The contest thread itself still says “the topic is racing”.
Rarely, but it is a valid identifier.
I have the opposite problem - too many. It’s going to be hard to choose.
I have chosen. This is the runner-up. From the now closed Derby Lane/St. Petersburg Kennel Club track.
What good and pretty dogs!
If you click on/enlarge the photo, you can see how muscular the red one (#8) in the front is.
I have photos (the printed kind) somewhere of the dog races in Anchorage many winters ago, but my pics don’t gain much interest (boo-hoo) and I’m too lazy to dig them out.
I’d be very interested in seeing those!
Glad to see you have an entry!
I haven’t had a chance to see sled dogs on snow, but I did go to a race once where they were using wheeled sleds - the dogs went absolutely apeshit when the first racers were getting ready to go.
The noise level from all those teams of excited dogs is unbelievable. They truly love to run. The Fur Rendezvous races are three days on a 25 mile course. Aggregate best time wins. Very exciting when I was a kid and we always rooted for the local Native mushers. We volunteered to work on the Iditarod crew in 1998.
@Chefguy I love your picture. It’s inspired me and I think I’ll dig up one of mine from my trip to the 2019 Iditarod. You were a great help when I was planning that family trip — that was a great trip and with your fantastic inputs my family had a great time. Thank you again!
You are absolutely right, those dogs love to run. When they’re waiting to go they are antsy and cannot wait. They’re on their leads and jumping up and down, barking like crazy (and it is LOUD), but once they go they settle down and are quiet. They love to work. You have to see it (and hear it) to understand it.
You’ll remember that we flew out to Nome to see the finish of the race, and what’s crazy is that those dogs had just finished running 1,000 miles across Alaska (or, 1,049 miles, the ceremonial length of the race because Alaska is the 49th state) — even though they’re tired from having just completed the race, they still want to run some more!
Huh, I thought it was like the marathon, where the length of the race was set by the distance between Anchorage and Nome. Wasn’t the original run the race commemorates an emergency medicine delivery?
Yes the 1925 diphtheria outbreak (IIRC), and they’d run short of the serum. A dog sled team was used to run some serum out there. (added) … because the weather was bad and that was the best, most reliable way to get the serum to Nome.
It’s also set by trail conditions throughout, so the route can vary from year to year. But basically, the race goes from the town of Willow to the village of Nome, with a ceremonial start in downtown Anchorage.
Some years the weather is too warm in Willow (global warming) and they’ve had to move the start farther north.
The typical race route alternates with the event and odd years — towards the middle of the state they have a northern route and a southern route, alternating with the even/odd years.
From our trip in 2019, the ceremonial start in Anchorage. My son is the only one who woke up early with me to reserve a good spot for us to watch the start.
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… and the finish in Nome. You don’t know when they’ll finish the race, and in 2019 we had to wake up at 0200 to meet the winner. The snow was blowing sideways…
It was a fantastic experience.
Hell, at Barkley Marathons you don’t even know when it’ll start; well, it starts one hour after the blowing of the conch shell, but no one knows when that’ll be.
Barkley - The Race That Eats It’s Young documentary.
SCCA road racing sounds in my ear right now. I’m Not at the track !!!??? but close enough to hear it loudly on my deck
Last race of the day, little tire squealing and flat out hauling ass.
Still no contribution from @Spiderman , our theme-chooser. Are you waiting until the last minute to wow us with yours?
Not intentionally; just haven’t been home to work on them. I grabbed some to go thru on Sat but then left again Sunday morn & realized I forgot a whole category of races, a couple of which I knew I liked. Oh well. As it is, my entry was made internationally.