Run-8 Kennels

From Spearfish Lake Tales Wiki

Run-8 Kennels is the name of the operation of Tiffany and Josh Archer with their dogs. It was named sometime before 1993, by which time both Josh and Tiffany had raced with that name.^RM10 Phil Wine was something of a third member of the team. The travel with his job meant he couldn't take care of his own dogs, but "three different times he'd found quality breeding dogs from Alaskan kennels and sent them back to Spearfish Lake, for a total of five dogs."^RM19 Phil would help train when he could and raced with the teams on occasion, including a second place finish in 1993 in the Warsaw Run.^RM15

Run 8 is the full open throttle setting on the diesel trains that Josh drives. "Boy, would those babies ever shake the leaves when they were working a load with the throttle set to Run-8!"^BAR73 Josh also thought in this term when he played football in High School, returning a kickoff and "all of a sudden the field was open, there was running room, and Josh had his throttle in Run-8, heading for the far goal line, the field strung out with blue and gold and white behind him."^BAR78

The Run-8 Kennels used an identifying patch when they raced. It included "a pair of racing dogs superimposed on a diesel railroad engine."^RM13 The pickup used to haul dogs to Alaska used the logo on its side.^RM19 There was an Iditarod Run-8 poster, one of which Josh's brother John hung in his office.^FtS15

County Road 542, often called "Busted Axle Road", started to be called "Dog Town Road" because of the Run-8 Kennels, plus Mark Gravengood's and Mike McMahon's dogs.^RM13

By December 2000, Tiffany and Josh decide not to run the Iditarod and sold part of the operation to Phil Wine, concentrating on breeding and training.^SQ04