ASDA

In the Spearfish Lake universe the American Sled Dog Association or ASDA is the governing body for Dogsled racing. It dictates safety rules and races run under its sanctions can more easily qualify for insurance.

ASDA is mentioned in discussions of the Warsaw Run in Chapter 2 of the book Runner's Moon . Greg Mears, president of the Camden Dogsled Association was at the front in discussions with ASDA.

It was due to the ASDA guidelines that Mark Gravengood and Mike McMahon trimmed the first Warsaw Run race to 99.7 miles, so as to benefit from the simpler rules and easier requirements in the under 100 miles category.

Real Life Notes

A brief Google search reveals no national group, so a real-life equivalent to the ASDA would have to be a local group such as the Anchorage-based Alaskan Sled Dog & Racing Association (http://www.asdra.org), the The Upper Peninsula Sled Dog Association (http://up200.org) in Marquette, Michigan, the Northwest Sled Dog Association (http://www.nwsda.org) in Washington state, and other similar groups.