Lacey Hart Racing - Sled Dog Mushing

WOW what a great race this past weekend. Lacey ran the inaugural Junior Race To The Sky which was a 100 mile race that started in Lincoln, MT and ended in Seeley Lake, MT. Lacey did very well and finished in third place! This was after hitting a tree and getting a HUGE bruise on her leg. She will be posting more about the race after this weekend. Her prize winnings at the Jr Race to the Sky have allowed her to enter the American Dog Derby in Ashton, Idaho. She will be enterning the 100 mile race.

We also have a NEW way to do live broadcasts while we are at events providing that we have good cell phone service. So if we have good service, we will be broadcasting live from the dog sled race during the Vet Checks as well as at the start and finish of the race each day. We will know more on Thursday 2-18-2010 when we get there and can check the cell service. We will keep everyone informed here.

If we can get the settings right we will broadcast live and for hose that cannot tune in, you will be able to view the broadcast at a latter time by sxelecting it in the UStream Player above. Hopefully we can get that lined up.

So The Junior Race To The Sky is is going to have GPS Tracking. We believe that the place to go to follow that is www.racetothesky.org.

We are not sure if the tracker will be on the home page of Race To The Sky or under race updates but if you look around we are sure you will find it.

We will be putting a Twitter updater here on the website so that we can Tweet Lacey's updates for this weekend and hopefully soon be moving to a more blog style home page so it is easier to post updates and keep you all informed.

We have been told that the Jr. Race To the Sky will have GPS trackers just like they did for the Jr. Iditarod. TONS OF FUN!!!!!!

Lacey has fallen about $3,700 short of funding this year to be able to run the 2010 Junior Iditarod. We as a family had talked about doing another fundraiser this year (last year we did a spaghetti dinner and a silent auction) but with the economy being what it is and then the crisis in Haiti, we didn't feel right asking people to come further out of pocket to donate to us.

We are Realtors here in Montana and have taken an approximately 75% pay cut from what we did in 2005 so it has been difficult funding Lacey's dreams outright. We have been very fortunate so far in the donations that we have received to date in addition to the few speaking engagements that Lacey has done (as well as her miscellaneous income producing activities) has kept the dog food supplied. We have been putting off the announcement until Monday (2-15-2010) in the hopes that something might shake loose but it is further looking like it will not.

Lacey will be running the Jr Race to the Sky here in Montana this weekend (Feb 14-15). Next year she plans on running the 2011 Jr. Iditarod (the last year she will be able to) as well as her qualifying races for the 2012 Iditarod.

In the meantime, Lacey will be doing several school assembly programs later this spring to help spread the message that children can do remarkable things if they put their minds and hearts into it. We already have 4 schools lined up and hope to get more as the word spreads.

Please keep us in your thoughts as we get ready for a great 2011 mushing season and root for Lacey this weekend in the Jr. Race to the Sky!

Thank you,

Penny, Carl and Lacey
Lacey Hart Racing

One of the major goals for Lacey has always been to motivate other young adults to get out there and follow their dreams. Lacey has always wanted to "take the show on the road" and offer eductional programs to schools to help empower youth to acheive the greatness they all hold within.

We are pleased to announce that Lacey is now offering school assembly programs. Details are coming soon.

For a long time this website has been generously hosted on a sponsor's website (www.aahhmt.com/LHR). We are excited to announce that we now have our own URL and Lacey Hart Racing will soon be able to be viewed at www.laceyhartracing.com. In the process, the website will be upgraded and refreshed to make navigation easier, updates easier to find and read, and user experience improved. Look for the updates coming soon.

Lacey finished 15th in the 2009 Junior Iditarod! She also received the Humanitarian Award which is voted on by the race veterinarians and given to the musher who demonstrated the best dog care for their team. The humanitarian award is highly sought after and in mushing circles is typically thought of as better than a first place finish.

The race started promptly at 10:00 a.m. today (Feb. 28, 2009) and the weather was SNOWY!! At the start line we had approximately 3 inches of new snow fall while we were waiting for the start. We will post our own videos at a later time. In the meantime, PLEASE check out www.iditarod.com and click on the Iditarod Tracker on the right of the home page. This year the racers have GPS tracking units on their sleds and you can track their progress AS THE RACE HAPPENS. Very cool.

We are now in Alaska and Lacey has ran two 40 mile runs and a 25 mile run. The dogs are looking great and have no serious problems. Lacey plans on doing a 56 mile run on Monday and possibly a 60-70 mile run on Wednesday (that one is still up in the air) and then the team will be resting until the Big Day!!!

On Saturday the 28th, the race will start on Knik Lake not to far from the headquarters of the Iditarod. They will run about 5 miles and then turn off onto the Aurora Dog Club trails to run a 10-16 mile loop. They will then come back out onto the main Iditarod trail where they will run about 45 miles to the Susitna River. The will cross the river (which is about a mile wide) and then they leave the river for a 30 mile trip to the Yentna Roadhouse. The mushers will camp outside overnight with their dogs for 10 hours at the roadhouse and then will leave early in the morning to run back to the Sustina River and then head upriver to the town of Willow and the finish line on Willow Lake. Day 2 will be about 65 miles total.

This year the Junior mushers will be carry GPS tracking devices on their sleds that will transmit their locations along the way. You can follow the progress by visiting the main Iditarod website during the race. This will allow you to follow the race in real time and see where the teams are along the trail.

Internet access has been sketchy to be able to upload videos. We are still working on this and hope to have something up soon. If it doesn't work out, we will have to wait until we get home to post the videos.

Here are some photos from on of Lacey's sled runs to the Nome sign