With the season of racing almost at and end with the dogs I thought it was time I did a short review on 2013-2014 season for me Lindsay @ Cani-Fit.
The season started off with me hosting The Cani-Fit eXperience II at Bowlands Trails, this was the first British Sled dog Sport Federation affiliated event. Something to be proud to be part of. The event went fantastic, amazing competitors, dogs, and even better trails, the weather if anything was a tad too hot, but hey lets not complain we are normally drowned in Scottish rain during races.
In October we took a road trip with our friends to be part of Team GB with BSSF and compete at ECF European Championships. After a long drive , we were welcomed by rain, mud, communal showers and portaloos. Sadly the dog I was racing with got a bad injury on the journey over, Travis the spare dog was not a fan of canicross and decided to go a gentle wander whilst I battered my way round muddy trails. Fair to say the race was not a true refelction on my canicross ability, nor was it a desireable trail for such a big event. Team GB performed fantastic, with gold and bronze medals in canicross classes across the ages and bikejor in male and female. A great performance by the Brits!
Tentsmuir Forest in St Andrews set off the First race of the Sled dog Association of Scotland Championship Series. After a disappointing run in Switzerland myself and Monty (my 11 year old hound) got back to work, a little more training , a little more focus, and in the end it paid off. We went from strength to strength at each race we attended, SDAS, Cani Sports Scotland , park run events, we got pbs each time, we went from a 20min 5k team to now a 18.49 min 5k team.
November we hit the road again with our friends, Danny and Charlie, this time for the big boys race. International Federation of Sled dog Sport, World Championships in Italy. The drive this time was longer, but amazingly scenic driving through the Italian Alps, time passed quick as myself and Danny sang every song in his cd collection to Charlie, much to his delight.
We arrived in Italy, we exepceted rain, we got tropical heat instead……then rain, mud, a wee bit more rain, high humidity, flys, flying spiders, communal showers, and more mud. The trail despite some muddy sections was nice, slightly technical for bigger teams, some soft grassy sections.
My team mate, Lord Monty, has attended a few IFSS World Championships and European Championships, he has never came home without a gold medal..NAE PRESSURE CANI-FIT!!!!
A 2 stage race, with total time result giving you your place, we ran the legs aff it.. getting faster times than we had before, Monty, came flying in the finish line, with his super hero cape flapping in the non existent breeze.
Sat night we saw ourselves sitting in 11th place out of approx 26 competitors, come the Sunday we thought “lets dae it” and sprinted our way to top 10! Yaldi!
Not long after our World Championship trip we had the National Championships at Darnaway , not far from Elgin. An undulating but beautifully scenic trail. Again another pb performance, myself and Le Monte aka the caped crusaider won ourselves title of National Champion of Senior Female Canicross with S.D.A.S
With 3 races left of the S.D.A.S season and me sitting in top place to win the championship series, I decided to drop one race and concentrate on the last two, Culbin and Bowlands.
With all Monty’s hard work , I decided to give him some time off and do more races for fun with him, he is nearly older than Yoda with legs like a 3 year old road runner after all. Macallan our 7 year old hound, and Izzie (little Monty – his daughter) our 3 year old hound, both hauled my trunk round 2 courses, winning each race and resulting in winning Championship Series of female canicross.
I set off this season with 2 goals, 1 was to win national championship and other the championship series, there was a lot of training, lost toe nails, broken hips and ripped ham strings that suffered in the process but we go there.
We have attended various other canicross races in between and races that have allowed us to canicross. Seeing the inclusion of the sport with other organisations is superbly positive.
I highly recommend all these events for all levels, they do not have to be serious or as high level as what I have chose to do. The beauty of seeign the sport grow is seeing the variety in breeds getting to work with their owners, but even better more kids getting involved and enjoying a form of exercise, that is lets be honest far more fun than dancing in front of a mirror in a gym hall 😉