Road Runner 100 draws crowds, big names for inaugural race

The Road Runner 100 race left from Shipyards Park Saturday, and all but one team made it to the Haines Junction finish line later that night.

The Road Runner 100 race left from Shipyards Park Saturday, and all but one team made it to the Haines Junction finish line later that night.

The 160-kilometre race had both skijor and sled dog teams, and is billed as the longest skijor race in North America.

Second place finisher Jon Lucas said the race was was a huge success.

After Lucas finished the 30-mile Carbon Hill skijor race a few months ago, he doubted the ability of skijor teams to go any further, but his thoughts have changed after the Road Runner 100.

“The Carbon Hill knocked a bit of sense in me,” Lucas said.

Warm weather heated up the trail for that race and caused wet snow, but at the Road Runner this weekend, teams were treated to well-packed trails and good conditions.

“Much more enjoyable,” Lucas said.

Race Marshal Gene Ennis said the race had a great team of organizers and veterinarians.

“It was a very well run race,” she said. Dog care was excellent.”

The vet duties were done by Carolynne Fudja from Lots of Latitude Mobile Vet and Helen Eddy of Alpine Veterinary Clinic.

“Our vets were on top of it. We had excellent vets,” Ennis said.

There were no major problems with the dogs, Ennis said. The only scratch of the race, Cristy Willet did so because her team was tired.

To prepare his team for the Road Runner 100, Lucas trained in warmer weather conditions.

“We trained in a bit of warmth,” he said.

Lucas said he enjoyed the race.

“The race itself was great, really well marked,” he said.

One tough spot that skijor teams ran into was about 20-kms outside of the Mendenhall checkpoint, where teams were treated to a mandatory five-hour layover.

Lucas said there was a series of step hills that saw him leaning back and forward to attempt to maintain control of his team.

“I don’t remember being that out of control,” he said.

There was some concern about overflow on the trail as crews worked, but Ennis said those areas froze up before the start of the race, and for the most part the mushers and skijor teams were not subjected to any overflow on the rivers.

“(It) wasn’t as bad as we thought it would be,” she said.

The race was ended before the original finish line, due to a vehicle driven along the trail that made it unpassable for the teams.

The race was tracked by GPS as 98.8 miles, instead of the original 100 that had been planned.

Lucas finished the race with three dogs, after dropping one tired pup at the Mendenhall stop.

Each team had the mandatory five-hour layover, but were allowed to take up to 10 if they needed it.

Lucas said all teams left after their five hours.

“They did an excellent job,” Lucas said of race organizers.

The three participating skijor teams were clocked at an incredible 9 to 10.2 miles/hour, proving that a 160-km skijor race can be competitive. First place skijor finisher Gaetan Pierrard finished the race in 9 hours, 36 minutes.

Further race times were not available as of press time.

Joining the Road Runner 100 were a few Yukon Quest stars, including Crispin Studer, who placed first, Hugh

Neff who finished second and seventh place musher Didier Moggia.

“They just treated it as another race,” Lucas said.

The mushing star power may have helped bring out the heavy crowds that came out for the race, that started from

Shipyards Park in the heart of Saturday’s Rendezvous celebrations.

“People were very interested,” Lucas said.

While at least one of the experienced mushers had concerns about sharing the trail with skijor teams, Lucas says combining the race with the skijor teams starting first helped show the audience what can be done with only four dogs.

“It wasn’t just another sled dog race,” he said. “Putting them out first really highlighted it.”

This was Ennis’ first race marshal experience in a mid-distance race. Her previous experience is with shorter sprint race in the Yukon Brewing Copper Haul Twister League.

“It was good,” she said. “It’s a little bit longer than a sprint.”

The Dog Powered Sport Association of Yukon’s original plan was to extend the Road Runner to a 320-km race in the future after the inaugural year.

Ennis said there has not been a decision on that yet, but the board would be meeting to discuss the possibility.

More information on the Road Runner 100 race can be found at http://www.copperhaultwister.blogspot.com, or at http://www.dpsay.blogspot.com

2010 Road Runner 100 sled dog and skijor race results

Skijorers
1. Gaetan Pierrard $850
2. Jonathan Lucas $600
3. Darryl Sheepway $475

Sleds
1) Crispin Studer $850
2) Hugh Neff $600
3) Pierre Duc $475
4) Paul Geoffrion $350
5) Kyla Johnson $256.25
6) Karine Grenier $256.25
7) Didier Moggia $256.25
8 ) Deb Knight $168.75
9) Ed Hopkins $168.75
10) Claudia Wickert $168.75
11) Martine Levalier $100
12) Darrell Otto $100
13) MC Leroux $100
14) Ryan Kinna $100
15) Steve Gibbons $100
16) Brian Wilmshurst $100
17) Laura Jane Lucas $100
Scratch: Cristy Willett N/A