Hello friends,

What a fun race! It seems every time I check the tracker, the lead has changed. According to Race Log #93 only 4 mushers have taken their mandatory 8 hour layover and no teams have taken their 24. Of course, we won’t know the true lead until all the teams have taken their 24 hour layover because that’s when they make up the start time differential. (Teachers, you can find a lesson on the time differential by 2019 Teacher on the Trail Brian Hickox here.)

Richie Diehl coming into Nikolai

I woke up today to hear the sad news that  our friend Aliy Zirkle scratched from the race. We hear she is on the mend and send her our very best. Cindy Gallea also has scratched due to a Non-Covid illness. We’ll miss both of you in this race.

Here’s a shout out to Zuva. While my racing career is over, the other K9s who are currently racing start off strong and continue to get stronger as the race rolls on. Sled dogs have amazing stamina. If you watch them come into a checkpoint, they strain into the harnesses because they want to keep running. Awoooooo! Thanks for the question Zuva. (By the way, did you notice our names are very similar? ) 

Do you have a question? Email me at askzumadog@gmail.com. I’ll answer as many as I can in future posts.

Tail wags,

                                                  Zuma