NORWAY — A book about a local high school sled dog racer and her dream to race the Iditarod is expected to be released today.

“Eye on the Iditarod, Aisling’s Quest,” written by Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School student Aisling Lara Shepherd and children’s author Hope Irvin Marston, follows the pursuit of the then 11-year-old student, her training and racing of sled dogs.

Shepherd said she has had the same dream to win the 1,150-mile Alaskan sled dog race since the age of 3 when she saw a TV show on the Iditarod. Shepherd, who goes by her middle name Lara, lives with her mom, Tara, on Thomas Hill Road where they raise the dogs. The house in now on the market and they will soon move to a new home in Montana, closer to Alaska and Lara’s dream of racing the Iditarod.

In 2008, Shepherd, then a 10-year-old Rowe Elementary School student, went to New York to meet Olympic figure skater Emily Hughes as one of three 2008 American Girl of the Year “Real Girl” award recipients. The award was based on her “commitment to her dogs and the kennel she founded,” according to the the judges.

Although she still has her American Girl dolls on a shelf, they have always been secondary to her love for dogs.

Shepherd became hooked on the sport at age 3, got a dog and won her first race at age 5.

She and her mom rescued their first race dog, “Jake,” a husky-shepherd mix that had been due to be put to sleep at a local pound. She now races a four-dog team.

A member of the Down East Sled Dog Club, she has placed third overall in national races, junior dog sled division, in past years and has a first place win as well. Her dogs  weigh 35 to 40 pounds each and run about 15 mph.

Two years ago she represented Team USA and placed second in a race in Canada.

This is her second year in the adult division. Last year she placed third overall in Maine as the youngest racer in Maine. She is now sponsored by Native Performance Dog Food in Massachusetts, Tara said.

Although small in stature, Lara can be a fierce competitor, her mom said. She often recounts the time her daughter crossed the finish line wearing broken glasses with blood coming through her sweatshirt after taking “a digger.”

Born legally blind, Lara now wears contact lenses.

She trains in Hebron and Harrison with her lead dog, Steele, an Alaskan husky, and three hounds.

Three-time Iditarod champion Lance Mackey met Lara and offered to train her as a junior musher, but her mom said no, not yet.

“I’m not ready to relinquish her yet,” Tara said, and her daughter rolled her eyes.

“She was never one of those kids to watch cartoons,” said Tara of her daughter. “Oh, no. We always had to have the Discovery Channel or Nature channel on. I knew nothing about it (sled dog racing.) Then we got a pound dog.”

A dozen years later, Tara is immersed in her daughter’s competitions and dog training and Tara’s father is even racing sled dogs at age 69.

Although the goal of racing the Iditarod remains elusive for the moment, Lara said she will be one step closer to it when she moves to Montana.

Lara said the book is based on a number of emails between herself and fellow author Marston, a former Canton resident. The book will be available this month at Books N Things, 430 Main St., Norway.

Lara will also be on hand for a book-signing later in the month. More details about the book and the book-signing can be obtained by calling Books N Things at 207-739-6200.

ldixon@sunjournal.com

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