2-17-10
The last board meeting before the UP200/Midnight Run was held last night at the Holiday Inn. All checkpoint coordinators, NMU management students, TV-6 and many volunteers were present. The merchandise and silent auction items are all set up and we are ready to go!
2-18-10
Headquarters and the musher registration room was hopping this am getting ready for mushers to arrive. There area already 4 or 5 dog trucks in the parking lot of the Holiday Inn. Musher registration takes place from 9-4. Mandatory mushers meetings are at 4pm ( UP200 ) and at 5pm ( Midnight Run ). The musher banquet follows with the bib draw.
The Musher banquet was held at the Holiday Inn last night. The Bev Stroh Volunteer award was presented to Ikey Todd Headquarters coordinator. Bev was the UP200/Midnight Run web master for 10 years, and died in April. The board overwhelmingly chose Ikey to be its first reciepient.
The bib draw went off without a hitch ! Much laughter broke out when Neil Rasmussen drew bib ###2 and his sled banner was Marquette Endoscopy ! !
Tom Moon, bib #8 will carry the Sandy Knoll Elementary School sled banner. The children from the school made a donation to the musher who would carry his banner, and Tom was given a check for $167.17.
2-19-10
Headquarters just reported that Neil Rasmussen withdrew from the race due to illness. Neil was the first musher to enter the race last fall and is from Grand Marais, Mn.
The vet check is complete. All dogs have been checked and marked and are awaiting their turn to leave the chute.
Mushers, Nathan Schroeder, Renee Marchildon, Ryan Anderson, Roger and Nancy Johnson, Joseph Gutowski, Curt Peamo, Tom Roig, Sam Christman, Steven Bronner, Odin Jorgenson, Frank Moe, Martin Massicotte and Ryne Olsen will be using the 2010 UP200 as their Iditarod qualifier.
What a beautiful day in Marquette, sunny and 34 degrees at 2:30pm. Right now it doesn't look much like a sled dog race, but temps will drop tonight.
Oberstar Construction has been dropping snow in downtown Marquette all morning. Volunteers and start/finish coordinators, Linda and Delbert Storm report all is going well. UP200 mushers will head downtown about 4pm. Opening ceremonies are at 6:30 and the first musher, Nathan Schroeder will leave the chute at 7:10.
Logan, Pat Torreano and Pat Woods grandson attended the musher banquet and handed out bibs and sled banners to all mushers.
2-20-10
PLEASE PLEASE be patient with us. Due to the number of hits on the web page it crashed numerous times last night and is FINALLY up and running again, but it will take alittle time to update things. We tested and retested the web page and thought we were ready, but apparently there were way more hits than we anticipated.
Joan Fortier from Gaylord, Michigan has won the 2010 Midnight Run. Joan drew bib # 1 and finished first.
The Kiddie Mutt race, sponsored by the Marquette noon Kiwanis is in full swing at the Commons building in downtown Marquette. Reports indicate there are about 70 'teams' registered. Dogs of all sizes learn what it like to be a lead dog.
"Milt" stopped by the merchandise room to buy a medium sweatshrit and they are all sold out. Our selling team called checkpoints and found one in Grand Marais. Milt, wife and daughter are on their way driving to pick it up :) what a guy!
The Midnight Run banquet at Sydney's in Munising was held at 4pm. Willie Peterson and Pam Forsberg MC'd the event attended by 70 mushers, volunteers, judges and vets. Awards and price money was handed out. Keith Peppler was given the Tom Porn Sportsmenship placque. This award is given annunally and the mushers choose the receipient. It is given in memory of Dr. Tom Porn, a past board member and first official photographer of the UP200/Midnight Run. Tom died in a scuba diving accident. The Cooley award was given by head vet Paul Gibbons to Maggie Heilmann. In addition to a placque Tom's widow Bonney gives $500 to be divided among the UP200 winner and the Midnight Run winner. This award is also given annually in memory of Dr. Tom Cooley the UP200/Midnight Run's first head vet who died in a lodge fire. ( descriptions of awards are listed on the race week tab on the home page.
All mushers praised the organization for putting on such a successful event and said that the trail was in perfect condition and marked outstandingly !
