training puppies

that's a picture from three weeks ago.
Quest my old trusted leader in front and the two pups in mini harnesses behind him.
We do 2-3 miles in that combination.
What a fun.

Hopkinton 2008

Last weekend was again the NORTHERN NEW ENGLAND SLED DOG TRADE FAIR & SEMINAR in Hopkinton NH. Like last year they had a little dryland race. little in distance but seems to me, every year there are more participants. there was 1 and 2 dog bikejoring, a scooter class, 4 dog and a 5-6 dog rig class and new for this year a canicross. The loop is only 0.8 miles or so. it seems there are some issues to get the approval to cross a road so one stays inside the fairground. But that's ok. I like all the dryland stuff because it simply extends the time to be with other sled dog people and race.
team snowrunner went out in the 1dog with Kaillou, who did surprisingly well (first place), the 2 dog bike with Luc and Quest (second overall), the 4 dog rig with Luc, Quest and Kaillou (third overall). Quest is now in an age that he cant keep up with the 3 (Luc) and 4 (Kaillou) year old. He is now the one who slows the team down. BUT and we will see it later in the snow races he safes so much time because he is an excellent command leader.
Interesting is that team snowrunner seems to have a good pace for a mile. as it was last year there were some pretty good sprint dogs at the start but for some reason Luc and Kaillou seem to beat them over that short distance. the difference is of course that the real sprinters would keep that pace over another 5miles whilst the Sibs slow down. But that's the reason we train for mid-distance, the natural distance for Siberians.
In the clip below you can see the whole race trail and one can also see how Quest (in lead on the left) is always one step behind Luc especially in last third.
Since we went out first there is no other team in sight.



Canicross - mass start -
I chose to take Chinook AND Luc. I shouldn't. each of them alone would be fine but together they act as pack. some of the other dogs growled a bit at Chinook and he growled back so that Luc started to make some noises too. At the start I thought it is better to keep a little distance to the other runners. Half way in the run there was a tangle of two or three dogs and their leashes and runners :) so we took the chance to run on by, had a very good pace and would have passed the two others in front of us but those were the ones who growled at Chinook, so I decided to take it easy and keep back. Not to mention that Ed and his dog Maggie was way in front. :-)




more pictures can be seen here and here

Hopkinton is a good start in the season, we have to thank the organizers. Each year the fair, the seminars and now also the race is getting bigger AND better. People came as far as Ontario!

Dogrundog again

the dogrundog in Norwich, VT on Sunday morning was really a great event.

It is so nice to see that it is growing so fast. Almost too fast, if it would double the participants next year again it would burst the event-center where it was held. I do not remember exactly but I believe more than 100+ people with dogs participated. I would say maybe 40 or so really competed all others took the opportunity to have a nice fast walk among other dog-lovers for a very nice purpose.

Ed beat his own time from last year and came in in an unbelievable 16:17min! And the 5K course is not flat! here his little superdog Maggie:

Christa took some more pictures, you can see them here

I was with 43:20 1:30min slower than last year at the 10k but given the fact that I jogged only 100k over all since last year's dogrundog and 50k of that within the last two weeks - that's kind of ok. Luc did his best to drag me over the distance.

As you can see in the picture above it is always difficult to convince the dog to run the second loop when the two only others in front of you turn in to the finish line.

Km 6 and 7 are then like still-stand and waiting for the guy behind us so we have someone to chase again :-)

In the end it was just the right start and motivation to the dryland season.

Still training with the rig but not more than 2-3miles, we had 15 hook up's since mid August, no porcupines so far! knock on wood!

pictures from Sunday in Pineland

Christina Eagle


Marc


Betsy


Ed

and here all the pictures from Sunday.

Pineland, 2007 Down East Dryland Championships

I took a ton of pictures on Saturday.
You can find them here
Since it was very cloudy and overcast I took the pictures mostly in ISO1600 which makes them a bit grainy. But I needed at least 1/640s to catch the movements of the dogs.


Sara Vanderwood in the four dog class.


This picture shows the two fastest 5K-canicrossler in the North-East.
Ed Clifford of Raymond, NH who will be in Italy at the WC in two weeks, and Jason Sperry of Mexico, NY.

More to come tonight.

dogrundog

Luc run in to the first place in the 10k competition in roughly 42min.

It was a very nice event, great organization, nice folks even some mushers around. They also had a vet check before the race. The race fee goes to local animal shelters.

The only thing was that the course was completely on paved roads. For dogs who pull really hard it is a bad thing to run on asphalt.

Ed Cliffords dog Maggie wore down all four booties! But Ed and Maggie run like crazy, 17:37 for 5k. Congrats to the new "World record" Ed :) !

Here some pictures.

2007 Pineland Farm Trail Challenge, May 27.

It was a nice day for running still too warm for the dogs but ok and much cooler than the days before, temps around 68-70°F at 10:00. The first loop has at least 4 miles or so open fields’ means the dog also runs in the full sun exposure. So I had to carefully watch Kaillou whom I decided to take for the first loop for any sign of dehydration. Even though it was very warm the last days I had not expected that there would be almost none puddles or brooks on the trail. That made it difficult to keep the dog hydrated. At every water station I stopped and poured water over his head and body. At kilometer 8 or so Kaillou stopped running and just walked beside me. So I started also to walk and we lost a couple of minutes, I did not force him to continue to run not to mention to pull I thought he simply knows what’s the best for him. So we walked up two or three hills until he again started to run.

At kilometer 10 or so a security officer from Pineland came with his Jeep and tried to get me off the trail – no dogs are normally allowed – I told him “er kann mich mal sonst wo” and he could try to cache us if he can (he was a big guy). There is an exception just for that race and no one informed him.



After 15k we came back in the start/finish area in 01:40 still 5min. faster than last year. Christa was there and Jeff helped us to change the dogs. Thanks to Jeff and Mark for helping Christa out with the Kids and the dogs.



Luc of course was very excited. And made some loops around me until he realized what’s going on here and that he has to run – in front of me. But then he surprised me, he simply was so excited that he pulled the whole time up and of course down the hills. Luc is an awesome dog. We managed to run the second loop in nice fast and steadily pace including a long stop at the water station and that just because of Luc was really good focused. We came in 2:26:56min, more than 30min faster then last year. There is still a lot of space for improvement but we are on the right track.

There were 6 or more starter in the 4K canicross. Nice to see more people finally running with there dogs.

Even if everybody has still to work on how to “mass” start with a dog. That “chaos” was nice to watch.

All pictures from Pineland here

Now I could say the season is over. But actually that was our first trainings - run for the coming winter season. Especially for those mid distance pulka runs I will train on next winter.



And in 8 weeks the 16miler in Newbury Port is calling. :)

Muddy Moose Trail Race 2007

Mud, Mud, Mud!
They had a big picture on page 1 of the sports part in our local newspaper, the “Baysider”. The picture doesn't show the amount of mud you actually have to run through.
What they always forget is that the dog indeed pulls you but the dog also pulls downhill and there you lose a lot of power in your legs because you have to brake for two. The dog pulls you also through the mud but here again you have to slow him down because you have to run careful and watch your steps. Thanks to Luc we came in second in the Old-Man-Age-Group and we made it to 10th place out of 91 over all.
That race is a lot of fun, I'm always surprised that I do not twist my ankles. This year I just run the 4miles to be more relaxed for the upcoming Pineland race.