2024-2025 Race Season
UP200 Dryland Dash: 4th in 4 Dog Rig Pro
North American Continental Championships: 9th in 4 Dog Rig Pro
Continental Championship: Sucheth and Friday won 3rd Place!
Redpaw’s Dirty Dog Dryland Race: 9th in 4 Dog Rig Pro
RECAP:
UP200 Dryland Dash:
What a blast! Never been to the UP and it was gorgeous! Dogs did awesome, we secured 4th place in 4 Dog Rig against some tough competition! I managed to crash into a snow fence and take it with me for 20ft on day 2, rip it off, and still move up a place!
Sucheth competed in 1 dog bike with clean runs, and after some rain on day 2 he learned some new information about training for bikejoring and will come back even stronger in future races/seasons. Lots of solo enduro-type workouts are very necessary to place higher in races.
North American Continental Championship:
We were selected for the first North American Continental Championship hosted in Wisconsin for 4 and 6 dog rig, but decided to focus solely on 4 dog rig! Sucheth was selected for Men’s Canicross and also competed in Nationals for 1 Dog Bikejor.
The competition was insane, and I believe we were the only all Alaskan team in 4 Dog Rig. I had to run with 3 dogs, because Friday was just shy of 18 months which is an IFSS (International Federation of Sled dog Sports) rule. Both days went extremely well and we placed 9th in the continent against Canada and lots of hound teams too. Felt awesome!
Sucheth had clean runs for canicross and his dog Sirius did really well, but those really fast runners were coming in at under 5 min miles woof, so no podium finish. He also participated in the 1 Dog Bike for men’s Nationals and got 3rd place with Friday. Woop! Although day 2 ended with tangling the line in the wheel and having to cut it out…
Payne also raced with our friend Pat in 1 Dog Men’s Scooter Nationals. He rocked it!
Redpaw’s Dirty Dog Dryland Race
We raced 4 dog rig again and Sucheth tried out 2 dog bikejoring. Day 1 I flipped the rig through no fault of the dogs, I just had an ADHD moment and tried fixing the snubline while going 20mph… Had some awful bruises post race on my ribs, hand, and arm. Dogs were super chill and just waited a few seconds before continuing on again. Also ran with only 3 dogs again because Friday tore a paw pad during the week playing fetch, whoops. Day 2 we had a clean run and made up some lost time from day 2. Ended up 10th out of 28 racers! Good end to our dryland season.
Sucheth had a great time biking with Grumbles with Sirius on day 1, but it’s becoming clear that Sirius is a bit more suited to canicross or sledding where the pace is a bit slower and he can use his muscle more than his speed. Day 2 was a lot of rain and it was slow going, but still a clean run. Sucheth has decided that Sirius will probably retire soon and continue to enjoy the comforts of regular dog life with a little exercise thrown in.
At the end of the first day we were able to take Jack and Ari out for a fun run around the 1.5 mile loop, and they really enjoyed the chill pace.
Hopefully we will gain enough points this season to also qualify for the World Cup in Minocqua WI for the 2025 dryland season!Either way, dogs did the work and we had a good time.
WINTER:
So far, planning on running the Beargrease 40 mile and Wolftrack 30 mile sled races. Grumbles will probably go for another skijoring medal at the Loppet this winter as well!
