7:30 am. 28 degrees.

I have the sneaking suspicion that Kris is training the crew at the same time he’s training the dogs. The suspicion crawled up upon me as he came out to check on us running the dogs (three four wheelers with 12 dogs each) and one four wheeler in front to get us through all the turns the right way. He seemed fairly satisfied and I have to say I’m much more confident than in years past.

Kris will be leaving for three weeks in Januaryto run two 300 mile races in Alaska and I’m already filled with anxiety. Kris is our rock. He can fix anything, knows everything and has not missed a day of the season in two years (we run seven days a week).

Today I had the same two leaders – Concrete and Tuxedo, followed by Winston and Downy, then Smoky and Dan, Stevie and Cain, Baretta and Ram then Slingblade and Hollywood. Being some of the bigger dogs in the kennel, Slingblade and Hollywood run at wheel. They are the power on the team. Hollywood has ears that bend over as opposed to standing up straight. As we ran, the little flaps of ears would bounce up and meet each other in the middle. Up and down, up and down. A few of the older dogs wore out fairly quickly, but kept a good pace overall.

For the second round, I went ahead on the four wheeler. Fixed a couple of tangles and dogs running on the wrong side of the line, but they all looked good. Back again tomorrow morning!