Fifty mushers, their families, U.P. 200 officials and area residents met at the Holiday Inn for drinks, dinner and to see who would be first to take off in the 30th running of the U.P. 200, Midnight Run and Jack Pine 30 sled dog races.

The evening began with an introduction of all race officials including Upper Peninsula Sled Dog Association board members, the 2019 judges, the veterinarian team and race sponsors.

Each year an award is given to an individual who signifies dedication to the organization in honor of Beverly Stroh, a former race volunteer who created the first U.P. 200 website, explained Darlene Walch, president of the UPSDA.

This year, the Bev Stroh award was presented to Dave Place of Harvey, who has been a race volunteer for around 25 years. Place often volunteers at road crossings, chops firewood and delivers burn barrels to checkpoints and spectator stations.

Kelsey Beaber of Mountain, Wisconsin, will be the first musher to leave the starting line for the Midnight Run. She holds her Days Inn sponsor banner after receiving her bib number at the banquet. (Photo courtesy of Boreal Photo & Video, www.bpandv.com)

“He makes sure everybody at the crossings have the supplies they need and he also goes out and helps man road crossings on Friday, Saturday and Sunday,” Walch said. “He will step in and do whatever is needed. He also helps with the Jack Pine 30 and vet checks and he’s done it consistently year after year for about a quarter of a century.”

The Mining Journal award, given to an organization that has shown dedicated support to the races, was presented to the Michigan State University Experimental Station Farm in Chatham. The farm has been a checkpoint for the Midnight Run race for eight years.

“When we moved the checkpoint to Chatham, the MSU farm stepped up,” Walch said. “They help set up the checkpoint, they help take it down, they give us buildings to put headquarters in to make a comfortable warm place for volunteers and people to hang out, they make a place for mushers and they turn over one of the buildings for vet care … I think a checkpoint is fairly significant and they’ve done an extremely good job of accommodating our needs and helping make that checkpoint a good checkpoint for the Midnight Run.”

After the awards, mushers are presented with their bib numbers, which determine the order at which they will leave the starting line. Mushers are sent out in two-minute intervals, Walch explained.

Walch and UPSDA board members met before the banquet for the bib draw. Mushers names are entered into the bib draw by the time that they registered for the race on the U.P. 200 website. Sixteen mushers registered for the U.P. 200 race. For the split bib draw, the first eight mushers that registered receive the first bibs pulled. Eight bib numbers are put into a plastic bag and the first bib pulled is given to the first registrant and so forth, Walch said. Eight more bibs are then entered into the drawing and pulled for the other half of the mushers. This process is followed for the Midnight Run and Jack Pine 30 mushers as well.

To some mushers, their bib number is insignificant.

“It depends — some mushers don’t mind going out early,” Walch said. “They get out of town and they get on the trail. They’ve been sitting around downtown, they want their dogs out on the trail so if they leave earlier there’s less time in the staging area.”

To other mushers, a bib number can make all the difference.

“Some mushers don’t want to go out as bib number one because there’s no one else on the trail and they like following another team because then the dogs become defensive of the other team and they follow,” Walch said. “But it’s all very dependent on the musher. Some mushers don’t care, some mushers may be a little superstitious.”

Sled banners were distributed to mushers once they received their bibs. Banners are sold to local businesses and organizations for $100 as a fundraiser for the races. Complimentary banners were made for major sponsors and hosts such as the Gwinn Baptist Church, which is a checkpoint for the Jack Pine 30, as a way of saying thank you, Walch explained.

The banquet concluded shortly after so mushers could prepare for the race day ahead.

“Mushers want to get on their way, they want to get out and take care of their dogs,” Walch said. “The board and the judges want to go get their mind around what they have to do the next day.”

While the bib draw is an important part of the race, the banquet also provides a space for the mushers to gather off of the track.

“It’s basically the only time when all of the officials and all the mushers and their handlers get in the same place in the same time before the race starts,” Walch said. “These people know each other. These mushers they have been doing this sport, they know who everyone is. It’s a social time for everybody as well as a business time.”