Well the race is on! Got the official word last night via email. I've had a plastic bin in the kitchen for the past week where I've been throwing things I don't want to forget to pack or bring. Finished making dog booties (for the moment anyway - will need more before the 250) a few days ago, and last night I sewed up another doggie blanket/coat since Kadee suddenly decided to go bald last week, which makes 2 dogs lacking fur coats for what promises to be a frigid race. Installed a new sled brake yesterday. Still have some doggie trail snacks to make the next few days and assorted other small tasks including picking up some gear I'm borrowing from other folks....I'm sure I'll be spending a lot of nights this week doing last minute things, and Thursday is a day of just prepping (hopefully - if no emergency work comes in). My nerves have settled slightly but I'm sure they'll be back in full force by Wednesday!
The weather report for this coming weekend in Eagle Lake calls for below zero temps at night. After a fairly warm winter so far, I'm a little concerned that my body just isn't used to the cold yet. But we're also supposed to get a cold front moving in here this week so perhaps that will start to get me adjusted.
Still haven't been out on a sled. The dogs and I headed up to a friend's camp in Stratford this weekend to do some back to back runs with the ATV. I altered my original plan to do back to back 30's with a 6 hour break, due to a combination of icy trails which were likely to get worse that evening and minor foot problems on the dogs during the first run which I didn't want to aggravate too badly a week before a race, so instead we wound up doing closer to 50 miles altogether with a short break in the middle. I hope to god the dogs are ready for this weekend. A week ago I would have said, "Oh yeah, they're ready!" but now I have those last minute doubts going on, which I pretty much have had before every single 60 mile race and the dogs have been fine on those so hopefully it's just typical last minute doubts. We're getting snow today, and although we probably won't get enough locally for sleds I'm hoping that one of the trails about an hour away will get enough and will allow me to get out and do a longer run with the sled either tomorrow or wednesday.
Diesel lost his "slot" on the race team - he's just not working 100% of the time and I can't see taking him when I have other dogs who do work 100%. Made my final decisions on who is racing, and here is the chosen 10 dog team for Eagle Lake:
Kadee & Magik (main leaders)
Anthem
McKinley
Snowy
Snickers
Weyekin
Tristan
Piper
Dawson
So there you have it! This will obviously be my last post before the race...so tune in next week sometime for a recap of what happened!
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