Tustumena 200 registration to begin Friday

Nicolas Petit's team placed second at
the 2017 Tustumena 200. January 29, 2017

After an exciting and fast paced finish this past January, the Tustumena 200 is looking ahead to what is hopefully another star studded event full of excitement. One of the last races to open registration, the race will begin taking musher applications on Friday. The T200 will be held the last weekend in January 2018 barring any unforeseen circumstances like bad weather. The 2014, 2015, and 2016 races were all cancelled due to lack of snow and unfrozen rivers making trails impassable.

While "only" a 200 mile race, the Tustumena 200 is known as one of the hardest mid-distance races in Alaska. Run mostly in the caribou hills, mushers often mention how thankful they are that it's only 200 miles. Top teams often sign up for the race to get in some mountain trail training in before the Yukon Quest and Iditarod races. Others are less experienced, but are working on qualifying for the 1,000 mile races.

Most mid-distance races cap their roster at 40 teams, and the T200 follows that guideline. Wait-lists can be long, however one of the advantages of holding registration so late is teams who couldn't get into other races - like the Northern Lights 300 which takes place the same weekend - are more likely to sign up. The T200 is also the only major race run on the Kenai Peninsula, and so a lot of the "Peninsula Mushers" plan on running on their "home turf" each year. Teams like Osmar, Zappa, and Seavey are almost always on the roster.

Returning this year is the shorter Tustumena 100 which traditionally starts before the 200 mile race and finishes the same day, in 2018 it will start after the T200. Teams run to Freddie's Roadhouse and back, with a mandatory layover in the one check point on the race. In more recent runnings, the roster has been light, and last year they did not run the shorter race. Bringing it back this year seems to be a trial run to see if it's worth the planning and preparation. The roster will be capped at 10 names. Junior mushers will be allowed to run at the request of the musher and approval by the board.

A glance at the incomplete list of the Northern Lights 300 does not show any top names in the sport as participating - however the list is unofficial and does not appear on the race's website. We'll know more about participation in the Tusumena 100 and 200 on Friday. Registration fills up within hours.

Registration opens at 8:00am AKST Friday, November 4, 2017. The race begins Saturday, January 27, 2018 at 11:00am AKST in Kasilof, Alaska.





Who do you hope to see on the race's roster? Tell me in the comments below!