I entered this race with a bit ambivalence, I was afraid I was going to have to do all the work, or even worst, have to drag the dog along.
Marley has been a little picky lately about what she will pull or not. She will put all her heart and soul into keeping the bike going fast but my stubborn puppy (I have called her that a few times now) rather trot along when it's time to pull me on skis or on a sled, sometimes she won't even budge at all.
All my hopes were on Marley's competitiveness and, once more, my black fluffy devil demonstrated that dogs can get in the racing spirit. It didn't matter anymore what I asked her to pull, she was there to go at it hard and fast.
Superbe est le mot qui convient pour decrire ce dimanche. La temperature etait super, le sentier etait super, l'organisation de la course etait super, je me sentais super mais surtout et par dessus tout Marley a ete super.
Je me suis presentee a la course avec une certaine d'ambivalence, je craignais d'avoir a forcer plus que ma part, ou au pire, je craignais d'avoir a trainer le chien pour les 5km de la course.
Marley a ete quelque peu difficile c'est dernier temps quand il s'agit de tirer les skis ou le traineau. Il est prete a mettre corps et ame pour faire avancer le velo a des vitesses affolantes mais mon chien tetu (je pense l'avoir qualifiee ainsi plusieurs fois maintenant) prefere trotter nonchallement quand je l'accroche au traineau ou suit en ski. Parfois, il lui prend l'idee de ne pas bouger du tout.
Mes espoirs misaient sur son instinct de competition, et une fois de plus mon demon poilu m'a prouve que les chien on tout un esprit de course. Ca n'avait plus d'importance ce que je lui demandait de tirer, elle etait la pour aller vite et fort.
The Ottawa fun race is, like the name says it, a race for fun. It was a good one to start. All three, Typhaine, Mark and I, entered. Typhaine and I both went in for the 5km skijor with each our own dog, Sam and Marley. Mark entered the 2 dog sledding race with them.
La "Ottawa fun race" est , comme le nom l'indique, pour le plaisir. C'etait une bonne course pour commencer. Tout les trois, Typhaine,Mark et moi y avons participe. Typhaine et moi avons courru le 5km de skijoring avec nos chien respectifs, Sam et Marley. Mark c'est inscrit a la course en traineau a deux chiens de 2 km.
First race, the 5 km skijor.
La premiere course, le 5km de skijoring.
Step 1: prep my horse. I didn't want any booties on Marley but with the warm temperature an sticky snow I was almost guarantied snowball problems, so after I waxed my skies I greased my dog. The usual vaseline between the toes and baby oil on the rest of her feet hair (as a bonus it makes her smell pretty).
Premiere etape: preparer mon cheval. Je ne voulais pas mettre de bottines a Marley mais avec la temperature chaude et la neige collante j'etais certaine qu'elle aurait des problemes de boules de neige dans le pattes. Apres avoir farte mes skis je me suis donc affaire a graisser mon chien. Comme d'habitude de la vaseline entre les orteils et de l'huile pour bebe sur le reste du poil de ces pieds (en prime ca la fait sentir bon).
Once more I was allocated a lucky number, 56. I won't elaborate on the reasons that make it lucky, I'm certain it is.
The races start in waves with a minute between each competitor, dogs don't always run in good sports and it's wise to avoid contact during a run. With about twenty competitors it makes a fair lineup at the starting gate. We started 4th, I think, Typhaine and Sam ran just after us.
Encore une fois je course avec un numero chanceux, le 56. Je n'elaborerais pas sur les raison qui en font un numero chanceux, mais je suis cerine que 56 l'est.
Les departs sont donnes par vagues separant de une minute chaque equipe, les chiens ne cours pas toujours avec un bon esprit sportif et il est sage d'eviter le contacts durant la course. Avec une vingtaine de competiteurs, ca faisait une longue ligne d'attente au depart. Nous sommes partis 4eme, je crois, Typhaine et Sam sont partis juste apres.
Maybe I should explain the shorts I'm wearing, it's not about style. I've had issues about skijoring harnesses. They tend to slide too high over my hips and I find it affects my balance to much. I tried the climbing harness but it's tight and obstructive. What I really wanted was a harness that would wrap around my butt, just below the iliac bones and pull from there. Unfortunately a harness won't hold there on its own or without any annoying strapping....the ideal would be if the harness just floated on it's own....what if I sewed it into shorts!!! This worked really well for me, the dogs pulling force doesn't affect my balance anymore. For whoever is interested into the harness heres a non sexy butt pic that shows it well. Harness
Peut-etre que je devrais expliquer les shorts que je porte, ce n'est pas pour le style. J'ai des problemes avec les harnais de skijoring. Ils ont tendances a monter trop haut au dessus de mes hanches et je trouve que ca affect trop mon equilibre. J'ai essayeun harnais d'escalade mais c'est trop serre et derangeant. Ce que je voulais vraiment c'estait un harnais qui m'enroberais au niveau des fesse, juste dessous les iliac et me tirereais de la. Malheureusement un harnais ne tiendrai pas bien la sans des sangles au-dessus des hanches...l'ideal serait si le harnais flottait la...et si je le cousait dans un short!!! Ca a tres bien marche, la force du chien n'a plus affecte mon equilibre. Pour ceux qui sont interresse par le harnais voila une photo pas tres exy de mon posterieur. Harnais
Back to the racing. Marley started getting very exited in the line up. Now, that's all relative, Marley doesn't get exited like true sledding dogs, her excitement would be considered really calm beside a husky. Never less, I nice gentleman helped holding her back because when she saw the starting stretch, Marley was ready to go. No need to say my apprehensions all went away, I knew she was going to do her half of the job.
When our turn came, she did a perfect Marley start. She sat at the starting line, with subtle tremors and great expectation to go. Actually, when the timing lady gave me the twenty seconds heads up Marley's bottom came up and she almost went ahead. She gave me a mad look when I told her to hold.
And finally...3..2..1.. Run Marley....Gallop...I just can't ski at the start. The acceleration is just too much and I would trip over my skis, the best I can do is to double poll until Marley reaches her pace. Then we're on for a really nice ride. It's really neat how motivating it is seeing the dog working hard ahead, it pushes me to ski harder. I don't think there any other activity that makes me feel that team bond with Marley better than racing. All along I talk to her, instruct her were to go, ask her to slow down or pull harder and she responds as if her life depended on my commands. On her behalf Marley does take some initiatives, which are usually good. I tripped over some branches on a slightly narrower part of the trail, Marley slowed down right away (without stopping) avoiding me to fall, gave me the "everything ok back there?" look and as soon as I was balanced again she went back to her gallop rhythm. She also seems to know before they are in sight when we are catching up on some other concurrent because she would considerably speed up just before someone would appear ahead. I think Marley is a little competitive.
De retour a la course. Marley commencait a etre exitee en dans la ligne. En fait c'est plutot relatif, Marley ne s'exite pas comme les chien de traineaux, sont etat enerve serait considere calm a cote d'un husky. Neanmoins, un gentil monsieur m'a aide a tenir Marley parce quand elle a vu le droit de depart elle etait prete a partir. Inutile de dire que mes apprehensions sont vite disparues, il etait clair que mon chien allait faire sa pert du travail. Quand notre tour est arrive Marley nous a fait un depart, a sa maniere, parfait. Elle s'est assise a la ligne de depart, avec de legers tremblant et la hate de partir. Quand la dame du chrono m'a donner le "20 secondes avant le depart", le derriere de Marley s'est leve du sol et elle est presque partie. Elle m'a envoyer un regard mauvais quand je lui ai demander d'attendre.
Finalement, 3..2..1..Cours Marley...gallop...Il m'est impossible de skier au depart, Marley va trop vite. L'acceleration est trop vite pour moi et je trebuche dans mes skis, le mieux c'est de garder mes pieds parralleles et de pousser avec mes batons jusqu'a ce qu'elle atteigne sa vitesse de croisiere. Puis on est partis pour une bonne ballade.
Behind us the great Typhaine and Sam team was following, probably at a consistent 1 minute behind considering our arrival times.
This 5 km turned out to not be as painful as I was afraid it could of been considering I haven't skied any more than a grand total of about 4 km this winter. What could of made it a little....slightly (said with irony)....easier is if I hadn't lost half my pole at the first km. What a pain to skate with a single pole. I was going along very well, when just after I give a good push, I bring my hand back up and there's only a handle in left, the pole stayed behind. Quick debate on what to do and I decided to not stop, keep going and rely on my legs. Now, skiing with one pole is just too easy for me (again said with irony), so a little before the last kilometer my right boot came undone. I like to make those precisions as on the pictures of my arrival I look like I may be a little tipsy. I challenge anybody to try skating with one pole, one boot undone and tied up to a dog that's starting to back off as she see's the crowed. Marley still has that issue about running towards an unknown crowed. I can't really blame her, she ran amazingly the whole way, I won't hold against my pup her weariness of groups of noisy cheering people. We ran for fun and had lots of it.
Typhaine arrived a minute and 13 seconds after me. So our times were 13 seconds apart, I was really hopping we would do similar times and we did over a 20 minutes race. We arrived forth (20:06) and fifth (20:19) over 23 runners, I'm really satisfied considering my goal was to do under 25 minutes.
The sister debriefing, talking of our adventures and starting to think of the next race.
Marks race came after lunch. The plan was for Mark to run the 2km 2 dog sled race with two dogs working on different commands (German for one, French for the other) with a newly built and barely tried out sled... An other little detail, and my sister did warn us of it, Sams loyalty is above his love of running and pulling. It wasn't a given that he was going to work well, but Typhaine was curious to see how it was going to work out and Mark was keen to try the two pups.
The start looked awesome, until my sister was out of sight of Sam. Then, he decided to turn around and got tangled with Marley which wasn't about to slow down. Mark didn't give up he got them untangled and kept going. Apparently Sam never really pulled but eventually went with the flow. They had a few other scrambles and Mark had to run in snow for most of the race as Marley alone was working to hard to pull the load.
The last stretch, on the packed snow was the best as Sam started pulling when the arrival and Typhaine came in sight. Mark had to work really hard but he did his loop, we got great picture of his funny team and he got the third place ribbon.
Just I final picture of the site. Not many bouviers running, actually, only one. The Super Nobleair Calypso Marley, the no 1, best of all racing bouviers des flandres.
More photos
More photos
No comments:
Post a Comment