Fun run in Hill, NH some clips

Day one:






Day two:

Hill, NH

team SnowRunner came in second at the 12mile race in Hill, NH.
not bad for the puppy team.

World Championship Dryland in Saguenay/ Canada

some pics:

Hopkinton 2009

the first little warm up for the season.

1dog bikejoring with Luc.


2dog bikejoring with Kaillou and Lobo.



Lobo created a little bit of a tangle the first 100m. He didnt really understand whats going on but then he was ok for a 10months old.


4dog rig with Luc, Kaillou, Lobo and Lund.
The old guys did their job, the two puppies where a little bit confused and run fast but didn't really pull of course. It was only to show them all of the excitement of a race atmosphere and for that purpose it worked well, good experience for the pups.

The surprise of the day was again Wolk. I did the 1k canicross with him and he not just run great, he did also some great passings. Good job for a 6month old.

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

skijoring pictures from Purity Springs, NH

We went to the NESDC Purity Springs "Sled dog classic" last weekend.
Since I myself still can't stay on the skies I had to attempt the 4 dog sportsman class. More of that and some videos I will post within the next days.

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.
I took only pictures of the skijoring class but they had all classes from 1 dog Junior up to the open class.

On Saturday early morning the trail was still somewhat icy but doable for most of the skijorers.

Here some of the pictures:

Dillon's flying dogs :)

Sadie Therriault, second place over all.


Fran Plaisted


Johnn Molburg,
what you doing with that tounge, Johnn?


Jim Blair


Don Tibideau


Betsy McGettigan


Jim again


Kelley McGrath


Ed Clifford


Elaine Stasney


More of the pictures I took you can find here

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!

Video Pineland day2

Here a footage from the "bikecam".
I still have not the right bracket for that thing that's why it is very wobbly. They come out with a bike bracket in two weeks.
I mounted the camera with velcro and a pipe to the fork. but better than nothing.
Watch what happend at the end of the video when Ed Clifford passes us. It was of course at the steepest part of the whole trail.



And here the same run with a "helmet camera".



Edit:
If you have a fast connection and a screen where you can see both videos, let them run at the same time. start the helmetcam 8 sec or so earlier.

Luc and Kaillou in Pineland

Now a short reflection how actually Luc and Kaillou performed in Pineland over the weekend.

We competed in the two dog bikejoring class.

start

flying Kaillou :)

Luc is just great he is focused, he is strong and he has above that speed. He loped almost the whole 2.3miles and was pulling the whole time. He also pulled Kaillou who was “neck-lining” a lot. Luc reminds me on Quest when he was in that age.

I’m not sure if it was that Kaillou missed three weeks of training, that he still suffers from the quills or that he simply is not that fast, poor Kaillou. If the race would have been longer I would have taken of the neck line, but just the 2.3miles that was ok.

The time was 2:30 min faster on Saturday (9:56) than last year and approx. 1min faster on Sunday. That’s a huge improvement especially on Sunday because it was pretty muddy in the woods. Ok last year Luc was just 8 1/2month old and we had a borrowed bike and other issues but still.

The course is an up and down like a rollercoaster and the last 1/2mile are on grass, which is sometimes muddy and wet. So it is a pretty tough course for the dogs. Nothing compared to where we train at home but still tough.

I will also post some videos from both days. I had a camera mounted to the helmet and one mounted to the bike. Let’s see what they look like. It just takes a while to process these video files.

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.

rig race at the Hopkinton fair

After just 5 training runs with the new rig I decided to compete in the 4 dog rig class in Hopkinton.

And yeah – team SnowRunner run in to the second place overall, just 5! Seconds behind Ed Clifford’s hounds. And that with just three mid-distance Siberians! Next team was 30 seconds behind. Not to mention first place in the pure breed section. 13 competitors over all.

It was a very short trail, just 1 km. A distance Siberians still can keep up with the acceleration of hounds.
Everybody took it as training but still, coming that close to Eds team is great for team SnowRunner. And of course it is also because of the new fast rig!

Now I’m ready to go to Lake Placid.

here some more pics.

But really interesting was Lance Mackey's speech!

2007 Bartlett, NH 24 miles

That race was the longest distance our dogs run so far. During the training over the last months we had just two runs with 19miles. But those two runs where exactly on that trail where they put that race on. So I decided – let’s try it. First I thought to bother the race organizers again with the question whether I can race with a pulka or not. But since I was very unsure about the conditions and if it would be ski-able at all I decided not to take the pulka.
There were two other reasons; I liked to have that experience from the Mannsville Quest race two weeks ago sticking in the head of the puppies as a very good one. And second the trail here in Bartlett was an out and back with a big turnaround in the middle. That would mean that we would have to have a head-on-passing with each single other team. And that maybe would be difficult for the two young dogs pulling a pulka.
Ok, so we did it again with a sled and four dogs in a field of 13 others which all raced with 6 dogs, actually over all there were 21 competitors if you count the open class together.

here some scenes from the stake out and some starts



To be out there and race just with four dogs doesn’t matter that much anymore since I’m meanwhile getting used to be the fifth dog and run and push mostly on the hills. But it is really noticeable an those long hills if you run with a third less of the power than of 6 dogs.
I knew it would be difficult for Chinook to keep up with the three racers. He has his limits at a speed of 14mph or 22kmh or so. That’s where the puppies and Quest just start to loop. So, I expected to even put him in the sled bag to be faster on the last downhill. It ended up that I just took him of the neckline and let him run on the tugline. What he did, he actually run beside the sled.

You will see it in the video.



Over all it was again a good experience for the dogs and it turned out as a perfect exercise for passing, being passed and most of all head-on passing. We came in 8th place in 2:38. Which is again as I believe not that bad since Chinook and in the end also Quest “necklined” a lot. The two puppies especially Luc are doing what I expected from them to do (pedigree), focused on the run, getting stronger each run, getting faster each run and leading the small team without distraction. (more or less)

see some more pics here

2007 Mannsville, NY 10.7 miles Mini-Middistance

it was a great location in Mannsville, upstate NY, nice trails 4-6' packed snow, nice people, I definitely come back next year. our first pulka race ever and it work just fine.

I raced with the Luc and Kaillou and as usual Kaillou acts still like a puppy even he is already two years old. For what reason ever, he doesnt like to pass or to be passed. so he starts to bend over to the other team and likes to "greet" or if we passed an other team he looks back for the next 5min and waits for the other team.
After passing and repassing in the first three miles with Erin (the other Pulka racer) I had enough and worked my self up the pulka poles to him and told him it's enough now, no more - I bit him in his nose. that worked - next passing worked just fine we passed like a MIG27. hope he got it now. :)
Luc with his 12 month is doing what I expect from him he leads us the whole time, picks up the the speed after an hill, doesn't mind if there is another team or something else etc. maybe he really has something from his father in his genes.
It took us 1:15 for 10,7miles thats not great but ok for the first real pulka race. My goal will be to reach that speed in the comming years as an average including breaks for 30 -60 miles .

some more pics here

2007 stratford nighthawk

Our very first "sled" – race ever.
Saturday 02/03, First day 6” fresh snow, which was very soft but hard to run on for the dogs. And they have beautiful scenic trails up there! What a nice views! The 15miles (which were actually just 11.5 according to my gps) had in the beginning light hills to climb on but nothing bad.
The Sunday was almost perfect with groomed, hard trails. But after 38 teams in front of us it wasn’t so hard anymore :). Crisp cold with -18°C + wind but not to cold to run. I had a lot of fun and for that that we are a team of two puppies, a multiple injured lead dog and a showy stubborn fluffy I'm proud of my guys with the 12th place in the mostly 6dog class. In fact I did a lot of running too so I felt like the fifth dog :) Someone told me it looks like canicross with 4dogs and a sled between us. I always use a skijoring belt and a skijoring-bungee-line to be hooked up to the sled. that way I don't loose the team, they just drag me :)

here some impressions from the stake out and the trail:



and here some more pictures.

2 dog bikejoring in Pineland, Maine 2006

The video shows the start end the end of the 2 dog bikejoring day two at the downeast championship in Pineland, Maine in 2006. Both dogs are Seppala Siberian Huskies, 8 months and 2years. Watch the crash after 1:40 minutes or so. Two or three curves after that needle pin curve I had a very nice pace and both of the puppies loped very fast and smooth. I came out of a curve and right there on the left Jean stood there and had a tangle or something else with her dog. I was on the right side but my dogs cut the curve in the inside so they came out on the left – and run full speed in to her dog. It was may be 20 ft behind the curve. I haven’t seen it because I concentrated on pedaling in and out of the curve. So we crashed, the dogs fought, growled and so on. The seat on the bike was turned. Shi…happens. The only bad thing here is that a puppy should have just positive experiences in its first races and he was the one who was growled at and tangled and dragged by the other dog. But it looks like he is strong minded at least as of know. I have to watch him carefully in the next races. Over all it was a very nice weekend!