Photo provided by skinnyski.comThe City of Lakes Loppet was last month. It was the Skijoring Loppet National Championship and Rich, McKenzie and Wahya took part in it for the very first time. Our very own Hailey and Chris where his handlers for the event. They did a great job and most of all, had fun!
McKenzie retired from our kennel this past year and joined Wahya in a placement with Rich and his family. McKenzie is a deep Hedlund line Alaskan Husky and is the father to our Journey, White Feather and Topa and the grandfather to Aise and Illy. Wahya is a Tuloon/Bazil 2007 puppy so is half Hedlund and half Points Unknown Zulu line Alaskan Husky. She is the sister to our Oken, Zodiak and Zala and niece to Klaus and Sweet Pea.
Here is what Rich had to say about the event in an email sent shortly after the race:
“Hi Team M&W,
We had a good day today. Wahya got the call for the race. (McKenzie cried for hours, got lots of attention, walks and in the house time.)
There are some photos and a video in which Chris and Hailey are prominently featured prior to the start (first 20 seconds).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rda40QZ7lok
There are many sites with pictures; here is one:
http://www.skinnyski.com/tools/photoviewer.asp?Id=21576
Saturday was totally nuts, as you can see from the start.
The dogs ran too hard too fast for the first lap and ran
out of gas at about 5-6k. They stopped to catch their breath,
have a bite of snow and then continued. Considering the rest
stop, we had a respectable finish of 18m 25s.
Sunday, was the 14k, but up and down the hills at
Theodore Wirth Park.The distance would have been
no big deal, but we have not been trainingon steep
hills. Wahya was super calm at the start. Everyone
was so impressed with her nice manners compared to
the examples around her.When the count down came,
she took off like a shot. We caught three teams in
the first 2k, they started as much as 3 minutes ahead
of us.Then we settled down to a more sustainable pace.
We made a few friends on the course and ran with them
awhile, until we got to hills and they would fall behind.
We continued to pass other teams. Amazingly no one
ever passed us and stayed ahead of us to the finish.
We ended up 12th for the day, but that was good enough
to put us in 7th for the overall championship and 5th
for the men.
Great job everyone! Wahya's behavior surprised me the most today. She did not
run especially well for her, but she socialized well with
everyone. Here I mean dogs. Of course she was photographed
by everyone and got lots of attention and even hugs from
strangers. During the race and especially after the race
she was tired, but interested in meeting all the other dogs.
She did terrific, not snapping or any unexpected responses.
She went with me into the lodge for the awards, sat and lay
down on command. She was a great companion.
It was a really fun day. -Rich”
Skijoring Loppet - National Championship
Minneapolis, MN 02/06/11
Place Name Age S Time Time2 Combine
===== =================== === = ======= ======= =======
1 John Thompson M 38:39 13:03 51:42
2 Kate Tesch F 41:37 13:06 54:43
3 Rebecca Voris F 43:11 13:05 56:16
4 Brad Moening M 46:15 15:27 1:01:42
5 Kyle Gill M 48:04 16:09 1:04:13
6 Benjamin Menk M 52:40 17:35 1:10:15
7 Rich Baker M 57:05 18:25 1:15:30
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