Both races were a great learning experience for me. More like training runs, really.
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| The start of the Aurora 50/50, day 1 Photo credit: Katherine Updegraff (Kristin's sister) |
So here's a list of a few things I learned through each race:
1. Dogs will be dogs.
Training runs for my team and I had gone on almost hitch free. Sure we ran into a few snags here and there: a dog gets tangled in the lines; a dog tries to defecate while running without much success and stops the entire team. For the majority of the time though, my dogs run (and run forward at that).
The Aurora 50/50 though? Well, those runs were the exception.
Now if it were just isolated to the second day of the race I would chalk it up to them being tired and not as enthusiastic to run another 52 miles, but this happened both days.
Leaders didn’t want to lead causing major tangles and headaches. Dogs were more interested in smelling all the other dogs' urine … and of course we can’t just leave that smell there, we must cover it up with our own. A few dogs decided they wanted to just stop by throwing themselves to the side and laying down, causing more tangles and headaches.
It was a frustrating two days of running to say the least. What was most frustrating however is that the dogs who caused most of the problems were my experienced race veterans. Sigh.
I definitely learned to be patient though and to keep my cool. If I were to let it get to me and get all worked up about it, it would only made the situation worse.
2. The view is spectacular.
When I finally remind myself to peel my eyes away from my dogs’ wiggling butts and flopping ears and take a look at my surroundings, I’m always in awe. We saw some new trails and whether we were traveling through a winding birch forest, traversing a snowy swamp, or climbing up a hill; the sun shining, cloudy, sunrise/sunset, or snowing: God’s creation is absolutely breathtaking.
3. Mushing in warm temperatures is not very fun for dogs and human alike.
It was WARM during both races, 28 to 32 degrees. Dogs can easily overheat (so we stopped often to let them cool off and eat snow), trail conditions become very soft and difficult to travel on, and things are slow going. Plus side is, I get lots of exercise by helping the dogs push the sled :)
- 4. How to pack a dog in a sled.
Poor little Nuka. About 25 miles from the end of the Knik 100 Nuka stopped pulling. However, she
was still running. I knew she was getting tired so I didn’t push her to pull, I just let her be and slowed
the team down a bit. About 15 miles from the end she started neck lining (pulling on her neckline trying
to stop). It was then I knew she was done. She was tired and did not want to keep going.
I’ve never packed a dog in my sled before so I did sit and scratch my head for a bit figuring out how to
get her in and secured. Thankfully, she’s one of my smallest dogs so a) I didn’t need to make as much
room for her, and b) it didn’t add too much extra weight for the other dogs to pull.
Nuka is a bit of a high-strung dog ... and a loud mouth. When I put her in the sled and she didn’t resist, I
knew I had made the right decision. That didn’t keep her from telling me allllll about it the rest of the
way to the finish line though. Barking, yelping, squealing … typical Nuka chatter.
5. Dogs are entertaining.
Okay, this isn't really something new I learned, just learned to appreciate more (especially when
it's 7 in the morning, you've been up for over 24 hours, and you're tired and kind of cranky). As much
as dogs can drive you crazy because let’s face it, dogs will be dogs; they are rather entertaining as well
with all their differing personalities and quirks.
Something that consistently brought a smile to my face is how in sync Bluto and Flounder can be.
Remember those two? My two big, twin brothers? I ran them in wheel together. Not only do they look
exactly the same, but they also trot in sync! Too cute.
I love watching Tucker (he’s the old man I introduced earlier this season) and Ajax run. They both have
partly floppy ears that bounce up and down when they run. Sometimes their ears flop from side to side,
while other times they flap up and down like wings and they're going to take off flying.
Roosevelt (a dog of Kristin's I often run and who joined me on the Knik 100) always has a smile on his
face. He is just such a happy dog who loves to run.
6. Passing other teams is not always easy-peasy.
In Unalakleet there weren't many other mushers around, so running dogs was much more solitary.
Here in Big Lake, we come across quite a few teams on the training trails, but it's typically head
on passing and my dogs are good at that.
In the Aurora 50/50, I never came up from behind and passed a team, everyone else just passed me
(yep, that happened) which my dogs are also good at.
In the Knik 100 however, I ended up having to pass quite a few teams which proved a little more
difficult for some of my dogs. Some teams my dogs were fine passing, while other teams
they completely balked causing a huge mess. Sigh.
At one point, we were on a more narrow trail and other teams had to sit and wait while I got my dogs
untangled and moving forward again, eeek!
So I learned how to untangle as quickly as possible; and I learned that I need to have Kristin help me
practice with this new issue.
7. The northern lights are spectacular.
Okay, so this one also isn’t new to me, but the intensity at which I saw them was. It was like nothing I have every seen before.
Imagine a flash of lightening. It lights up the entire sky and for just a split second you can clearly see everything around you. Now imagine it as a burst of color.
It was quick. Just a few flashes, but for those brief moments it seemed the sky, the trees, the land, the entire world around me was lit up with an explosion of purples, greens and reds. Absolutely incredible. Words really cannot do it justice.
8. Bravo is an amazing dog.
Remember meeting Bravo? My leggy, inexperienced sled dog who was quite accident prone as a pup? Well let me tell you, he is surpassing all my expectations!
He was doing well enough that I decided to take him on the first day of the Aurora 50/50 and figured I'd leave him home the second day. He ended up doing so well I decided to give it a go and take him the next day of the race as well. He was tired by the end, but a few hours rest after getting home and he was bouncing around again.
I took him on the Knik 100 as well. We had practiced some camping here at the dog lot when we would come home from training runs (I'd throw out a little straw, give them meaty water, put ointment on their feet, and let them sit there for a while before putting them away - practice for the dogs and me). For the race, we had to camp at a checkpoint for 6 hours. I was a little unsure what Bravo would do with all the other dogs around, but he just curled up in his bed of straw and snuggled in for a nice long nap.
By the end of the Knik 100 he was pooped, but again, after a couple hour nap he was up and running around again.
I'm just so impressed with him and so incredibly proud of him! He's my super star :)
I learned a lot more than this short list during both races, but I figured I'd give you just a taste (plus I don't want this post to go on forever and ever).
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| Start of the Knik 100 Photo credit: Katherine Updegraff |
I'm looking forward to my next race in Kasilof, the Tustumena 100, where I'll get to see some new trails, meet new mushers, and take on new challenges.
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