Time adjustments cost Mackey a win.

The Knik 200 came down to splitting hairs when deciding the winner, and the deciding factor was not at the finish line. Lance Mackey's team came through the chute first with Jake Berkowitz so close behind. Officials then went to check on times for each musher. With the snow storm hitting its fiercest point along the region, communications were down, meaning the official decision was delayed in announcement.

People on the ground tweeted that Mackey'd won, but were unaware that Mackey was premature in leaving after his six hour layover in the Skwentna checkpoint. Because of his leaving three minutes early, Berkowitz was awarded first place with Mackey taking second once the times were determined. Ray Reddington Jr. was third.

Teams are still out on the trail. Follow the race via twitter @Knik200 or their website.

Knik 200 finish too close to be determined

It was a neck and neck for race veterans Lance Mackey and Jake Berkowitz with a finish too close to tell. According to the twitter feed an official ruling will determine the 2012 Knik Race winner. With the weather turning ugly all around the south central region, it's good to hear that nothing slowed the front runners down. It looks as though DeeDee Jonrowe and Ray Reddington have also finished.

Knik 200 a training run for Team Jonrowe

 Just hours before the weekend's sled dog race was set to kick off, mushing favorite DeeDee Jonrowe posted on her facebook that the Knik 200 was going to be a training run. Jonrowe, 58, runs her kennel out of Willow, Alaska where the Iditarod now starts from. Jonrowe is a long time musher - starting back in 1979 - and, like many mushers, has her sights set on the "big race" in March.

She posted yesterday on her facebook:

"Don't be concerned about wherever Justin High and I finish in Knik 200 tomorrow. This is a training run and both of us have unproven dogs that are out for experience. We are keeping our "eye on the prize", and that is in March. This weekend is about "time on the trail", kind of like "time on your feet" for you runners." 

The Knik 200 is a two day 200 mile sled dog race that starts in Knik and stops at Iditarod checkpoints of Yentna Station and Swentna before doubling back and finishing back at the starting point. The race is used by Iditarod rookies as one of several required mid distance Iditarod qualifying races. Conditions for this year's race couldn't be more perfect with temperatures hovering just below zero and enough snow that it will be a hard, fast paced trail.

The race is dedicated to, and named for, Joe Reddington Sr. who is known as the father of the Iditarod. Reddington was concerned with the dwindling number of sled dogs in Alaska with the boom of airplane transportation and roads. To save the Alaska pioneer way of life, as well as a unique breed of dog, Reddington began his quest to bring mushers together in the early 70s and the first race was run in 1973. Since then the sport has grown in popularity and technology.

According to the latest posts on the Knik 200 facebook and twitter, the first team will cross the finish line around 1:30pm Alaska time today.

Jeff King joins T200 Roster

http://www.tustumena200.com

Four-time Iditarod Champion and newly unretired Jeff King has joined the small T200 roster. King will be the 12th musher out of the gate on January 28 for a 200 mile sled dog race.

The T200 is a well known race located on the Kenai Peninsula. For the first time in years the race will take a route to a check point in Homer before returning to the starting point. The race was very close to being cancelled this year due to lack of funding, but with help from local support and a bit of restructuring the race is still on.

Changes to the race are simple, a different check point (in Homer) as well as the lack of the Tustamena 100. Both the 200 and Jr. races are set to go the last weekend of January. So far not many junior mushers (youth) are signed up, most noticably absent is last year's winner, Conway Seavey.

So far, thirteen teams have signed up for the T200.


*Another exciting addition (well, exciting to some) is the addition of ME! I will be volunteering as the race's official photographer. Tons of photos coming your way at the end of the month! So excited (how's that for totally changing from an official sounding article to a fangirl blog?)

So much for taking time off!

Schnulle at the start of Iditarod 37,
March 2009

After racing a very exhausting competitive season last year, Sebastian Schnuelle announced that he would take the 2011-2012 racing season off to go sailing and visit friends and family around the globe. Schnuelle tried to take a break the season before, but quickly found himself signing up for the big races around Alaska and Canada.

This season, Schnuelle gave many of his dogs over to another musher and headed outside to "see the sun," as he put it. Soon, though, Schnuelle actively followed the first races of winter, giving his advice and online commentary via his facebook accounts. Then news broke that he would be running the Copper Basin 300 race (being held next weekend). He posted that he was working on his CB300 drop bags, and begrudged his unwavering obsession.

Then rumors swirled earlier this week that Schnuelle had signed up for the Yukon Quest. Some fans scoffed, his name was not on the race website, Schnuelle was taking a break from the big races.

Schnuelle put that talk to rest this morning with his update to his facebook page: "signed up for the Quest. Damn, I AM addicted."

The Yukon Quest is the second most popular long distance sled dog race in Alaska, and the only international race in North America. The race begins in Fairbanks and crosses over the Canadian border. While the Iditarod is now known as the "glamor" race with its well groomed trails and temperate weather, the Quest is known to be brutal. Many Quest mushers who go on to run the Iditarod pump the Quest to be the more challenging of the two (though Hugh Neff took that back after the difficulties of last year's Iditarod).

The 2011 Quest was an exceptionally challenging one, with many of the top names having to scratch due to adverse weather conditions. Once front runner Hugh Neff scratched (a dog died on the trail, which devastated the musher, who then ended up trapped on the mountain during a snow storm), Schnuelle was poised to take the title, but flooding on the Yukon caused other mushers to become trapped on the ice. Schnuelle helped several out of danger, including the eventual winner, Dallas Seavey, who came in just minutes before Schnuelle.

The Quest begins Feb. 4, 2012.

Happy New Year!

I'm headed out in a bit to play some games with some friends in Nikiski, may or may not log back in to wish everyone a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

May 2012 be much better than the last!

Looking back, moving forward...

Overall 2011 has not been a great year. I'm not even sure it was a good year. Many highlights of the year, for me, were either breaks from reality (which also had their moments of ugh) or they didn't even happen with/for me (like different sports highlights).

2011 started off with my move back to the peninsula and starting a new job. The house I was renting was on the river -a dream location!- but was so expensive and frustrating that I spent most of my time loving my independence all the while hating my situation and stressing constantly about finances.

Then, the job wasn't working out. I had little time to myself -I know, that's part of being an adult- I was exhausted, and it was more trouble and less rewarding than anything I'd done previously. Coming home every night feeling like I was a failure and that I was dirt just by how I was treated didn't help. Hey, thanks, I know, I don't fit in. Keep rubbing it in.

Family drama hit a new high and it's continuing to get worse. I'm not living at home and there's NO WHERE to go. I can't hide from it as the walls are paper thin, or worse someone always seems to put me in the middle. Two weeks ago I lost it while trying to explain how I was feeling and that just made matters worse. This is why I don't talk to people and end up venting online. Everytime I say something it backfires.

There's still the finances issue, I have my photography business up and running, but it's not working to my benefit (which hey add that to my failures) so I am looking at trying for a part time job this coming year. Again. In a dead end town.

I've also never been more alone. All of my friends' lives have moved on when I've really just found myself in a rut. I feel now, more than ever, like I've gone back in time about 10 years. I'm still that girl in high school that couldn't speak up for herself, who had dreams she knew would never come true, and felt she couldn't trust anyone...

And, once again, I'm watching a best friend move on. Because, lets face it, like the hometown I'm in - I'm a dead end.

And 2012 doesn't look to improve my position. I have a trip in late summer planned to visit my family in california and go to disney. I have the Iditarod in March, and a Birthday at Beauty and the Beast in January. I hope to see my business improve, but other than that... I'm stuck...

and honestly this was not where I was going to go with this post. But I can't help but feel these things.

Hopefully after the first of the year my blog will look cheery again... or, at the very least, back to normal.

Movie Review: The Muppets

Jim Henson's Muppets are back in a star studded tribute to the original Muppet Gang. The group that starred in the Muppet show and classic films like The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper are back with a vengence in Jason Segal's new[ish] story that is basically a love letter to a group over fourty years old.

Everything that made the original films quirky and a little bit like a trip on whatever drug the muppeteers might have been on seems to have come together in the latest film. While Muppet Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island (and, okay, even Muppets from Space) had their moments of hilarity, they lacked the Henson-ness that seemed to have been lost with the death of creator Jim Henson.

But, with the script carefully created and supervised by Muppet fanatic Jason Segal, it was almost as if - for a moment - Henson himself was back.

There are flaws with the film. The most glaring are the incorrect voices of Miss Piggy (no longer voiced by Frank Oz, who did not sign off on this film) and Rowlf. Some of it was corny, even for the Muppets, and the story is not new. The idea that the Muppets have to save their theater has been a storyline for at least one of their TV specials in the last ten years or so.

Having been disappointed by the Muppet TV specials and their last feature film, I went into the idea of a new movie with a lot of hesitation. In fact, I was not planning of seeing the movie in theaters at all. But, then, the movie hit theaters and fans nationwide (as well as many of my friends) began pushing it as a MUST SEE. Even with that knowledge, going into the film my expectations were low.

The storyline is simple. Jason Segal is older brother to a muppet looking character. They grew up loving the Muppets and trek out (along with Segal's longtime girlfriend played by Amy Adams) to LA to visit the Muppet Studios only to find that the theater is condemned and the studios are broken down shells of what they once were. To make matters worse they find out that Oil has been found under the property and an evil tycoon is going to buy it out from under them and drill. They have one last chance, to collect 10 million dollars to keep their property. How better to do this than a Muppet Show Telethon. But first, Kermit has to get the gang back together.

Classic characters who were more or less background characters in the last three films are back in their starring roles that they relished in the 70s. Muppet Show favorites also make apperances. It's probably the best tribute the Muppets could ask for.

There really wasn't a lot to complain about in the film. Some of the jokes were beneath them (Fozzie's fart shoes as well as Jack Black's genetalia joke), and without Frank Oz, Miss Piggy just doesn't have the same sassiness. For those of us who grew up after Henson's death I guess the difference in Piggy's voice for me is the same feeling that folks had when Kermit was forced to have a different Muppeteer (granted Whitmire is amazing). Not sure I will ever get used to a new Piggy.

Overall this film is FANTASTIC. I loved it from beginning to end, and yes, I cried when they sang Rainbow Connection. The ending also gave me a lump in my throat. If it's still playing in your area, then go see it. It's well worth the cost of admission, and is a GREAT family memory to be made. It's time the Muppets are welcomed back.

T200 smaller in roster, bigger in heart



Zoya Denure, at the start of Iditarod 39, is one
of the top contenders for this year's T200.

Like many winter sports, dog mushing is struggling to find its place in the downward spiralling economy. Larger races like the Iditarod and Yukon Quest as well as the Fur Rondy World Championship Sprints have established sponsorship capable of supporting the expenses incurred by putting on a race.

The T200 has been dealing with the loss of funds all year, and this year are only working on the Junior T and the T200. The shorter T100 will not be held this year, with the hope that it will return next season. 
The race will take place January 28th, and is a race that is used as a rookie qualifier for races like the Iditarod. So far ten teams have signed up with Paul Gebhardt - a previous TChampion - and Zoya Denure as the "headliners." Gebhardt is a local musher, and DeNure is favored by mushing fans for her treatment of her dogs as well as her sled dog rescue work.

The race will be longer with a new stop in Homer planned. The purse is a substantial 10,000 that the Kasilof community voted to give the race from a state grant. This race is an institution, one worth saving. Volunteers are welcome to sign up to help see the race through.

http://www.tustumena200.com

It's a Rookie Invasion?

With the deadline to register just a couple days away, the 2012 Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race looks to be a field of rookies. So far the official roster has thirty mushers, nineteen of which are rookies. With Hans Gatt retired, and Sebastian Schnuelle taking a year off, the two top named veterans are former Quest and Iditarod Champion Lance Mackey and fan favorite (as well as consistently strong competitor) Hugh Neff. Mackey is the only champion to win both the Quest and Iditarod in the same year (his first Iditarod winning year, 2007). Neff was poised to take the Quest title last year but the death of a dog and horrible weather conditions forced the musher to scratch.

Other notable Quest Veterans in this year's race are Allen Moore, Sonny Lindner and David Dalton.

The biggest news, however, to come out of the musher roster is a team of Eastern European kennels have joined together to travel and compete in the race. All rookies, it's bringing a new and exciting element to the second most popular race in Alaska - and the only sled dog race that travels across the border into Canada making it a one of a kind event in North America.

2011 Quest Champion, Dallas Seavey, is not currently on the roster. No word if he will compete in the Quest this season or not. Seavey is part of an Iditarod mushing dynasty (third generation) as well as the youngest to complete the Iditarod and win the Quest.