Bronze in Finnish Championships
Some troubles in the trail and lost the team for few minutes. FC bronze in 8-dogs sprint class.
In the split point I had 23 seconds lead, which I lost 3 kilometres before the finish line. One of the young dogs went over the anaerobic level in a tough uphill and didn’t recover from it. Therefore, I had to take her into the sled. On Sunday start I saw that she had not fully recovered from the first day. Icy training conditions have prohibited our specialization period and the anaerobic threshold level is still too low.
I also found out the weak point of my brand new Danler’s dog bag – the zipper. It is too weak. It broke down, when I put the dog in and she fell out from the bag when the team speeded up. I had to stop again and figure out how to transport the dog in the sled to the finish line. While trying that, the anchor broke loos and the team left me and the dog behind.
Luckily the anchor grabbed the trail and stopped the team after 500 meters. I heard that dogs were yelling and guessed what had happened. I ran and managed to catch the team. No injuries except my shoulder (once again). Thanks to the judge Kari Tolkkila and my husband, who were quickly on the trail with snowmobile.
In spite of all the failure I’m pleased with the dogs, which are in good condition. And I promise to use both anchors in the future.