Sweetwater
Day 1
We hit the trail 11th out of 19 teams. We added Kenton to our team, who is up for adoption from Adopt a Husky. He ran in wheel with Flurry the whole weekend. In front of us were a few of our friends and their teams, so we had something to chase. There were two loops to the trail we were running on. The first we referred to as the “little loop” it was 5 miles of the 12.5 we had to complete. The “little loop” as it turned out was also the hilliest part.
On the way to the little loop there was a spot where we had to do head-on passing. Lucky us, we got to pass two teams on the way out. Both didn't go smoothly, but there were no tangles or fights so we were lucky.
We got passed by two faster teams, but that was ok because it gave us something to chase until we caught up to our friend Karen. Karen liked that, because she got to chase us for a while. We then came across our other friend Rainer who had gotten dragged and ended up pulling a muscle (so he was going to be heading back).
We got stuck at a turn where Nemo wanted to go straight instead of go “gee”. Karen passed us, so we followed her. We caught up to another team at which time I passed Karen and the other team. I was expecting Karen to be right behind us, but she needed up needing to help the other team and was delayed in catching up to us.
We made most of the rest of the 12.5 mile trek alone. We passed one more team when we got to a section that ran on an unplowed road. Then we were again alone.
We got to a turn near the end where Nemo again want to go the wrong way. I had to get off and point him in the right direction multiple times. Finally I had decided to pull the snow hook and lead the team the right direction. This backfired when they pulled me over and I luckily got a hold of the handle bar in time to get dragged through the deep snow. I finally got Nemo going the right way and we were off down the trail again.
Our lonely streak ended at the very end when one of the faster teams that was doing a bigger loop caught us from behind. They passed and we chased for a bit, but with only 4 dogs the hills are a bit slower for us than the bigger teams. Plus I lost my balance and ended up with one leg forward and the other under kneeling on the drag break. This gets your heart pumping.
We finish the run and had a good first day.
Day 2
On day two we went out 9th with a few less teams running. We started down the trail toward the “little loop”. Blizzard soon need to stop to poop, which caused Flurry and Kenton to run over the lines.
When we started running again, Kenton had his leg rapped in the line and when he couldn't get it loose he flopped down on his side on the trail. Nemo thinking Kenton was holding him back from his favorite activity of running, got mad and started a fight with him. I broke them up and got Nemo out front and went to make sure Kenton was untangle and unharmed. In the mean time Nemo came back to fight some more and I had to pull him off again. When I finally got the Nemo focused on running, Kenton decided he didn't want to go forward as he would have to get closer to mean little Nemo.
I finally convince all the dogs that we were going to run and like it. As we started moving, all I could think was this was going to be a long day as we weren't even a mile into it.
Blizzard ended up on the left side of Nemo some where along the line, which doesn't work well as Nemo runs right on the left edge of the trail leaving no room for Blizzard. The team behind us had more than enough time to catch us. We let them pass, but had to stop to flip Blizzard and Nemo.
Again we ended up leaving plenty of time for the next team to catch us. This team tried to pass us, but her leaders would not lead by us. We finally lead both teams down the trail. We got to the same turn we missed on day one and Nemo again wanted to go straight.
The team behind us decided to try passing again. It was an unsuccessful attempt. The next team behind us caught up while we were playing around so we let them go ahead thinking the other team could follow them. However, the other team didn't follow, but instead turned around back toward my leaders. We again ended up leading both teams down the trail.
We later caught up to the other two teams that had passed. We passed one on the road and the other when they stopped at a turn on the road. We got great practice passing and pulling away from the other teams. We needed that kind of practice.
We took our time down the road and the one team caught us again and we let them pass. Again we had something to chase. We ended up losing them a bit and finished up the run with nothing to chase up the final hills. A faster team caught us at the very last part of the trail, but they didn't pass as we were so close to the end. We lead into the finish.
We survived two days.
Home at last
After smiling the whole way home, remembering the good times we had, I decided we should go back next month and also enter another distance run this year. Once home, we took a 8.6 mile run on Monday to make our grand total 33.6 miles for the three day stretch.
We hit the trail 11th out of 19 teams. We added Kenton to our team, who is up for adoption from Adopt a Husky. He ran in wheel with Flurry the whole weekend. In front of us were a few of our friends and their teams, so we had something to chase. There were two loops to the trail we were running on. The first we referred to as the “little loop” it was 5 miles of the 12.5 we had to complete. The “little loop” as it turned out was also the hilliest part.
On the way to the little loop there was a spot where we had to do head-on passing. Lucky us, we got to pass two teams on the way out. Both didn't go smoothly, but there were no tangles or fights so we were lucky.
We got passed by two faster teams, but that was ok because it gave us something to chase until we caught up to our friend Karen. Karen liked that, because she got to chase us for a while. We then came across our other friend Rainer who had gotten dragged and ended up pulling a muscle (so he was going to be heading back).
We got stuck at a turn where Nemo wanted to go straight instead of go “gee”. Karen passed us, so we followed her. We caught up to another team at which time I passed Karen and the other team. I was expecting Karen to be right behind us, but she needed up needing to help the other team and was delayed in catching up to us.
We made most of the rest of the 12.5 mile trek alone. We passed one more team when we got to a section that ran on an unplowed road. Then we were again alone.
We got to a turn near the end where Nemo again want to go the wrong way. I had to get off and point him in the right direction multiple times. Finally I had decided to pull the snow hook and lead the team the right direction. This backfired when they pulled me over and I luckily got a hold of the handle bar in time to get dragged through the deep snow. I finally got Nemo going the right way and we were off down the trail again.
Our lonely streak ended at the very end when one of the faster teams that was doing a bigger loop caught us from behind. They passed and we chased for a bit, but with only 4 dogs the hills are a bit slower for us than the bigger teams. Plus I lost my balance and ended up with one leg forward and the other under kneeling on the drag break. This gets your heart pumping.
We finish the run and had a good first day.
Day 2
On day two we went out 9th with a few less teams running. We started down the trail toward the “little loop”. Blizzard soon need to stop to poop, which caused Flurry and Kenton to run over the lines.
When we started running again, Kenton had his leg rapped in the line and when he couldn't get it loose he flopped down on his side on the trail. Nemo thinking Kenton was holding him back from his favorite activity of running, got mad and started a fight with him. I broke them up and got Nemo out front and went to make sure Kenton was untangle and unharmed. In the mean time Nemo came back to fight some more and I had to pull him off again. When I finally got the Nemo focused on running, Kenton decided he didn't want to go forward as he would have to get closer to mean little Nemo.
I finally convince all the dogs that we were going to run and like it. As we started moving, all I could think was this was going to be a long day as we weren't even a mile into it.
Blizzard ended up on the left side of Nemo some where along the line, which doesn't work well as Nemo runs right on the left edge of the trail leaving no room for Blizzard. The team behind us had more than enough time to catch us. We let them pass, but had to stop to flip Blizzard and Nemo.
Again we ended up leaving plenty of time for the next team to catch us. This team tried to pass us, but her leaders would not lead by us. We finally lead both teams down the trail. We got to the same turn we missed on day one and Nemo again wanted to go straight.
The team behind us decided to try passing again. It was an unsuccessful attempt. The next team behind us caught up while we were playing around so we let them go ahead thinking the other team could follow them. However, the other team didn't follow, but instead turned around back toward my leaders. We again ended up leading both teams down the trail.
We later caught up to the other two teams that had passed. We passed one on the road and the other when they stopped at a turn on the road. We got great practice passing and pulling away from the other teams. We needed that kind of practice.
We took our time down the road and the one team caught us again and we let them pass. Again we had something to chase. We ended up losing them a bit and finished up the run with nothing to chase up the final hills. A faster team caught us at the very last part of the trail, but they didn't pass as we were so close to the end. We lead into the finish.
We survived two days.
Home at last
After smiling the whole way home, remembering the good times we had, I decided we should go back next month and also enter another distance run this year. Once home, we took a 8.6 mile run on Monday to make our grand total 33.6 miles for the three day stretch.
posted by Janine at
6:38 PM
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