Team coming into the finish!
This is the race we just love to go to and anxiously wait for all season! This race is a bit of a drive for us but so worth it. We left Thursday morning earlier than we normally leave, but the joy of going to school, I had to stop at my college and take a test that "could not be made up!" Those professors they sure are tough! Of course my mind was not in "school mode" where I was way too excited for the weekend to come! But I did the tests, and was in and out of there fast. Turns out I did better than I thought on it.
Anyhow the drive up was uneventful, stopped on the way and took pictures of Mt. Katahdin, where you can see it next to the road, and it was a clear day, so it was really pretty! We arrived right on schedule and arrived at our place to stay. Got settled in for the night, fed the dogs and got them all tugged in. Next day was vet checks. Woke up to a wonderful breakfasts being made by George and Maggie who was racing the 30 miler that weekend!
Vet checks went great! All passed with flying colors! Only one split on Aryans pad was the only issue! NICE! I have to say to have only one split all season with the miles we put on, pretty remarkable, thanks to mom for her bootie expertise!
Saturday morning finally came and it was snowing...I was hoping to do the race in 7 to 7 1/2 hrs, but the snow obviously was going to set us back a bit. Before we knew it dogs were harnessed bootied, and sled was ready, we were headed for main street. We were number 6 out of the shoot. The team was Wat and Roland in lead (the jokers) followed by them was Kaleeta and Cree, than Wallace and Yoda, And Lumos and Aryan in wheel. We flew out of the shoot under the bridge back up and we are supposed to cross the road...right boys! Well the boys hence why they are call the jokers, decided it would be fun to head down the road, towards a black cadillac, after some situating we were back on trail with the road crew laughing! We were underway again, team was clipping right along and I was jamming to my Ipod and running up hills! Passed a few teams and came into the checkpoint...hmmm joker boys again! They obviously know what a checkpoint is so when we arrived they were ready to pick out their spot! And almost took out a couple of volunteers that were in "their" way! I signed in and out and we were back on trail again. I pulled over shortly after the checkpoint and gave them some salmon, let them roll in the snow for few seconds and we were on trail again. Ipod back on, me running up more hills and paddling, passed another team. Still snowing we finally hit the 10 mile marker. The last 10 miles were uneventful and finally came to the finish line, with the team loping in! I got a lot of comments on the team with how they didn't even look tired after 8 hrs and 17 minutes of running! I came in 15th place out of 23 teams, our best placement yet at this race, where it is a highly competitive race! And we also qualified for the 250!!!!!!! I was very happy with the teams performance and just couldn't stop smiling the whole way! At one point shortly after the checkpoint, a chickadee flew over my team very slowly, it was very neat to see. But I couldn't help but think it had something to do with my grandmother who helped raise me when I was younger, she LOVED chickadees, so seeing this really made me smile and be thankful for her! Back at the truck we gave the dogs their well deserved warm soup, checked them all out, and found only 2 sore wrists. Not bad! The trail was very punchy with how warm it was, so only two sore wrists wasn't that bad. It was Wallace and Kaleeta and I know when it happened it was within the last 3 miles coming in where this section of downhills are, the trail was pretty blown out and the dogs were just swimming down the hill.
That's the Can Am recap. Now we are just trying to have a few more fun runs before the snow is gone and its a mud pit, and doing some spring projects. We need to finish the dog/puppy building. Need to wire it, insulate it, and put the walls up, and than organize it! Always busy doing something! Happy Spring!
~Fort Illio~
