SPK Dog Log

Last evening the crew attended a Black Tie event to celebrate The Women of Mushing and Verizon‘s partnership with SP Kennel. Ever wondered what a musher wears to a Black Tie event? As Aliy said: “that means our best parka!”.

Some of SP’s Women of Mushing: Boondocks, Chica and Aliy; Aliy with Libby Riddles

It was a pretty fancy affair with great food and drink and a wide mix of people! Verizon awarded Libby Riddles with the first annual “Verizon Women of Mushing” award to coincide the 30th anniversary of her becoming the first woman to win the Iditarod.

We also heard Sen Lisa Murkowski describe the impact women of the Iditarod have and thank Libby and Aliy for their contributions.

We then raised our glasses to toast Aliy and Allen and the dogs, wishing them safety and success down the trail.

Thanks Verizon for a fun event and for being part of the SP Kennel team!

This afternoon Aurora room in the Crowne Plaza was packed to the gunnels as supporters and fans came to hear Aliy and Allen tell some stories, make each other blush and test each other’s knowledge of their dogs!

They both spent some time explaining how each other got into dog mushing (Aliy told Allen’s story, Allen told Aliy’s) and about some wildlife encounters they have had on the trail. Aliy remembers every puppy they have ever bred and proved it my listing the “candy” litter from 12 years ago and where they all are today. Allen told about how he and Aliy decide who gets which dogs for a race (arm wrestling?) and how it took him eight hours to carry each dog individually up Eagle Summit in the 2011 Yukon Quest.

Beemer, Viper and Scruggs crashed the party and mingled with the crowd. Beemer relaxed a bit – hey, go figure!

There was time for a few questions at the end and some one-on-one time for autographs and photos. It was a great event!

We hope everyone there enjoyed themselves. Were you there? Tell us about it!

Thank you to the Comfort Inn Ship Creek and Crowne Plaza for sponsoring this event.

Since 2005 Horizon Lines has been a sponsor of SP Kennel and it has been a fantastic ten years! Not only are they awesome sponsors of SP Kennel and the Iditarod, but many individuals within the company have become great personal friends to Aliy and Allen.

Horizon Lines, Inc. is one of the nation’s leading domestic ocean shipping companies and are “Always There. Always Delivering.®”

This morning Aliy, Allen, Doug and Moira along with Scruggs, Beemer and Junior visited the Horizon Lines office at the Port of Anchorage to meet some of the folks working there.

Scruggs and Beemer show some love; relax Beemer!

Beemer and Scruggs are old hands at this meet-and-greet stuff but, just like with racing, we like to give some of the younger dogs the opportunity to learn how to be social. It’s not something most people think about but as some of our “go to” dogs are nearing the end of their careers we need to have some who are comfortable to take their place at social and sponsor events. Junior was very excited to start with, glancing around and darting in every direction but you could see her start to relax as she saw how Beemer and Viper interacted with everyone. She did so well at something quite foreign to her. Good girl Junior!

With some of the team at Horizon Lines

Thursday evening in Anchorage the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame honored the Class of 2015 inductees and annual Directors’ Awards winners. As you may know, Aliy was honored with the Trajan Langdon award for Leadership, Sportsmanship and Inspiration. This is awarded to a person or group of people who have demonstrated leadership, integrity and sportsmanship during the past year in such a way as to positively influence and inspire others to be better sportsmen or sportswomen.

The Directors Awards were created as an opportunity “to mark the great accomplishments that are happening right here, right now”.

Jason Metrokin from the board of directors presented her award – the citation read: “Finishing second is an amazing accomplishment but barely missing the top prize can be also be a disappointment. Aliy has been runner up in the Iditarod Trail sled dog race for three straight years and has done so with grace, humility and genuine good sportsmanship. In 2014 Aliy finished just two and a half minutes behind Dallas Seavey after over a 1000 miles in one of the most dramatic finishes in the history of the race, and then congratulated him with a smile. The 45 year old Two Rivers musher has also twice won the Iditarod Humanitarian award and is the only woman to win the Yukon Quest sled dog race.” Jason Metrokin is the CEO/President of Bristol Bay Native Corp.

Citation in the programme; a still shot from Aliy’s acceptance video

Trajan Langdon himself could not be at the ceremony – he is scouting for the San Antonio Spurs right now but he sent a message to be read out which included “I wanted to show my appreciation and admiration for Aliy Zirkle. Those who follow the Iditarod have no doubt who she is and what she has achieved. Aliy has dedicated her life to the sport of dog mushing. She has tremendous passion for competing and has become a leader in her sport. She has been racing for 18 years and competed and completed the Iditarod for the last 14 years. Aliy and her dogs train year round and will compete in several races leading up to the last great race that tours the beautiful yet harsh terrain of our state. She has won many competitions while racing and has won many awards, most notably the humanitarian award that honours her for the great care she takes of her dogs. I can’t imagine what kind of shape she and her dogs must be in to have the strength and mental fortitude to mush in the middle of a harsh winter for the 1000 miles between Anchorage to Nome.” (Or in this case: Fairbanks to Nome.)

Aliy is tremendously honored to receive this award and was disappointed that the ceremony clashed with the Iditarod Banquet and she could not attend, but her father Doug accepted the award in her absence. Aliy sent through a pre-recorded video before Doug went on stage to describe what an honor it is to accept the award on behalf of Aliy and to congratulate all the other inductees and honourees. He gave thanks to the Board members and the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame organisation. VIP kennel sponsors Tom and Cindy Eckhoff, friends of Aliy and Allen for many years, were also there to represent Aliy.

Aliy and Doug at the Iditarod Banquet; Doug accepts the award on behalf of Aliy

Prior to awards Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan spoke about the meaning and value of the Sports Hall of Fame and the work the organisation does outside of simply giving awards. He made particular mention of Aliy in his talk.

Pride of Alaska award winner, Kenai runner Allie Ostrander also made mention of the time she met Aliy at the start of Iditarod a few years ago when she received a signed booty. Allie said Aliy had always motivated her.

As a final touch, Senator Peter Micciche presented all the honorees (“and Aliy’s Dad”) with legislative citations.

Thanks to the Alaska Hall of Fame and the Directors for the honor!

Congratulations to Shannon and Maggie from Maine who have won this week’s Fan Club Draw. Shannon and Maggie are fans of Outlaw.

Outlaw is in Anchorage with us, ready to start the Iditarod on Saturday, so Meghan snapped this pic of him as he had a snack in the parking lot of the hotel. Outlaw is a very talented three year old who was part of the Black Team that finished 2nd in the Yukon Quest with Allen. He’s strong, lean and fit as can be… and awfully handsome!

To celebrate the start of the race in Fairbanks, the prize this week is a limited edition Iditarod “Fairbanks to Nome” ball cap, signed by Aliy and Allen, along with some other goodies.

So handsome!; Shannon and Maggie’s prize

Thanks to all our Dog Fan Club members! We have a bonus draw next Friday, March 13th and everyone who hasn’t already won and all new members will be in the draw to win. Note: those of you who have already won but are fan club members of multiple dogs are still in the draw for the dogs you have not won with.

Click the button below for instructions on how to join:

Click this button below to take you directly to the Dog Fan Page.

The Iditarod banquet is a great evening for catching up with old friends, making new ones and is a chance for mushers to thank their family, friends, sponsors and supporters. A packed house tonight saw 79 mushers draw their bib numbers ready for the starts on Saturday and Monday.

We also heard from the family of the honorary musher Philip Esai from Nikolai who passed away in May last year. He and his wife Dora have been volunteers for the Iditarod since it began, doing everything from working on the original trail from Rohn towards McGrath to cooking pots of stew for mushers. The memory of Philip goes down the trail in the Ceremonial Start wearing bib #1.

Aliy in the spotlight

Aliy meets a bunch of new friends!

Meeting more new friends; with Ally from Make-A-Wish! (Learn more about Ally at akwa.wish.org/iditarod)

A bunch of us at our table played “Bib Draw Bingo” where we each chose three numbers for Aliy and three for Allen that we thought they might draw. As each musher drew their bibs we would cross off any that were picked. None of us picked either of them correctly so it’s not such a great story, but it was fun at the time.

Allen was first up and drew bib #57. We were sitting at table #57. Allen is 57 years old and was born in 1957 – spooky… He and the Black Team will leave the starting chute at 11.52am.

Allen is amazed at the #57!, A2

Aliy then took to the stage and started out thanking her dogs, particularly Nacho, Quito and Chica – she said they are the heart and soul of her team. She then thanked all of you – the website sponsors, whether you are a dog sponsor, dog fan club member or if you’ve joined one of our teams. She said it keeps it down to earth and makes it special for us so if you have joined anything or even made a comment, we really appreciate you! Aliy drew bib #32 so she and the Red team leave the start chute on Saturday at 11.02am.

Dog tags for Numbers 32 and 57

At the same time Doug (Aliy’s Dad) and VIP kennel sponsors Tom and Cindy Eckhoff attended the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame awards ceremony and there will be a separate post about that.

This morning Aliy, Allen, Doug and Moira attended a breakfast for Eagle Pack representatives, employees and distributors from all over the country that are here in Alaska for the Iditarod. It’s a chance for the crew to thank Eagle Pack for everything they do to help keep our SPK canine athletes in top shape.

The Eagle Pack Musher Family with Dr Al Townsend, Eagle Pack Head Veterinarian

Chatting over breakfast

We’ve been feeding Eagle Pack for many years, from the time our puppies are weaned from their mother, through their racing careers and in their retirement, and truly believe it is the best dog food out there. Check out their products; there’s sure to be one to suit your pooch, whether he/she is an active outdoorsman or likes to warm the couch!

Eagle Pack is committed to the highest standards of pet food safety and their priority is providing consistently safe, premium-quality natural food for dogs (and cats!). We are proud and excited to be associated with such a superior brand and thank them for their ongoing support of SP Kennel.

We hope you enjoy the Iditarod edition of the SP Kennel Howler newsletter.

This edition is focussed on the recap the successful Yukon Quest and Yukon Quest 300 races and a look forward to the Iditarod, starting this weekend.

We’ve included the new Iditarod route map so you can follow along.

Click on the picture on the right to take you to the on-line version of the Howler!