Midnight Run 2026

Midnight run!! For like 3 years, my mom and not-technically-my-stepdad-but-basically-like-a-father-to-me Bobby have been trying to come to a race to watch and support me. Well, it all finally worked out and I had the pleasure of spending my weekend with my parents alongside my amazing handlers Erin and Kassandra. And huge thank you to Alyssa and Nathan for lending me 3 dogs - Tug, Texas, and Pistol - to complete my team. I had been dealing with a ton of injuries and at the time, 7 of my 13 dogs were down for injury, leaving me with 5.

The start sucks as usual. Just waiting around while anxiety builds. Huge thank you to Liza for a pep talk even though I was feeling miserable, you know I need to be pushed 🤣

The team was:

Compass - Foucher

Pistol - Q

Croissant - Kestrel

Texas - Tug

Photos courtesy of Kassandra Jodar and Erin Kaprelian

Once we finally were able to start hooking up dogs, the stress melted away. Just feels good to be doing something instead of standing around spiraling in my head. Knowing what to expect at the crazy downtown start this time, I was a lot calmer. We took off, and I was on the bar brake the whole time anticipating that downhill and right turn onto Front Street. Looking back at videos, it's a little hysterical how slow I was keeping the dogs for two solid blocks before we even start the downhill, but hey it got us through! After that downhill, the snow road ends quickly and dumps us out onto a walking path. I remember last year standing on my drag mat wore all my carbide spikes down...same thing happened this year! We are just gliding on maybe an inch of mashed potatoes with little snow berms on either side to keep the dogs on track. And I have my full weight on the drag mat trying to keep the dogs from running at light speed. All of a sudden, we come up on a barricade blocking the whole trail! Extremely confusing for both me and the dogs. I spotted a trail marker to the right and ahead of it, so I figured we must be meant to go around it... Compass to the rescue, I tell him gee, and he pulls the team to the right, around the barricade. But there is a path that leads off to the right, and Compass was bee-lining for it - "See, that's the gee mom wanted!" Both feet on the drag mat again since the bar brake is useless on the pavement, "Haw!" Compass meanders around, trying to figure out what I mean, and him and Foucher eventually find the right path...taking out an "X" trail marker blocking the righthand path, as well as the reflective confidence marker that I saw that led me to realize we needed to go around the barricade. Oops. But I can't stop, so I shout at the spectators right next to the barricade, "please put that trail marker back up!" Who knows if they did, but I tried!

Photo courtesy of Nicole Meiner

youtube.com

Midnight Run 2026 start

Video courtesy of my mom

The walking path transitions into a wider snowmobile trail. As we enter onto it, I see my next challenge. My dogs are trained to run on the right edge of the trail, for safety. I am very strict about this so my dogs are very, very good at it. But the snowmobile trail we are entering doesn't have clearly defined edges, and what is on the right side of the trail...a huge ditch. So, Compass, being the good gee-over dog he is, kept the team right on that cusp of the hill into the ditch, which ended up with my sled sliding down the hill. Tug and Texas in wheel had the job of not letting the whole team follow me into the ditch and they did a pretty good job. My dogs don't know "haw over" (the command for moving to the left side of the trail), so I just ended up bracing my legs, cramping my calves, and gritting my teeth for 20 or 30 minutes until the trail became a little more defined and the dogs pulled me out of the sideways slant.

Then we had 15 glorious miles of flat, straight, boring snowmobile trail that I could finally catch my breath on and stretch out my legs. Once we made a right turn into the woods, the fun began! Midnight Run mostly consists of narrow trails dodging trees and drifting around corners. Last year this was terrifying as my headlamp barely illuminated the leaders, and I couldn't see beyond them so I had no clue what was coming up. This year, my fuck-you-bright headlamp lit up the whole damn trail.

It made all the difference.

Twists and turns that were unknown dangers became fun drifting opportunities. Trees that had popped out of nowhere last year were beautiful to watch as we passed by this year. The race organization also changed the turn markers - this year, the arrows were reflective, which made a huge difference in visibility. The two downhill drops were, admittedly, still spooky, but this year I could at least see my dogs disappear over the edge of the hill and had a moment to prepare myself. The middle of the trail was rutted out from all the mushers before me using their bar brake, which meant the drag mat dropped out from beneath my foot, the sled tilted sideways, and we had a rather uncontrolled descent until we hit the bottom and I could fumble my foot onto the bar brake. Did I learn on the second drop? Nope, did the same thing, had my foot on the drag mat instead of the bar brake. 🤣 Maybe I will learn now for next year.

My goal for this first run was to hold 9mph. 46 miles is a long way, and I still feel new to training for this kind of distance successfully. The dogs were flying, I had to stand on the drag mat for the first 35-ish miles. I couldn't be happier with how much energy they had coming into the checkpoint, but last year they seemed to do well on that first run too...only time will tell whether they finish well or tire on the second run like last year.

Video courtesy of Kassandra Jodar

At Chatham, I felt like I was really starting to get a checkpoint routine dialed in. Put dogs on the truck, snack them, take off booties (and for this race, harnesses, since the dogs can go in the boxes and I don't want them chewing their harnesses), feed, massage. Then grab a couple things I need to charge, my battery, my sleeping bag, and off to try and eat my pb&j and get some sleep. I managed to eat 3/4 of the sandwich, be proud of me! 🤣 At beargrease I just kind of felt like I was fumbling around trying to figure the checkpoint thing out. Sure, I knew all the steps in my head, and had practiced them, but its different when you are digging through your truck bed in the cold and dark. But that experience helped me refine it for this race.

Sadly, Tug and Texas needed to be dropped at the checkpoint. Tug had been hot and cold on his, well, tug for the last 30 miles, and really not pulling at all for the final 10 miles. Considering my luck and experience, I knew a shoulder injury when I saw one. Shoulder injuries are the most severe injuries sleddogs can get, since when they run, they put all of their body weight and stress on their shoulders with each step. The vets confirmed my suspicions and I dropped Tug. This meant Texas needed to be dropped too - Texas is blind, and can only run next to his brother Tug. They were so sweet together - they were constantly playing together and licking each other's faces when they were on the drop lines. But Texas needed the reassurance from his brother Tug in order to run on the team, so he got dropped as well.

This put me at 6 dogs to run the 36 miles to the finish. I wasn't necessarily concerned about 6 getting us there, but it always feels bad knowing you are losing speed when you drop dogs. Pistol had been kind of hot and cold that first run too, but she is a very sensitive little yearling and after checking thoroughly to ensure she had no injuries, I came to the conclusion she is just sensitive and likes her mushers and not me, who she had just met the previous day. Not unheard of at all for dogs to only run for their mushers! But she was keeping up fine on that first run so I decided she can come with on the second run. One of my dogs, Ordona, is very sensitive and if something weird or scary happens on the run, she will stop pulling for a while even though she isn't injured, so I was familiar with the behavior.

Video courtesy of Kassandra Jodar

We took off from Chatham right as the sun crept over the horizon, casting the sky a deep pink hue. The trail from Chatham crosses a field, then follows the powerline for about 4 miles before turning left back into the forest. Last year, the snow fencing marking this turn got knocked down and resulted in me missing the turn completely and needing to turn around. This year, the trail boss heard us and marked it BEAUTIFULLY.

The first 10 miles of that run, Pistol was not a fan. She wasn't pulling and was even pulling backwards on her neckline some. I was watching her closely, trying to decide if I should bag her or not. She was a tiny little thing so it wouldn't be a huge deal to bag her, but going down to 5 dogs, every pound you're carrying really counts - not to mention, dogs tend to try and get OUT of the bag and don't usually ride nicely. But after about 10 miles, she finally figured it out, and started pulling into her harness with the signature sleddog joy. I hope that means she finally trusted me!

That second leg, the dogs felt like they were zooming. The twisting, narrow trails were even more beautiful in the morning light. We had a beautiful, uneventful cruise that morning. My goal was, once again, 9mph. And they nailed it. Didn't slow down a beat. They held that same 9mph for the whole 82 miles, despite me dropping 2 dogs, and I couldn't be more proud of the energy they carried through that run and into the finish. And I couldn't be more energized and excited about our improvement from last year. And hey - I actually got a check this time! We managed to barely squeak into the money at 15th.

Photos courtesy of David Sargent Photography

youtube.com

Midnight run 2026 finish

Video courtesy of my mom