Race Season

Alright folks, now that the racing season is over, I finally have some time to sit down and write about it. Fresh pot of coffee+good tunes+copious amounts of motivation=the long-awaited blog post you are about to read...It's  been a little too long since I last posted, but as most of you know once racing season is in full swing, there is not a whole lot of extra time for writing, so here goes.

The race season kicked off with the Apostle Island Sled Dog Races in Bayfield, WI. I entered the 8 dog, 35 miles/day class. This would be the first race for some of these dogs, but I wasn't worried. My team consisted of Ralph, Opal, Beatle, Clapton, Beckett, Viking, Pin, and Lander. Pin and Lander belong to Lloyd Gilbertson, but I had the option to use them. The race trail at Bayfield was very slow going, lots of heavy, loose snow on the trail made it a "slug fest", but it proved to work to our advantage. My dogs, although they were slow (everyone's were), were very steady and worked hard both days. I did a LOT of running and peddling behind the sled to help the dogs out, and we passed a lot of teams the first day. At the end of day one, I was sitting in 4th place, and I managed to defend my title on the slightly faster second day. Overall I was very pleased with the performance of my team and I felt that we earned every bit of that 4th place finish. On the morning of the second day, my best lead dog Ralph got bitten on the butt by another one of my dogs. It was only a flesh wound, but a severe one at that. I opted to run him on the second day; he did well as usual, but I could tell he was uncomfortable and that he needed some time off. 

Ralph (R) Beatle (L)

So, with that, Ralph entered a spree of about 2 1/2 weeks time off.  Unfortunately, our next race, the Midnight Run, was only 2 weeks after the Bayfield race. Since Ralph had not run at all in between the two races, I knew he could not go with us on the Midnight Run. At this point, I had no real command leader and I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do in the Midnight Run, when Lloyd stepped in and offered me the use of Cracker,a superfast command leader that was off of his main team. I only ran Cracker a few times before the race, but she proved to be a solid, smart leader and she and Opal did great together. The dog team was looking great, but I was not fairing so well...as the race drew nearer, I came down with a horrendous sinus infection, perfect timing!  The trails were not looking so great either. About a day before the race, there was a huge meltdown with rain and 40+ temps. This made for a lot of ice, bare gravel, and hard fast trails. Yikes. When we went to the drivers meeting the night before the race, the trail crew told us "The trail sucks, you're going to hate it. Have fun." And with that, we were sent of onto the most dangerous trail I have ever run. 

2011 Midnight Run-Tipped the sled right out of the starting line!
Nice!

The first 10 miles of trail were perhaps the most white-knuckle dog sled run I have ever experienced. The too-narrow trail tightly twisted between trees, stumps, drop offs, and road crossings. Several mushers crashed here, one cracked ribs while others broke sleds or lost their dog teams.  With being extremely sick, I decided that the best plan of attack for me was SLOW AND STEADY. I kept my team as slow as possible in order to navigate the treacherous trail, although we still had to maintain some momentum in order for the sled to be able to swing around trees.  I believe that I truly learned the meaning of "focus" on this trail, I was all focused on my team, my sled, and upcoming obstacles. Even with my extremely careful and conservative strategy, I still managed to crash quite a few times, get dragged, and came perilously close to smashing into a few trees myself. The next challenge of this race trail was crossing a lake that was pure glare ice. All 3 of the Caribou Creek teams had opted to bootie dogs to prevent fissures and abrasions on the "sharp" trail surface. When we popped out of the woods onto the lake, my entire team hit the ice and belly crawled in order to prevent slipping. Within no time at all, my leaders started swinging back and forth searching for a steady place to run, as the marked "trail" was the equivalent to a skating rink. It was impossible to hook the team down, so the only thing I could do is let my dogs take me to the nearest shore, which was not where the trail went. When we reached the bank, I was able to wedge my sled behind a downed tree and un bootie 3 of the front dogs. I led them back out onto the ice and my leaders cautiously found the trail once again and we were off. From there, the run was mostly uneventful, but the trail left me feeling very on edge. A mixture of bare gravel and ice covered the rest of the trail into Deerton.

My Team (minus Pin) finishing the 2011 Midnight Run

I arrived at Deerton sometime between 11 and 1 (I'm not really sure, I don't remember!) where we attempted to bed the dogs down in the horrendous wind. The dogs looked good, but they were tired. After the dog care was done, I crawled into my sleeping bag to try and catch a few hours of sleep before my early-morning departure time. I didn't sleep well, a fever and splitting headache kept me drifting in and out of sleep. A few short hours later, I awakened to the sound of teams pulling out and got up to prepare my own team. All of the dogs looked good except for Pin who had developed some soreness in a hind leg. After a short deliberation, I decided to leave him in the best interest of his his health and the team. So I left Deerton with 7 dogs. It proved to not be a disadvantage, however, as we had a great run from Deerton to Munising. The trails on this stretch were much better than the previous leg, and I was able to let the dogs pick a good cruising speed. I spent the majority of the run just hanging on to the sled, I was so physically ill that I could not help up the hills, and now I was sleep deprived on top of it. We reached Munising at about 9:30 on Saturday morning, and I was so glad to be done with that race. It was a very difficult 90 miles for me, but I could not be more proud of my team! We finished 12th out of 16 teams, but considering that the race started with 21 teams, I am just happy that we finished!

My Team at the start of the 2011 CopperDog 150
Ralph and Opal in lead

     After a few weeks of recuperation, it was time to start thinking about our next race, the CopperDog 150. I was unsure if I would be able to run this race, as the entry fee is pretty steep. However, a great group of sponsors (Officially known as Team Toledo) came up with the money for me to go! So, I picked 10 dogs out of the kennel to go. I was delighted to find that Ralph would be able to race with me; his wound had healed almost completely! Due to some of my dogs falling out of training earlier in the season, I had to use some of Lloyds dogs in order to make the 10 dog team. Pharaoh, Smilie, and King were the new additions from Caribou Creek Kennel. My 10 dog team came out to Ralph, Opal, Beckett, Clapton, Beatle, Smilie, Viking, Pin, Pharaoh, and King. 
The first leg (Calumet to Eagle Harbor, 50 miles) was great. We cruised along the whole way, I ran conservatively as I usually do for the first part of races in order to get into a good rhythm so I can finish the race strong. I was feeling great about the run, and when we arrived in Eagle Harbor the dogs looked great, ate well, and seemed happy. After a few hours of rest, we pulled the dogs out of the boxes and gave them a physical check up (looked closely at feet, did range of motion tests on all four legs ect ect). King displayed soreness on a hind leg, although the race veterinarian could not pin point an exact acute injury. I immediately had the vet mark King out of the race as he was obviously not comfortable and I was not about to ask him to run. Beckett had suffered a sore shoulder. He is just 2 years old and has a long racing career ahead of him, so I opted to leave him in Eagle Harbor also in order to give him the proper time to heal and recuperate as to not cause any more damage. 

So, I headed out onto the most difficult leg of the race short 2 dogs. The run from Eagle Harbor into Copper Harbor was longer (56 miles) and was steady hills the whole way with one huge climb about 15 miles from the finish. My team was running well until exactly the three hour mark, when suddenly we "hit the wall" as they say. Our speed slowed, I had to bag Smilie, and I had a team of discouraged dogs. The only dog who would lead for me was my trusty, bomb-proof boy Ralph. Ralph led  the whole rest of the way into Copper Harbor in single lead. When we finally arrived at  I took care of my dogs and boxed them for the night not knowing if I would continue the race or not. I thought long and hard about scratching, but I decided to sleep, shower, and eat on it and make the call the next morning based on the appearance of the dogs.

Finishing on day 2, Ralph in single lead

The next morning when I dropped the dogs, I was so surprised to see a brand new team of dogs come out of the boxes. They had filled out and perked up so much after a night of rest, they looked just wonderful. At that point it was very easy for me to make the decision to carry on, as I felt that the 7 I would be leaving with (Smilie would stay in Copper Harbor, she got a sore shoulder) would make it the last 42 miles easily. So we took off that morning feeling great, Opal was back to better than her old self, she lead like a champion the whole way next to Ralph. We flew down the trail; they settled into an easy lope and before I knew it we were within 5 miles of the Calumet finish. Im sure I had a huge smile on my face the whole way, it was so awesome to see the dogs bounce back. Crossing the finish line was very rewarding and I am so proud of the seven dogs who carried me the whole way. We finished the race 22/30 teams, which I am happy with considering our poor second day and the competition we were up against. 

Finishing the 2011 CopperDog 150!

I am pleased that we wrapped up the racing season on a good note. This year, I am happy with our accomplishments and I am tickled that my young dogs have made the progress that they have. For the spring and summer months, my goal is to bring some of my young leader prospects forward and to train up my pups for next year (since I hear we can train year-round here in the U.P!) On that same subject, It looks as though Powderhounds Racing Kennel will remain in Michigan for the summer and the duration of next winter, so I fully plan on returning to each of these races next year (+more). I feel this winter was (still is!) a success, as I came here and did what I aimed to do: learn about sled dogs and sled dog racing.

"The knack of flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.”

-Douglas Adams