U.P. 200 Dog Sled Race 2010: Part THREE, plus this is the LAST day to submit your photos to my Photo Contest!!!

First of all, I want to remind everyone that TODAY is the LAST DAY to

enter my

FREE PHOTOGRAPHY CONTEST for FEBRUARY!

You still have until midnight TONIGHT, Eastern Standard Time

to submit to me your

"CRITTER CLOSEUPS"

photograph!

So, C'mon people...go into your archives

and send me your entry!

See yesterday's post for a link to the rules and to my email address!

Now, back to the Dogs!!!

If you haven't read Parts ONE or TWO yet of this series of

the U.P. 200 Dogsled RACE 2010, please go back down under this blogpost and get to it!

This is the final blogpost with race pictures for you to enjoy.

The local T.V. station was there to record the start of the race!:

Sorry for the yellow coloring in the photo below, it was dark with a lot of lights around, and I was in a hurry and didn't adjust the lighting!

Here are some dogs being hooked up to the sled right before starting up at the gate.

You can just see how excited they are!

They were yelping and jumping and soooo happy!:

Here is a sled ready with all the harnesses to hook up to the dogs. To the right of the sled you can see a line where handlers were getting ready to hook up another team of dogs:

At last!!!

This is the first team

getting to leave the starting gate. See all the flashes from other cameras taking their picture before they get to me?:

Here THEY COME!!!!:

I got a little excited and decided to do an action burst with my camera.

The crowd is a blur but the dogs are kind of in focus...it was hard for me to get them because I am short and was standing in front of a part of the fence that I couldn't reach over.

But the end effect was kind of neat:

Just look at this team running by with their pink booties!:

Another action shot!:

The blur of the Musher at the end of the line, on his sled.

He will be with his team from Friday night until sometime Sunday, when he reaches the FINISH LINE!:

I want to leave you with a strange shot I got by accident.

Again, I was playing with the burst mode of my camera, and the lighting was wrong....and the speed of the shutter was wrong...

But you know what?

It gave me a strange "ghost rider" effect of this Musher, which I ended up really liking!:

Don't be afraid to make mistakes with your camera!

I learned that sometimes, that is the most creative shot you might get!!

Hope you enjoyed this series about these brave Mushers and their beautiful dogsled teams.

I hope you get to see it in person sometime...

it really is an awesome experience!!!

Gone to the Dogs!!: The U.P. 200 Sled Dog Race 2010: Part ONE

This will be Part One of a series I will be showing you

about the

U.P. 200 Sled Dog Race 2010

This is such a fun time for us in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and something I look forward to every year.

Mushers from around the U.S. and as far away as New Zealand participated in the race this year.

Thirty-three dog sled teams!!

This is the 20th year we have had the privilege of having dog sled races here.

Twelve-dog teams take off, two minutes apart right down the main street of Marquette, Michigan...to roaring and cheering crowds of fur-hatted, hardy fans.

The town closes off the main street the day before and hauls in snow and makes a snow path right down the middle of downtown.

I LOVE THAT.

As our Mining Journal newspaper put it:

"There is an infectious thing about this, its intangible. If you stand at that starting gate and see the packed street and feel the excitement of the dogs--for the average person, you just get involved. You just can't help it."

And that is exactly how you feel as a spectator.

Between 8,000 to 15,ooo people watch the dogs take off every year, and this year it had to be even more.

I was privileged to be one of them.

The race spans a total of 241 miles.

The mushers have a required 16 hours of layover time during the route, which they can use at any of the many checkpoints along the route.

As the newspaper stated: "It's a marathon of sleep deprivation, athletic endurance, extreme exertion and exposure to the elements."

For more information about the U.P. 2oo, you can go to: www.up200.org or read about it HERE and also HERE.

So, sit back, put your feet up and come with me on my photo tour of Part ONE of my series about this wonderful experience as a spectator to this event:

Loved this sign using the logs incorporated into it!:

Here is some of the dogs laying next to their sleep bin trucks, resting before the race.

I bet you thought they would all be Husky dogs, didn't you? In reality, there were very few of that breed of dog:

A shot of the early crowd lining up on the street, in front of the Post Office..waiting for the race to start. It got a LOT more crowded after that shot was taken:

This is another shot of the kinds of trucks that the dog sled teams are used to being transported in. See the little bins with hay that the dogs sleep in while traveling? They love the security of them. These dogs are resting before the race began:

One of the dog sleds that the musher rides on the back of:
Hmmmm....wonder what is inside that bright red thermos?





Another bare sled on top of one of the musher's trucks:












I fell in love with this sled dogs BLUE eyes....be still my heart!:

The roof of our City Hall, one of the buildings the race runs right by:




Another shot of City Hall. I love its architecture:

Even though it was a marketing ploy by Liberty Tax Service to have these kids dressed up in their logo, I loved this shot of the three little kids eating pizza outside of City Hall, waiting for the race to begin:

One of the loaded sleds, waiting to be hooked up to the dogs:

Isn't he gorgeous?:

Stay tuned for Part TWO of the the shots I took of this event...

I took so many, they couldn't possibly fit into one blogpost!

*Reminder!: Today is FEB. 26th...remember to enter a photo to the free Photography Contest. ONLY TWO DAYS LEFT, PEOPLE!!! February's theme is "Critter Closeups". Please enter your photo by midnight on Feb. 28th to the address listed in these rules. Best of Luck to all the entries!I will be showing all the entries in an upcoming blogpost and announcing the winner of February's contest by Mar. 15th....stay tuned!!!