My boys were anxious to hear that I did finally get to meet Lacey Hart and Nicole Forto in real life. They’ve both been so amazing this year with writing to my students and keeping  them up to date on their Junior Iditarod preparations.  Last night I got to check in with both of them.

Nicole reports that both she and the team are ready to go!  She’s a little nervous but a LOT excited!  She was going to miss school today (lucky!) to take her dogs to vet checks and to get one final training run in.

Lacey says everything is in good shape for the race to begin tomorrow.  She and the staff of volunteers have taken care of pretty much everything that needs to be done.  She is super excited too and ready to have a sleepless few days while keeping a watch on all the junior mushers and their teams.

I finished up my school presentations here in the Mat-Su Valley today visiting Larson Elementary and Willow Elementary.  Both schools were fantastic and in one day I spoke with kids from preschool through sixth grade!  WOW!  Thanks to all the schools I’ve been able to visit so far, it’s been wonderful getting to share Iditarod stories with you!  And a special note to all the kids I’ve spoken with….Be sure to keep watching the Iditarod race so we can figure out the ending to this year’s exciting Iditarod story!

Greeting at Larson Elementary!