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Baihly Warfield/WDIO The mushers are seeing slower times this year due to warmer conditions and less snow on the trail compared to recent years. Erin Letzring, Erin Altemus, Blake Freking, and Ero Wallin, a first time marathon racer and at 18 years old the race's youngest competitor, round out the top six mushers in the 300-mile race up Minnesota's North Shore. They are all heading to the final checkpoint in Mineral Center, where they will all have a mandatory four-hour rest period.  The final stretch takes them up to Grand Portage and back down to Mineral Center's finish line.  The winner...

"You're kind of always training," she said. "You have to be prepared for just about anything." Letzring's is one of 17 teams taking on the marathon race. She's not the only one from out of state to compete. According to race spokesperson Monica Hendrickson, about half of the marathon teams are from outside Minnesota, a higher-than-usual amount. Erin Letzring’s lead dogs set the pace early in the John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon on Sunday. (Steve Kuchera / skuchera@duluthnews.com) "It's mostly because a lot of races had to cancel. So mushers are a little more willing to drive further distan...

A layer of fresh snow on the trails slowed down Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon teams as they ran the first 75 of the 300-mile race. John Fisher of Cook, Minn. was the first in to the Finland checkpoint.