Kids of winning mushers join parents for first Beargrease 120 sled dog race
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The John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon turned 40 this year. Between the two of them, Jen and Blake Freking have run it 29 times and have won or placed highly several times.
This year, the couple backed out of the full marathon so they could compete for the first time as a family of four in the 120-mile race.
Bonding with the Huskies starts on day two of life, Blake Freking explained, by holding the puppies close so they get familiar with the humans’ scents.
“And then we build, little by little by little, their confidence in us,” he said. “And then we just slowly keep putting them under certain pressures, in terms of distance and that kind of thing, until we have a team that feels like they can do anything.”
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Daughters Elena, 14, and Nicole, 12, grew up with their mushing companions.
“The dogs that were on their team, like they held in their hands as little puppies back 5, 6, 7, 8 years ago,” Blake Freking recalled. “They got to learn how much work it is to really prepare a team for this.”
It’s not the girls’ first race. Between them, they’ve competed in the Klondike Dog Derby, Wolftrack Classic, CopperDog 15 and the Beargrease 40, but the 120 was their longest trail yet.
“We’ve never really pushed the girls to be part of [sled dog racing],” Blake Freking said. They “were born into it and wanted to be involved.”
By the time race day came, the parents were confident the girls were ready for anything, with or without them. Though he’s run it several times and won the marathon twice, Blake Freking got off trail for a bit. Nicole Freking got her boot stuck in the brake bar and was dragged a little bit, but otherwise the family didn’t encounter major issues.
“The connection between the dogs themselves, and then between us and the dogs, and then just being out in the woods, traveling trails,” Blake Freking said, “it’s a pretty magical experience, something we certainly don’t take for granted.”
Elena and Blake finished sixth and seventh place, and Jen and Nicole Freking took eleventh and twelfth place spots in the 2025 Beargrease 120. The girls want to keep going; they’re already talking about the Junior Iditarod in Alaska and Blake Freking expects they’ll ask about the Beargrease Marathon soon enough.
