine if necessary in order
to get down that trail.
One of the great moments of the start happened as the clock was ticking down.
There was a two minute spacing between teams and they gave us thirty second warnings
during those two minutes in order to make sure we were ready. The team was "lining
out" well and was barking and straining at their harnesses wanting to go.
I had a volunteer on either side of my sled standing on the snowhooks making sure
they didn't get yanked from the ground. As we got to less then thirty seconds,
I pulled one hook and asked JJ just to make sure the leaders Gertie and Goldie
didn't get into a last minute tangle just before the clock hit zero. She was watching
the leaders and as the crowd counted down 5-4-3-2-1 and I was reaching down to
pull the snow hook, Goldie started to back up just a little bit and timed it just
right. As the clock hit zero and the announcer said go she lunged ahead into her
harness and the team was off like no team I had driven before (other than those
chasing moose).
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