Warsaw Run

From Spearfish Lake Tales Wiki

Revision as of 19:24, 1 March 2010

Warsaw Run at its core means to travel from Spearfish Lake to Warsaw and back, for some reason. Since 1988 it has become the name of a 100-mile dogsled race each winter, partially celebrating the heroics of the C&SL Railroad in helping fight a fire in 1981, as told in Snowplow Extra.

Warsaw Run was the name for the run used by the C&SL Railroad from Spearfish Lake to the town of Warsaw. ^SX08 Bud Ellsberg and others ran it repeatedly to carry firefighters and supplies in the midst of a blizzard.

The term Warsaw Run was also used by the Spearfish Lake Record-Herald employees when dropping bundles of the newspaper. The trip to Warsaw and back was a long run and the "big reward for making the Warsaw run before the fire had been the lunch stop at Millie's Pizza."^BAR06

As Mark Gravengood and Mike McMahon started running dogsleds, the idea developed for a race, commemorating the Railroad rescue during the Winter Festival at Spearfish Lake. The original idea bet a six-pack of beer, but the event drew greater publicity than expected. As both Mike and Mark fell sick to the flu after the race started, Mike's 10 year old daughter Tiffany and Mark's brother-in-law Josh Archer substituted with a dramatic finish. "In the end, it took the videocamera to finally settle that Tiffany won the race, by the length of Ringo's nose."^BAR124 The teams were: Mark's Gravediggers- Cumulus, Red, Midnight, King, Shadow and Mike's Beatle Hounds- Ringo, John, Paul, David, George.

The race has been repeated every year since, with the competition growing and improving.

Results

The Winter Festival and its Warsaw Run Race are usually in January or February.

1988 (2 teams of 5 dogs)

• 1^st: Tiffany McMahon-Langenderfer^{BAR124 AF34}
• 2^nd: Archer, Josh^{BAR124 AF34}

1989 (6 teams of 7 dogs)

• 1^st: Gravengood, Mark^RM05
• 2^nd: Archer, Josh^RM01

1990

• 1^st: Tiffany McMahon-Langenderfer^RM01
• 4^th: Bergen, Dennis^RM02
• 5^th: Archer, Josh^RM01

1991

• 1^st: Tiffany McMahon-Langenderfer^FtS13

1992

• 1^st: Archer, Josh^RM10 His first win.

1993 (26 teams)

• 1^st: Archer, Josh^RM15 Record time ^AC24
• 2^nd: Wine, Phil^RM15
• 3^th: Mears, Greg^RM15

1994

• 1^st: Archer, Josh^FtS13 3 wins before Alaska

1997

• 1^st: Linder, Fred^AC24

1998

• 1^st: Mears, Greg^AC24
• 2^nd: Fred Linder^AC24