Trying to organize all of my race recaps and training stories in one place, and thought why not keep them all on a blog on my website! Going to backlog and post a few race recaps from this season that I have posted on other social media pages. First up, the Beargrease 40!

Beargrease 40 recap!

What a fun time out on the trail! I went in to the race with the same expectation as I always do - to have a fun time out on the trail with happy dogs. And that is just what we did!

The dogs had an absolute blast, as did I. We have significantly more snow in Thunder Bay, and all our training runs have been on soft, punchy, wind blown trails or breaking trail through fresh snow. We have not had any runs since end of November on hard pack. I knew the dogs would have an absolute blast on this nicely groomed trail, a highway to them! They were rocking and rolling out there keeping up a great pace. Newbies to racing - Kip, Brooks and Demon did amazing. Kip leading the charge with best girl Jitterbug was doing so well with all the team passing. We leap frogged a fair bit with one team and I was so proud of Kip!

The whole team’s attitude was sky high and happy as could be, the goal for every run!

We ended up placing 4th place and I couldn’t be more proud of my dog team. In my eyes they are the best dog team out there! This was my first time racing a team that I was the sole trainer, no one else ran my dogs all season. And man am I proud of all that we have done, and the season is just beginning!

A little side story - the last time I ran the Beargrease 40 was 2016, 10 years ago, and just a few months after I got my very first sled dogs - Kate and Koa. This was the first race I ran since both Kate and Koa passed away in 2024. While out on the trail yesterday I was able to spend a peaceful moment with my team spreading Kate and Koa’s ashes. The sled dogs that helped get me to where I am today, back out on the trail for the final time.

Thank you to everyone that helped make this race happen. Thank you to my parents and Amy Tucci for helping handle, Andy and Rhonda Heerschap for lending me a dog, and all the volunteers and vet team for all the hard work at the race!

Happy Trails!