With his team of mostly young, first-time racers, Allen won the 50-mile Solstice Race! Passing almost a dozen senior, 100-mile teams along the way, his team performed superbly and Allen was very proud of the dogs.
Aliy had a frustrating outbound leg in the 100-mile race as her main leader first stopped leading then pretty much quit working altogether. Arriving at the checkpoint with the dog riding in the sled, Aliy said she lost about thirty minutes in total along the way, having to first move the dog from lead to swing, then to wheel and finally into the sled bag.
There are so many variables and complexities in sled dog racing that you can never anticipate -- let alone plan for -- all of the contingencies. Losing your main leader, having to carry it in the sled and eventually dropping it from the team is one of the last things you would expect.
Nevertheless, Aliy was able to hold onto 6th place -- out of over 30 teams -- at the finish. Considering that her dogs were only a "B-C" team to begin with -- the "A Teams" did not race this weekend -- this was an excellent result overall.
Here is Part 2 of my video report from the Solstice 50/100 Mile Sled Dog Race: