'Scuse the self indulgent moment...

The Dash for Cash$$!! Almost forgot about our local races with all the Quest hoopla going on. How could I forget about the score I had to settle with my arch-nemesis, Darryl!?! (erm...who beat me skijoring before...). Well, this time it was the 4-dog (sled) 5-mile Dash for NO-Cash (usually, in my case). Jon ran Team Rottie and used my Kate & Octane as leaders. He pulled #15, I got #16 and Darryl was #17. I was nicely sandwiched in there. I was hoping to catch Jon and NOT be caught by Darryl. Here's some pre-race shots:

I'm with Harris there, Ripper is on the other side.


Note the difference between a REAL sprint sled and my tank of a sled:


Darryl pretending it's friendly competition. My semi-serious *game* face is due to my leaders wigging out.


At the start. These 2 minutes in between teams are always the longest two minutes on the face of the earth. Rupert (white) and Harris in wheel:


This trail is super windy which is a blast to zoom through! It starts with a wicked downhill, complete with a nice sharp left turn at the bottom. Apparently that morning a few skijorers had wiped out and at least one sled driver bailed as well. Needless to say, there is always people littered at the bottom hoping to catch glimpse of a wipeout!


So here is Team Rottie coming in to the finish (nice stance Jon!!):

Kate did really well for him, despite her 12.5 yrs. Octane, I think has trouble adjusting to the loping full out thing, coming from a long distance (a few Iditarods) background. But Jon was happy with them both and his guys.

And Darryl's finish:


No pics of us coming in - Tyson screwed up the camera! But he did get all these great shots.

So... it was a close one!! Out of 9 teams, I placed 6th (argh!) doing the 5 miles in 11 minutes, 14 seconds. Darryl beat me by FIFTEEN SECONDS to come in 5th!!! Team Rottie came in 7th at 12 minutes, something-or-other (wasn't paying a ton of attention to them... heh heh...).

Our friendly competition aside - I was SUPER happy with our run. It was a ton of fun and the dogs really showed me what I knew they could do! I used Ripper (who is amazing and gets better every run) and Jack (who is really picking it up for me when I ask him to, and seemed to dig the speed today) in lead. They were really fired up and we just flew through the trees where the trail weaved all over the place. They are a great combo. Tomorrow is Day Two (yes, it ain't over yet!!!) and I may throw Harris up with Ripper to see if we improve our time, and to give him a chance. Harris is a loper by nature, so he may help improve our time. Then again, Rupert was his usual psycho self in wheel, and he may be a good bet too! Ah, it'll be a tough decision...