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Video: Ryan Anderson wins Beargrease mid-distance race

Jan 28, 2019 07:07AM ● By Editor

Ryan Anderson wins 2019 Beargrease Mid-Distance Race. Photo: WDIO-TV/Glenn Kellahan


By Chelsie Brown from WDIO-TV - January 28, 2019


It's been a year of change for the 2019 Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon. Along with a new course route meant a new finish line for the 2019 mid-distance race. This year mushers and their teams finished at Lutsen Mountain. Although he's no stranger to the Beargrease, Ryan Anderson hasn’t won the mid-distance race since 2001.

"I just figured if I could be around 10:04-10:05, somewhere around there to Sawbill that the team pursuing me would have to have a really, really, really good run," said Anderson. "I knew it was a long way to here (Lutsen) so I didn’t want to go much faster than that."

"It was snowing so hard for a while, maybe six miles, that I just figured I’d trust the dogs," said four-time Beargrease mid-distance champion Martha Schouweiler. "They knew where the trail was and I could just hunker down," she explained she did during a leg of the race.

"The hardest part was the hills with the snow. You just couldn’t see for like probably the first three quarters of it," added Joann Fortier of Gaylord, MI about the conditions.

Full-marathoners did not stop at Lutsen. Instead, they continued up the trail on the North Shore. They’re expected to finish in Grand Portage Tuesday afternoon.

Watch the WDIO-TV Report here

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