some clips from the Purity Spring race

And here the videos from our attempt to do the 4 dog class at the NESDC Purity Springs "Sled dog classic".
Both clips are pretty long and show almost the whole course. I cut only the really boring / slow sections.
But especially the video from Sunday's run gives you a pretty good impression about the trail and the excitement in such a short event. There were a lot of head-on-passings, passing and re- passing, a crowded turnaround and so on, you will see.
Since our focus is on "longer" skijoring/pulka races, the team is used to running on a heavy tobbogan-sled 8-20miles in training. So, the "short" 5miles was something different for us. But since I still have a stiff knee and can't stay on the skies and I wanted to do at least one more race this season Purity Springs was the choice.

As I already wrote, the temperatures were springlike in the 50's F (10-13°C), but a 2+feet hard packed, well groomed trail and a very dedicated crew made it possible to run even at 4:30pm, when our class started. At that time the trail was of course slushy and chewed up but still in good condition besides some water sections .

Here is the run fom Saturday:



Nothing special to say except I was surprised to see how long the switching of two dogs can take .

Sunday's run:



Much more exciting because first we started in reverse order and immediatley right after the 4dog pros. Therefore there is more to see.
You may realize one dog is missing from the start. Chinook was fine until I put the harness on him and I saw that he limped a bit so no question he had to stay at the truck.
You will see that I took Quest of the neckline because he was pulled a couple of times by the two youngsters and he was "neck-lining". Almost immediately he started to fall back and run next to the sled and I had to watch that I did not run in to him. The last mile or so now there were only 2 active pulling dogs, Luc and Kaillou. A lot of running/pushing for me but that's fine.

With 8 years Quest is actually not that old but he had a ton of injuries and surgeries in his life and runs very stiffly. So I have to accept that he slows down now. But again; he is an incredible command leader.

In the end I'm pleased with the performance of the two youngsters. It was the first time for them in"lead" in a race and they handled it well.
And with our new additions, the two Sepp puppies, there will be an all Seppala Siberian 4dog sprint team next year. So watch out folks