We recently spent 10 absolutely wonderful days in the UP leading up to the Tahquamenon race. We had a bunch of really great runs during the week before the race, it is truly heaven on earth up there! It's always so hard to leave. We took 12 of my main dogs and logged close to 100 miles during our time there. What a blast!
Friday night, the night before the race, brought 22 inches of fresh snow at the race site. The trail crew got up really early and worked hard all morning to open them up for the race. I ran in the 6-dog class and Dad ran his first race with my B team in the 4-dog class. We all (the dogs, Dad, and myself!) had a great time. My team was made up of Eureka and Kiana, Minto and Yukon, and Paxson and Delta, all 2 1/2 year old dogs from my Alaskan Towns litter. Dad ran Acadia, Kleio, Moose, and Kodiak. It was slow going due to the amount of fresh snow on the trails, so it was a new and really great experience.
For most of the race, my team and I ran in a train of teams. This is unusual for a race and was due, I assume, to the slow trail conditions. It was really fun to run with so many teams, and it was another great experience too. There was a lot of passing going on throughout the whole race, and I was thrilled to see how well my pups did with both passing and being passed. Coming from Ohio, we don't have many opportunities to practice passing or spend time around other teams. It's always fun to run with other teams and have opportunities to pass whenever we go to the UP.
The teams in our little train started to pull away from each other during the last 8-10 miles. My pups ran a great race and during the last 2-3 miles they started to pick up the pace. I waited until we started on the last mile to call them up with their special whistle, and when I did they immediately broke into a lope. They finished happy and strong, and that's the most important thing to me!
Dad finished in 11th place in his class with a time of 3 hours and 9 minutes. I took 8th place with a time of 5 hours and 15 minutes. Thanks to our handlers for helping us to the line, and to all of the amazing volunteers who made the race possible!
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| My "A" team - Yukon, Kiana, Minto, Eureka, Delta, and Paxson |
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| Yukon, Kiana, and I in one of my favorite landscapes. It is so beautiful! |
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| Running down County Rd. 500, what a blast! |
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| Dad with the "B" team - Kleio, Acadia, Moose, Riley, and Kodiak |
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| I've always looked forward to the first time I would finally experience the feeling of snow frozen on my face. It happened on New Year's Eve! :-) |
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| Kiana is such a singer! |
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| Minto, Eureka, Yukon, Kiana, Paxson, Delta, Kodiak, and Zorro |
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| My team leaving the chute. |
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| Dad's team waiting to take off. |
A huge THANK YOU to my amazing family for all of your support. Tom and Brenda, thank you both so much for your support and advice. Thanks to all of my friends for your encouragement. I love you all!
Another huge "Thank You!" to my sponsors! I am so appreciative of your support.
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You can view more pictures of our wonderful 9 days in the UP on my sister's Flickr site here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/miss_n_arrow/ Thanks for sharing your amazing photography skills, E!
Thanks for checking in and happy trails!
Laura
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