June 23, 2006 Quest or Iditarod?

That is the question! 

Pretty much since I finished Iditarod last year, heck maybe even before, folks have been asking about our plans for '07. Many have speculated that the Quest was 'unfinished' business for us and therefore would be our focus for the upcoming season. 

Well, those of you that thought that might be surprised to learn that my entry for Iditarod is now completed and sitting on race director, Joanne Potts desk (entries open tomorrow!).

Have we lost interest in the Quest, you ask?? Not in the least, we are as committed to running the Quest as we were last year. Here however, is the thinking..

I've been very clear about the fact that we would like to field 1, if not 2 teams in the All Alaska Sweepstakes Race when it goes in '08. That year, Iditarod will start March 2 and I would probably finish around the 14th or 15th. The AAS is scheduled to start on the 26th. In my mind, 10 days is too little to recovery for my main string to be expected to be ready to race a 400-mile race after just having completed an 1100 mile one. Plus, the logistics of getting supplies, extra dogs, etc to Nome would all be left on Mark, as I wouldn't have enough time to go back down to Willow and back up to Nome.
But, if we did Quest that year, the team would have excellent recovery time and we would be able to enter two fresh teams and have ourselves be well organized and prepared to race.

So that is the thinking - Iditarod in '07 and Quest/All Alaska Sweepstakes in '08.

We hope you will all stayed tuned for the tales of our adventures!!!
Karen