Hi Boys and Girls,
I use to run on a recreational team. Our team often shared the trail with snowmobiles. The first time was a little scary because they were big and loud and passed by us fairly close. Almost all the snowmobilers were friendly. They slowed down, they waved, they thought what we were doing was pretty cool. They made good choices on how to approach our team and go around us.
On Saturday, a snowmobiler outside of Nulato made some bad choices. He ran his snowmobile into 2 teams- Aliy Zirkles team and Jeff Kings team. He put both mushers and their teams in danger. The Alaska State Police were called in and the snowmobiler was arrested. He will have to go to court and answer for the bad choice he made.
Both Aliy and Jeff were shaken up. They have made the decision to go on with the race. This was very brave of both mushers. They have decided not to let this person take away more than he already has.
Bad things happen to all of us. It is our decision on how we are going to handle those bad things. Do we go on, or do we let it get us down, or maybe a combination of both. This is a good time to talk with your parents, teachers, and friends about how you’re feeling and how you would of handled this situation. It’s okay if you’re sad and/or angry about what happened. Talk it out and don’t let this keep you from enjoying the rest of the race.
See you on the trail,
Gypsy