Here are a list of related articles about Charlie winning the race:

• KTNA News 
• Fairbanks Newsminer
• Yukon Quest Page

Well it's the end of the day at the end of a very long weekend, that really started over a week and a half ago when we got the the word there was enough mushers to run the 2009 Jr. Quest sled dog race.

11pm alaska time on a day that started at 2:00 am!  So bare with the punchyness of thought, spelling, and grammer!

Well Charlie won!  Yahoo!  He ran a perfect race as a musher.  He took dogs that- I believe- even he would admit weren't conditioned as well as they could have been, and ran them to their absolute best!

 And he won to boot!  His first ever win!  

 It wasn't easy by any means- and there is so much that I want to explain about how he did it- but there isn't room here.  It is probly enough to say that he not only won the race but also won the Humanitarian Award which goes to the musher who gives his dogs the best care.

Charlie and I began learning to race dogs together.  And for the past four years, 4 Jr. Iditarods, 2 failed Iditarods, a number of mid-distance races and shorter Jr races, we have struggled to learn how to keep the dogs running at a consistent pass through out the race.

But Charlie turned the corner on that with this was!  He went out hard and as fast as our dogs can genetical go and stayed there- holding a steady pass - and they lead - for nearly the entire way, holding off a mid race surge by the 2nd place musher and a very slow dog drop at the Valley Center check point that cost him a third of his mid-way lead!  But his steady, never wavering pace won the day.

And a lot of just good, solid, dog-reading judgement calls!

The secret- foot care!

Even though his dog went into the race undertrained, they finished barking and banging the harness ready to go more!  An observation I over heard many of the spectors at the finish commenting on.  In fact, I am sure had the race been any longer the time between him and second would have continued to grow just as it had through the last two checkpoints.  Tonight as I fed them, and Charlie slept, the lunged and barked and generally looked ready to start another race- stronger even than they were before this one!

That is the first time ever that any of dogs have looked anything like this at the end of a race!  Yahoo!

This is Charlie last year of Jr races and then he is probably off to college soon after- though thoughts of holding off a year and running Iditarod or the Quest are bouncing through his head- It's been an absolute pleasure to be part of this with him and I am VERY of all he has done and learned over the past four years! 

Okay we are through the Jr. Quest start and everything went well.  Charlie is off and doing well on his plan.

So the plan was to start fast, stay off the brake as much as possible and keep them going as quick as he could as long as they were comfortable.  He wanted to be in first by the first checkpoint- but missed that by 6 minutes.  But then had it by the next with 11mins. to spare.  Which means he actually gained 17mins!  

 At the next checkpoint he had maintained the lead- far enough ahead so nobody else can see him or their dogs chase him.

So all is well.

But dog racing can change in an instant so we will just have to wait and see.

 He should make it into the halfway point- and an eight hour mandatory layover- with in an hour.

We will keep the twittering!

Next updates will be when they get into twin bears- the halfway spot.  Then we will be up there around 2:00 AM to clean up after him.  After that we will be following him back down through the route he went out on.

The race now is all about who's dogs slow down the slowest!