Joshua Klejka who placed 8th was extremely happy to have had the opportunity to run on such good trail. There’s way more ice than snow around his hometown of Bethel so while his dogs didn’t have enough training this year to be really competitive, musher and canines enjoyed the 124-mile run immensely.

Piglet is a character, a rather hyperactive dog who is seven years old and has run the Junior race multiple times with Joshua and his older brother Jeremiah. Piglet won gold in the Junior with Jeremiah. There’s a story about that race.

Defending champion, Marissa Osmar and rookie, Conway Seavey left Yentna Station far ahead of the other junior mushers. Jeremiah was the next team out. He was enjoying the run very much – the trail was well marked, it was smooth and fast and his dogs were humming along. About a half mile from the finish line, Jeremiah and team were greeted by very enthusiastic spectators. One even yelled, “Go get’um Champ!” What was that guy taking about, CHAMP?  There were two other people ahead of him.  He’s getting a little too excited about third place.  What Klejka didn’t know until he crossed the finish line was that the two mushers he thought were ahead of him for the whole race had taken a wrong turn. Jeremiah was the champ and he hadn’t passed anybody!

Piglet and the other athletes on Klejka’s team might have know what was going on as their sense of smell is very acute but the chose to keep quiet and let Jeremiah figure it out.

Born to Run,

Sanka