Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Girl Scouts

We were asked to attend a girl scout meeting in a town near us, and talk in depth and detail about the sport of mushing. There was about 18 girls, with teachers and parents as well. Everyone had a great time! I brought Kaleeta, and some gear to show the girls, how to boot, wristwrap, harness and etc... The girls had a lot of fun, and were very interested! We have never really done educational programs on this sport, but it was a lot of fun, as always when it is something you take interest in! The girls had a lot of great questions to ask, and were very interactive with Kaleeta! Enjoy the photos below.

Training in NH

This past weekend we went to Stratford NH and trained with some friends (Jaye & Becki). The trails in NH were in great shape, and it was exactly what the team really needed! They needed to be on the road before the Can Am came around where we are on the road for 4 days. Everyone ate well on the truck! The team had a great time on new trails, and having the trails not be hard packed was a huge plus and perk for the team. The hard packed stuff we have been running on at home the past few weekends isn't doing justice for the team at all! So it was great to get away, explore new trails, and have some actual snow to run on!! Enjoy some pics below!

~Fort Illio~


Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Greenville 30 Mile Race

We always love this race and the effort the crew puts into it! We had a great time as always. Trail was in beautiful shape considering the rain we got, and the toll it took on most trails. I was very impressed. It was a hilly trail, and the views was just to die for. Times were very close and we placed 14th out of 18 teams, with a time of 2 hours and 46 minutes. The team was Cree and Kaleeta in lead, Wallace and Kotka, Yoda and Aryan, than Blazer and Lumos. Ryder set this one out, due to him loosing focus when we pass teams or teams pass us, I had to be very picky, where I couldn't decided who to leave out. Phoenix and Marocca set this race out as well. And Storm and Kody are now running on moms team for the remainder of the season. Storm so he can heal properly and go at a slower pace, and not run as much or as hard for the meantime. Kody well its his official time to retire, this saddens me, because he has always been on my race team and usually is my go to dog. But when we ran on sunday and mom ran him in solo lead on her team, his face made me feel a WHOLE lot better. He deserves this and very much appreciates it! We hooked up moms 5 dogs first because they were going nuts, and got her off. Than I hooked up my 9 by myself which was easy. I came up behind her, passed her, and glanced back at Kody who was smiling ear to ear! He was loving it! HE can set the pace, HE is running lead, and HE is KING! :) Or so he thinks he is, we won't burst his bubble!! So hang on mom, Kody will throw you a lot of obstacles but they will all turn into great memories!! I know I have plenty with that boy! Enjoy!

Until next time we are all crossing our toes, finger, and paws here at Fort Illio in hoping to get some snow very very soon!!! We need it so badly!! So we don't really know yet where the racing and the season will go at the moment, its all up in the air until we get some snow!

Happy Thinking SNOW!!

~Fort Illio~

Monday, February 1, 2010

KI 30 Mile Race


Team at the finish of the race!

I always enjoy this race, the crowd of people, the work the club does to put this on. I can't say enough good things about this race! Always a pleasure to attend it!

The team was Kaleeta and Cree in lead, than Wallace and Kotka, than Yoda and Aryan, Marocca and Phoenix, Ryder and Lumos, Blazer and Kody. We had a great run, team did awesome! They were used to pacing themselves, with taking in consideration of running the 100 miler next week. Hence that is how I trained them. I just kept calling them up and calling them up, CREE was loving it!! She loves speed anyways, so the faster we went the better she liked it. I had a blasts! We came in 5th out of 12 teams with a time of doing 28 miles in 2 hours and 42 minutes! According to my GPS we were averaging over 11 mph! :) The trail was very hard and fasts, but it was in great shape considering what the rain did to all the trails around us. The team came in just as strong as they went out, loping in! NOW that to me is a successful race, I like nothing more than to come in with the team looking like the photo above!! Very proud of them all! :)

Now the bad news, the 100 mile race in Greenville got cancelled. Big bummer considering all the work we did as a team to be ready for it, but I guess that will just help us get more prepared for next year. We can't control the weather unfortunatly! We need SNOW!! We are going to still do the 30 mile race that the crew worked so hard to get together! :) Now I just need to pick the 8 dog team out of 13 dogs! UGH! That will be a hard one. This is a fun race as well, so we all can't wait for it! :)

Until than...THINK SNOW!!!!!!

~Fort Illio~