DAY 2

2nd day of the race…….much cooler – only 11 degrees when we left for downtown – got there about 9:30 and had to wait in line because, thankfully, they were taking snow off the sides of 4th street so the trucks wouldn’t have such a hard time getting to their spots – Randy had to park closer to the finish line today because it was reverse start – so we were about ½ block less running time to the chute……
Mark was in charge of “ball duty” again today (meaning that because it’s cold all the dogs without very much hair there need to have Bag Balm applied to keep them from chafing) and me harnesses and massaging and Randy in charge of feet (Zeus Juice) and dog boots – and Austin manned the poop scoop! (and massaging shoulders). We dropped 3 dogs so Randy went out with only 12 dogs – At the start everything went well except Chelsey in lead started out a little tentative again and I saw that she had the tug line under her leg as Randy left – while Randy was out Austin, Mark and I went down to the fur trapper’s auction (lots of good pictures of the “goods” and the spectators!) – when we came back up to check on the standings we were elated to find Randy had passed 3 teams!! The race marshal told me he had one dog in the sled but he still was going well – at the end Marvin Kokrine was nearing him coming up 4th street but Randy stayed ahead of him! It was one of those “photo finishes”! Randy ended up 16th for the day time and is now up from 21st to 20th – he did have to load Cowboy 5 miles from the finish line – he just pooped out….all in all we are very happy with today (always wish for more but have to be happy with improvement………..) and Randy will drop Cowboy for tomorrow and thinks the rest will do fine……..let’s hope he is right!!
Kukals will be coming over with hot water from their hotel for doggie supper again tonite and then will figure something out for “people supper” when they get here.
More tomorrow!!! Look at the standings on line because things really got “shook up” today – but Kenny is still in lead!!!!!!!!!!!!!!