Bergebyløpet (350)  2018

So far the longest race for me and most of the dogs. Emil, Bente & Loke have done longer races, for Escala it was the first race at all. The weather was good, not too cold but far from warm either and a lot of wind. The first leg looked good on paper, but was horrible. Loke and Marabou were leading, Loke didn't work at all and Marabou picked up that attitude unfortunately. Little snow on the trail and lots of wind at some parts made it a bit difficult to drive, but the biggest issue was the dogs who didn't find a rhythm. In the first checkpoint I had to rearrange dogs. Marabou and Loke back, Emil and Jenna in lead. This combination worked out very well. Only that Loke wasn't working at all. Something is really wrong, Loke is always my hardest worker. I dropped him at the second CP Bergeby and continued with 7 dogs all the way to the end. 

We got some more wind in the mountains of Masjok, but Emil didn't care, he was just running like a machine. I'm so happy that Emil joined us, he definitely has the right attitude and lots of long distance experience. Escala and Schwester blew me away. For the both of them it was the first race. Escala was just running and resting like an old race dog, Schwester couldn't sleep in the first 2 Checkpoints, but she just got better and better the longer the distance even though she ate very little. Marabou was working very hard in the back, a good choice to put him in the wheel position. Milka was a bit on and off... Most of the time she wasn't in the mood for racing. Bente refused to work for me at all. She didn't slow us down, but she didn't contribute either.

The dogs left every Checkpoint without hesitation. No limping, no bad stomachs, no vomiting. We had a bit of bad luck a couple kilometers before the finish. The leaders took a wrong turn and we ended up stuck in some deep snow. Unfortunately we had another team right behind us and while we digged us out of the snow the other team passed us and it was not possible to catch up with them again. So we finished as team number 11. Due to the performance on the first leg I was very happy with that result.

While we were eating miles my good friend and handler Niels went to see the vet for a check on Loke. As it happens Loke got an infection around his penis and the whole thing was swollen and pusy. Poor fellow. The rest og the team caught kennel cough to make matters worse. Not the nicest thing to bring home from a race, but with 2 weeks of good rest everybody was fine again.

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