Copper Dog 150 Sled Dog race

Ohmylanta I am always so late on posting about my races! lol We got another 3rd Place Finish at the 2022 Copper Dog 150!!!! So proud of my dogs, they did amazing this whole season!!! Our training was sporadic and poor yet they consistently did awesome at all our races! This is always one of my favorite races!

We had a tough first 50 mile leg Friday night with my taking a chance on my super star awesome driving leader Bandit who has dealt with nausea from getting too amped all his life. This year I thought might be a chance he would be ok as we were giving him pepcid AC twice a day every day whether he ran or not so it was in his system and he did great all winter, no nausea. Was going to test him at Beargrease but then he had the clogged saliva gland and was on 3 different antibiotics in a month to treat that along with a minor medical procedure. Copper Dog was the last chance to test him at a race and it did not go well. He was off from the beginning and I lost track of how many times we stopped.. he was able to mostly run along slightly holding back, or pulling if chasing another team, but sometimes necklined to stop 4-6 times just going up one hill near the middle to end of the run... poor boy! I finally loaded him about 9-10 miles from the checkpoint and he was a load at 65 lbs... (when we got back to the truck he dragged me over to it and recovered quickly:) He only jumped out of the sled bag once:) The remaining 8 dogs worked very hard pulling and I worked my butt off on every uphill too:) Needless to say he will not be racing anymore unless perhaps under 20 miles which is a shame as he is one of our best dogs. His two sons ran all three legs and did awesome! We were in 6th place I think after this first leg?

Day two was fast and fun with 9 dogs, one fresh, and its always my favorite leg! I don't know why but I love it and we always have a good run this leg. We were 2nd fastest for day two and moved up into 3rd place overall!!!! They were just flying up the big hill leaving Eagle Harbor!!! It was lightly raining so I had to keep wiping my goggles off with a wad of kleenix in my pocket to see lol!

Day 3 I was down to 6 dogs not wanting to take any question marks! I told Tom Bauer he has to stop saying, "Just go with six, you do good with six!" lol He said it at BG and here too and both races I ended up with 6 the last leg lol! These six did rock it and while it was a tough run with the fresh 6 inches of snow on the trail they did amazing!! Thor is a beast and like having two dogs in one, Yukon is another powerhouse, the two yearlings, Cobra and Viper, rocked it and my super leaders Tamar and Granite did outstanding!!! Tamar is now 7 and screams if we go too slowly up a hill or after we pass a team and the whole team shoots off like a rocket and off we go!! LOVE her!!! Granite has gained a lot of confidence running lead for two of the three days at this race for the 2nd year in a row. Nikita ran the first leg in lead and ran every other race in lead with her mom Tamar but had sore feet and was slightly tight so left her behind for the last day. Katniss and Kodiak also were left behind but have always been rock solid hard working performers on my team! Thanks to my mom for feeding the dogs at home and for my dad handling and all his help with running dogs, grooming trails ect.. I could not do this without all his help that is for sure!!! He hit his back and head really hard SUnday morning before the race start when walking crazy insane Bandit who drags you around... slipped on a berm and it was probably icy underneath and was off balance with Bandit pulling him so hard... was dizzy and slightly nauseous for a bit. I got some help right away and they called for EMT's to come check him out, make sure he was ok. The race directors are just amazing and had someone just stay with my dad while I had to hurry and continue getting ready to leave. Our host family Mike was there and ready to drive our rig if needed! They have been amazing every year hosting us Sat. night in their home! Thank the Lord my dad was ok though sore, and was cleared by the EMT's and the race directors let me know he was ok at the road crossings which eased my mind considerably!!! They even called and messaged us after we got home from the race!!! What an amazing Copper Dog family!!! Thanks so much everyone!

Congrats

to winner JR on another awesome victory and Ryan on his super 2nd place after coming off his BG Marathon and UP200 wins! Awesome teams!!! Can't wait to come back next year!! Sad my season is over but glad we got lots of racing in which was a blast!!! Unfortunately a few of the dogs picked up a bug at the raced so were sick for a few days after and a few other dogs got it but not the whole yard thankfully:) Now for short fun runs and puppy training! Hope the snow holds out for us! Thanks to Jim for helping out handling for us!