Finnmarkslopet - Aditional Race Information

In between packing, I found a few interesting resources and information how to learn more about the race and other ways how you can also follow it.

Finnmarkslopet in Wikipedia: http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnmarksl%C3%B8pet
This information is in Norwegian, but you can see the lenghts of individual legs between checkpoints, as well as the list of winners, both in the 500 and 1000km race, including their winning times.

Follow Finnmarkslopet with Google Earth: http://www2.nrk.no/finnmarkslopet/finnmarkslopet_en.kml
Learn more about the trail itself, and the landscape it leads through. If you don´t have Google Earth installed, it is very easy and free of charge, so I incurage you to do it - it is so worth it!
Once it is launched, you can check many options on the left bar of the Google Earth site - current weather, photographs from the checkpoints, galleries, etc.
This link is from the race in 2007 and there were slight changes made since then, but not that much of diference when it comes to checkpoints.

On everytrail.com is nice coverage of the 2007 & 2008 race by GPS tracking of the entire race route, including photos and other info:
http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=71770

Musher´s blogs and websites - other interesting ways to follow the race:
Last but not least, I´d like to draw your attention to viewing musher profiles on Finnmarkslopet´s official website http://www.finnmarkslopet.no/race/entrants.jsp?mid=323. Many of the teams have their own websites and blogs, where you can also come across unique and personal acounts of each of the team´s jourbeys, personal experiences, struggles and victories during this tough voayage. Some of the blogs are really cool to read and many are in English.

Now back to packing, shopping, organising. Looking out the window, I watch our dogs and miss them already. But I know Jachym will take them for regular training so they won´t miss any fun. Babeli is settled in the house already, the last two nights she slept in the bed with us. I haven´t seen a happier dog in a while. At least the bed besides Jachym won´t be so empty :)

And that´s all for now. Tomorrow: fleshes from the road-trip!

Katerina - the handler