CB300 - Finish in Glennallen

What an exciting race that ended up to be! We're so proud and excited about the result and they way all our teams performed!

We understand the trackers were misbehaving so it must have been agonising for you all. I can tell you it was a nervous wait for Ray and I at the finish. Little whispers and murmurs could be heard amongst the crowd that gathered, speculating on what was happening and who would get there first. It was a feeling of relief followed by excitement as we recognised the team coming our way first.

As soon as they crossed the line and all the paperwork had been finished Allen was whisked away to the Old Paths Baptist Church for an interview with KCAM, one of the local ratio stations for an interview, and a couple of plates of chilli.

The dogs looked great; I know I say that a lot but the really did! They ate several snacks right there in the finish cute then we took them to the truck where they had a kibble meal before getting into their straw beds. What a team eh?

Aliy came into Glennallen upbeat and excited, as did her team. She was proud of all of them and she came over the line with Scruggs and Waylon in lead. If you check the CB300 race stats you will see that Aliy went over her mandatory 18 hours of rest. She was at Tolsona Lake Resort checkpoint around about the time Allen and Nic Petit were about to cross the finish line so she decided to stick around for a while, enjoy a tasty burger and embark her final run with the knowledge Allen and his team were the 2014 CB champions.

We have just returned from seeing Meghan and her Red and Black team cross the line. She really went for it from Tolsona hoping to make up a place which they managed to pull off in the last two miles. Her team finished looking strong and was lead by Ranger all the way! Apparently she was channelling Allen at the second Tolsona pass through: she stopped for two minutes, the minimum allowed as mushers have to sign in and out if they are "blowing through" a checkpoint, and started throwing out all unnecessary items in her sled to make it lighter! We've seen the strategy work so why not try it? I look forward to talking to Meghan about her race and I'm sure she will write a post to tell you all about her team of stars.

Thanks to the team at the Old Paths church who hosted the finish and had crock-pots of soup, chilli and home baking for whoever wanted to enjoy it. It was much appreciated!

Finally all dogs, mushers and handlers are either fast asleep or just about to… just as soon as I finish this sentence… Goodnight. You will hear from me again during the coming week when I get videos edited and uploaded and hear more of the stories from the trail but in the meantime: thank you for following along! It's been fun; tiring but fun.