Green River classic is a race held in Pinedale, Wyoming. It has been going on for quite a few years now. i chose this race mostly because it was the next closest thing to me, and I thought that my dogs could use more practice under race conditions before we headed for the Jr. Iditarod. It was another sprint race, but at 28 miles was slightly longer than the West Yellowstone Race. I drew bib number 12, but being as there was no bib number 10 (I still don't understand that), i took off in 11th place. Which still put me taking off very last since there was only 11 mushers in my class. I have horrible luck drawing numbers. I always draw either very last or close to the very last number. I'm not complaining though: my team is slow at these sprint races so I stay more out of everyones way by starting at the back.
The race was cold. The first day we had highs of 10 degrees. That's actually not too bad. i was happy with that temperature. The race went relatively well. It's always fun to get out on new trails. the dogs were happy and running well also. I finished 11th, just under 9 minutes behind John Bunderson.
On the second day, they sent me out first which if I'm running slower than everyone else I don't like much because I tend to get a little disheartened at being passed by every single other musher. But Rob Greger convinced me that it wouldn't be so bad; with other teams passing, that would give my team something to chase and hopefully help make us somewhat faster. It was -25 out according to the truck's thermometer, and to tell you the truth, I really didn't want to get out of the truck. I got the dogs hooked up and ready, and I may have looked ridiculous, but i put on a pair of ski goggles and ski mask on also. I don't like when my eyelashes freeze together. Bit
of a pet peeve of mine. After about a mile down the trail I got annoyed with the goggles because they kept fogging up. I took them off and shoved them in my glove bag. It really wasn't cold enough to need them.
Another couple of miles down the trail though, the trail crossed over a bridge. The water under the bridge must have been heated by a hot spring because it was still open, even at these temperatures, and was sending a lot of fog up. I didn't think much about it until another 10 minutes went by, and it was getting hard to breathe. I tapped the front of the ski mask and it was completely frozen solid from the water dropplets in the fog. Everything was uneventful after that, except during the lollipop. We took the turn around in the opposite dirrection that day, and we were most of the way around it when I remembered that there was abig pothole int he middle of it somewhere. I was so busy pay attention to that that I didn't slow the team down for the hard 90 degree left we were about to make. I tried to slam on the brake to slow us down, but we still took it too fast and I lost my balance and flipped the sled. got it back upright quickly though and we were back down the trail in under 20 seconds. This time when we crossed the bridge I remembered to pull my hood with the fur ruff up to keep the frost off of my face.
I still came in last place, although this time I was just over 5 minutes slower than John Bunderson. I pedaled as much as i could going back to help speed us up.
{Even though there are mushers behind me, I still came in last place as placement is based on time.}}
The downside as I found out, is that I usually stand on my left runner and use my left foot to pedal. so when I got back to the trailer, because I had been standing with all of my weight on that leg for the last half hour and not moving it, I couldn't feel my right leg from about the knee down. After walking on it for 2 or 3 minutes, I suddenly got a horrible, intense pain in my foot that felt like my whole foot was on fire, or I had dipped it in a pot of hot oil. I managed, with a lot of assistance, to get the harnesses off of my dogs and get them back in their boxes. Rob Greger then instructed me to go get in the truck, start the heater up, and take my boots and socks off. God was my foot cold and hurting. It was still a fun time however.
