Colleen Robertia is now a veteran of two Iditarod races. Colleen and husband, Joseph, don’t run a kennel that’s filled with designer huskies, they prefer to work with the three R’s – runts, rejects and rescues. Of note is the little lady running in single lead for the trip down Front Street. Her name is Penny and she weighs twenty-nine pounds in a sport where the average athlete tips the scale at forty-five to fifty pounds. Penny is pint sized but has a heart the size of a 747 airliner. You could say physically she’s some where between a lap dog and a sled dog in size.  She’s run lead in the Yukon Quest as well as Robertia’s rookie Iditarod in 2010. Colleen commented that she’s so small, the team dogs and wheel dogs can’t even see her. She communicates on another level – they know she’s there and they trust her. She motivates them. Penny lives and runs by the motto – when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Robertia has a couple of other leaders she uses but Penny is her go to dog. Out in the Shaktoolik windstorm, Colleen put another bigger heavier dog up front and Penny was fine with that. Her work ethic and determination is a great example for humans – kids as well as adults. It’s not the size of the dog, it’s the size of the heart within the dog. Penny is a privileged dog – she doesn’t travel in the dog box, she’s up front in the truck with us. Robertia, Penny and the rest of the Rogue Kennel team fishing the 2010 race in 10d 23h 56m 10s for 36th place. Twenty-first place, one spot ahead of Lance Mackey, with a time on 10d 20h 4m 19s is a great improvement for 2012. Robertia said she really enjoyed running close to Lance and observing his routine of dog care along the trail and in the checkpoints, a great opportunity for on the job training.