Midday’s Gary Eichten interviews Doug Swingley moments after he won 1994 John Beargrease Dog Sled Race along Minnesota's North Shore. Swingley talks about his dog team and the race.
Midday’s Gary Eichten interviews Doug Swingley moments after he won 1994 John Beargrease Dog Sled Race along Minnesota's North Shore. Swingley talks about his dog team and the race.
SPEAKER 1: Well, big news out of Duluth today. Montana Musher Doug Swingley has won the 500-mile John Bear Grease Sled Dog Marathon. Mr. Swingley joins us by phone now from somewhere near the finish line. Good morning, sir.
DOUG SWINGLEY: Good morning.
SPEAKER 1: Congratulations.
DOUG SWINGLEY: Well, thank you.
SPEAKER 1: I bet you're pooped.
DOUG SWINGLEY: No. Actually, it's a fairly short race, and I got about four or five hours of sleep 50 miles back. So I'm actually ready to go out and maybe have some breakfast.
SPEAKER 1: [LAUGHS] How about the dogs?
DOUG SWINGLEY: They look great.
SPEAKER 1: How many dogs did you have in your team?
DOUG SWINGLEY: Well, started with 16 and finished with 11.
SPEAKER 1: And they're all in good shape now?
DOUG SWINGLEY: Oh, they look really good, yeah.
SPEAKER 1: What are the-- question came up. What did the dogs do after a big race like this? They sit down and sleep for a while or--
DOUG SWINGLEY: Yeah, they love their dog truck when they saw that dog truck parked at the finish line and they started loading them up. They just went crazy. They wanted they want to get in their dog truck and take a nice long nap.
SPEAKER 1: I understand that your brother Greg won the Bear Grease the past two years with the same team of dogs. Is that right? Yeah, similar team. We improve every year. We put a few athletes in there, different athletes in every year, but it's pretty. pretty similar dog team.
Why is it that the Swingley family is so good at this? I mean, your brothers won two years in a row. You won by a huge margin, apparently.
DOUG SWINGLEY: Well, I think that we've developed a dog team for this race for one. For two, I think both of us are pretty athletic and we do a lot of running. And this is a trail that requires to assist the dogs in any way you can. There's a lot of hills out there. You can run up if you can.
SPEAKER 1: How many races do you enter every year, sir?
DOUG SWINGLEY: Well, usually only one or two. I'll go from here to [INAUDIBLE] will be my second race for the year. That'll be the 5th of March.
SPEAKER 1: I think that's the big one.
DOUG SWINGLEY: Yeah.
SPEAKER 1: Have you done that before?
DOUG SWINGLEY: I've done it the last two years.
SPEAKER 1: Have you finished?
DOUG SWINGLEY: Oh, yeah. I was Rookie of the Year in ninth place in 1991 or '92. And in '93, I was in eighth place.
SPEAKER 1: And the same dogs that you used in this race, did they go up there and run or--
DOUG SWINGLEY: Yeah, we'll compile a team together. We have Jessica Royer, a 17-year-old here running our third team. And so amongst all the teams, we'll compile one team up for the [INAUDIBLE].
SPEAKER 1: How much money are you going to make on by winning the race? Do you yet?
DOUG SWINGLEY: Oh, jeez. The money's not very important.
SPEAKER 1: Oh, come on now.
DOUG SWINGLEY: No, it's-- it's just a competitive nature of human beings. We're just all competitive, and we just do it just to win. That's the only reason we do it. The money just kind of pays the bills to keep the dogs going. It's just an expensive hobby.
SPEAKER 1: There was some concern that there was so much snow along the North shore that this was going to be a little tougher race than previous years, was it?
DOUG SWINGLEY: Well, it was we really wanted to come back here and beat Greg's record from 1992. And this team could have easily, I think, beaten that record by four or five hours. But the snow just kind of prohibited that. In the beginning, it was-- the trail was soft, and we just couldn't get the dogs up to speed at that point in time.
SPEAKER 1: Well, congratulations again, and take some time. Get some food.
DOUG SWINGLEY: Yeah, that's what I need.
Views and opinions expressed in the content do not represent the opinions of APMG. APMG is not responsible for objectionable content and language represented on the site. Please use the "Contact Us" button if you'd like to report a piece of content. Thank you.
Transcriptions provided are machine generated, and while APMG makes the best effort for accuracy, mistakes will happen. Please excuse these errors and use the "Contact Us" button if you'd like to report an error. Thank you.