3rd day of the Rondy

Well by now you probably know how the race turned out.......Randy in last becuse the guys that he was ahead of the previous 2 days had really good days and Spec and 747 were not really working for him most of the trail. In spite of his place he really enjoyed the race and never had to load a dog!

We started the day with Randy talking to one of the guys that works on the trail and found out what the "intense" late nite meeting was about last nite - they had had numerous complaints from witnesses and bystanders and even a video, about Buddy Streeper swearing at Luke Sampson and hitting him in the shoulder as he passed his team on Cordova Hill - from the video that we watched, it appeared that Luke didn't know Buddy was flying up the hill behind him, got off and started to run with his team up the hill, and it may have deterred Buddy's team from passing perfectly. There was a statement from Buddy published in the Anchorage Daily News that you can find on Sled Dog Central. Our impression is that there were so many complaints and it happened in such a highly visible area, and that the only recourse stated in the ASDRA rules is that "Unsportsmanlike conduct in the race area and on the racecourse is prohibited" and "Violation of these rules will be cause for disqualification from the race in which the violation occurs" so the board was faced with making a very difficult decision without any other options for penalty as stated in their rules. Terry Streeper was at the race yesterday parked across from us and helped with the Iditarod driver, Aaron Burmeister who had leased a team from them for the race and came in 5th.

When Randy got around to starting the truck to go to the race site downtown, he remembered he had not plugged it in last nite, so we had to plug it in and wait for the block to warm up - that caused an increase anxiety level along with the already present pre-race jitters - we did get down to the parking place almost on time and the way they have it arranged on the 3rd day is that even though the slowest teams go out first (us being 3rd then) they also park in the very back!!! so we were 3 blocks from the start line!! We had help again today from Pam Schamber (sorry if I butchered her name,......) and got up to the line and off without problems. Before he left we questioned whether Seabiscuit's lifting of his feet was because he was hurt or just had cold feet and Randy had thought about whether he should leave Spec at the truck --- Pam was able to park in the lot near the finish and as soon as Randy left we jumped in her car to go out to the Tudor road crossing (1/4 mile from the clubhouse where we stay) and we were able to see Randy come through - I didn't say anything until he was past us not wanting dogs to think that because I was there it must be time to stop!!! Randy did yell at me though he should have left Spec on the truck!

He finished in a flurry with 4 teams crossing the finish line almost simultaneously!!! I was down the block so I didn't see it well - I need to be far along towards the truck in order to keep up with them coming back.....

Watched the award ceremony downtown (couldn't take any pictures because just before we left to see Randy on the trail my camera battery died.....did get a picture of him and George Attla just before though!!) and then pulled over to the Office Depot lot which was right near where the awards banquet was = fed dogs and dropped them and went to the delicious banquet and Randy took special time accepting his award for me to have taken on the extra work while he has been "incapacitated" - he did that even though he said he wouldn't thank me in his speech when he talked about it - so it would be like a surprise!! We also found out the other 2 people that we saw in the video that caught his sled on the 1st day and were able to thank them personally and in the speech - Heather Hardy (she did the Rondy last year) and her husband that tackled the sled, John Schultheiss (again with the spelling...)

Got back to the clubhouse about 10:30 and had to drop again - so this morning was a waaaaaaay sleep in morning - til 9:30!!!!!!!!

Today we are training my team and it's a beautiful sunny "warm" day - Carolyn and Sherrie Johnson are here to train too - more later!!!