Canicross Race 3 (and 4!) Nothing But Epic at Keppoch

 So the third race of the MAHDS Spring Season was upon us. Club DogRunnin' put together another race, this time a full day event with multiple disciplines, 2 canicross races, 2 bikejor events and a canitrail event. Originally there was also a scooter race, though due to the weather this was cancelled.

Wait, what? In harness dog sports there are some very important safety rules, and one of those is the heat on race day. People can choose to run or not run in the heat or can be smart and slow down, but often dogs just want to have fun and aren't as good at realizing the consequences of their actions. So we have to be the smart ones at this time and make those choices for them. Taking the scooter event out, also shortened the day to allow us to get the other races in well before noon. As it turns out, the heat started to climb but generally we had some clouds to limit how bad it could have gotten, and we were safely able to deal with the races due to their shorter distances.

Okay, so back to the fun stuff. 

This weekend I signed up to do the Standard Canicross race at 3km, and the Sprint Distance at 1.5 km. As these are trails with lots of twists and turns, the exact distance isn't always easy to calculate, but they were pretty close to that.  

I got up at 4:30 to head off to Keppoch, arriving with enough time before the first race to have a chance to go run the main course as my warm up. 

The course is mostly crusher dust and wide with lots of tight corners. The hills were frequently quite steep. I chose a shoe with a short lug and lots of cushioning.

So as my race was coming up, I met with Val. Val had been generous with her dog Solo at the first race of the year, and was going to be generous again by loaning me another of her dogs (she has three great boys) names Bryce. Bryce is a Eurohound, like Solo. While not as big, he is definitely just as fast.  

Bryce and I took off to the start line, and I did my best to keep him calm. I was going to be going in the second wave of runners, so we lined up behind Wave 1 and waited our turn to get going. 

It's okay Bryce, just look forward to the fun!

Bryce seemed a little nervous and looked back a few times, but as we approached the start line for our start he clicked and was definitely looking forward to get going. And then we were off!

We quickly separated from Charles (he started with us) and headed for the first real test, a tight right, left and steep downhill.

Bryce swung wide to get us around that tight corner

That downhill was crazy fast and I did my best to hang on. And just as fast, another tight corner and up a hill. This continued, and soon we met up with our first runner ahead. Bryce didn't blink and before I knew it we flew by. Where possible Bryce chose to run right on the edge of the trail along the grass, so we didn't have a perfectly straight line between us, but it didn't seem to slow us down.  Much like with Loki in the last race, we hit a blistering 2:47 first kilometer. With 

We snaked along and soon caught our next runner. Again without hesitation Bryce passed on by. We were storming along.

As we came into the open area of the course, I could see Sarah P just in the distance, and we hit a huge downhill section again. Bryce pulled through, not caring about any of the volunteers on the sides. I think He noticed Sarah and wanted to catch up to her. He pulled me up to her in a little over a mile of racing. While it wasn't as fast as I racing the MDR race's first mile, this 4:31 mile on the twists and turns and ups and downs felt a lot tougher. 

As we reached Sarah we pulled along side and Bryce seemed to know Loki and we hung out there for a bit. I welcomed the slight easing of pace he went into, but then he got feisty and off we went, staying just ahead of Sarah but not seeming to want to pull away too much.  

Oooo nice soft grass

Now the thing with dogs and racing is that you can never be 100% sure what the day will bring. And since I am borrowing dogs, I have to accept this even more so. Everything was going great and then Bryce spotted a mud puddle well before I did.  Before I could yell leave it, he was upside down and rolling in the mud. I saw Sarah ease up a bit and then start back up (she could tell we were fine).  

While it seemed like we were in the mud for a long time, it was actually maybe less than 10 seconds before I convinced my buddy to move along and he went to regain the lead.  

We picked up the pace and caught back up, finally passing Sarah with maybe 200m to go on a very loose gravel area.

We crossed the finish line in 9:36 for 3K. Bryce was a giddy boy taking the win. It was obviously not the perfect race but it was the perfectly fun and exhilarating. I know I am a decent runner, but having to work as part of a team is a whole different beast and knowing we could go head to head with Sarah P and Loki the wonder dog was great. 

Huge thanks again to Val for loaning me Bryce  

Sure Bryce lets go run some more

Post race water cooler chat

Bryce and his sidekick

Race 2 was to see how well I could recover from Race 1, and really it was because I drove 2 hours to do the first race. Might as well have some more fun!  For this race I went to my friend Charles. He has two dogs and wasn't planning on doing this specific race (he did the full distance bike and canicross and the canitrail). 

He said I could have a go with Casey. She's a spicy GSP, much smaller again than Solo and Bryce and Loki. But speed? Oh yass. 

This course was fast and mostly downhill, though with some tight corners, so it isn't all out speed. Casey has been running for a couple of years now and knows what to do. We lined up in the 3rd Wave this time. I actually like a slow start, as I know the dog will make up any "lost time" pretty fast. This course though did require a quicker start as ideally, you want to get to corner 1 first to really take advantage of the width of the course through the twisty bits and steep downhill. 

Casey didn't want a slow start, and felt let down that I allowed teams to get ahead of us even for a moment.  So 100m in we took the lead in our wave.

Through the first 2 corners

Just an FYI this hill maxes out at a 10% grade

What can I say, this race was over fast. I barely could take a deep breath going down the first crazy hill. Then we slowly started to catch teams from the waves ahead of us. All of a sudden the 500m to go sign was in front of us. Casey pulled wonderfully, and kept straight in front of me. Her small size was the opposite of her big speed. Her desire to win is amazing.

We crossed the finish line with a 2:52 min/km pace. She gave it her all for sure. We took the Sprint distance win on the weekend as well. 

I did have the fortune to push myself extra hard as I was only doing the two races. So I didn't need to save any juice for anything else that day. I switched to Event Official for the final event, running the canitrail course to check it out and then working the start line. 

Huge thanks again to Val and Charles for the teammate loans. Huge shout out to Keppoch and Club DogRunnin for hosting the event and doing all the leg work. As an event guy myself, I know what work they put in. And big shout out to all the racers that travel to get to these events. The growth I have seen in harness dog sports over the last 10 years has been amazing. I am sop glad I have been a part of it, even before I could race it. 

Thanks to Val and Bob MacEachern for the photos. 

That's the final race of the Spring as I said, and I had a blast. Highs and lows can happen in less than 3 km, but the highs will always surpass any lows. 

I have a few non dog events coming up, but I'll bask in these ones first and maybe get some club runs in before the weather turns too hot. 

You wanna race me?