Mushers compete in Knik 200

BOB MARTINSON/ Frontiersman reporter

Everyone appeared laid-back on Saturday's calm, mild morning for the running of the Knik 200-Joe Redington Sr. Memorial Sled Dog Race.

Lynda Plettner, a well-known kennel owner from Houston and Iditarod musher who had a race of her own to run, took time out just before the race to help handle her friend's team, as rookie musher Katrina Pawlaczyk was preparing to run her first ever race. This race is an important one to run, but according to most mushers, it is treated as a necessary stepping stone.

The race is a precursor to the Iditarod, a qualifier and an important chance for some Iditarod mushers to run their teams and do a little sorting of their dogs to find out if they pass muster.

It was also a chance for a lot of people new to the sport to stretch their legs and test themselves as well as their team.

To run the Iditarod, the pinnacle of all dog races, "Mushers have to get a 200- and a 300-miler under their belt in order to qualify," according to Terry Langholz, the person who officially checks them in at the Knik checkpoint and lives about a mile down the road from Knik Bar on Knik Lake, the official Knik checkpoint and starting and ending point of this race.

The Knik 200 is an Iditarod-sanctioned race and extends 200 miles from Knik to Skwentna and back to Knik, with a middle checkpoint at Burma Landing in each direction.

"I usually find out their run time out, add their mandatory layover time, and then add the same run time back if it is similar conditions to when they went out," Langholz said. "I can pretty much tell when I need to be back here for the end of the race; the return part is usually identical. Some of them thought they'd be back here on Sunday by about 8 a.m., but I think it'll be more like about 10 a.m."

Langholz says it is about an eight-hour run to Skwentna, depending on the trail conditions, which on Saturday, he called "hard and fast."

Langholz said they don't really race too hard, but most are just doing it as a qualifier. "So you won't necessarily see them racing against each other," he said.

In dog mushing, it's always nice to win a race, but this race isn't a huge source of stress. Many mushers simply look at it as a good way to run their team amid other teams and fans and see how they handle. The weak can be sorted out and prime teams can be built through the process.

Dallas Seavey is running some of his dad's Iditarod dogs in this one. Dallas's father, Mitch Seavey, is last year's Iditarod champion.

"Rick Casillo ran some of Mitch's pups last year, and he's running Dallas's team this year, with a couple of Mitch's. We're still sorting 'em out," said Todd McCracken of Anchorage, a handler for Seavey's

team.

Thomas Lestatz finished at 10:12 a.m. on Sunday to win the race. The Two Rivers musher finished the course in 22 hours, 42 minutes and six seconds. The Illinois native had previously finished fourth in the Two Rivers 200 and 14th in the Solstice 100.

Phil Morgan finished just more than an hour later to place second. Jesse Beebee, Dodo Perri and Jerome Longo rounded out the top five.

Two mushers in the event scratched.