THE DIRTY DOG DARE!!!

Well, I had been looking at this race online for a couple of months; I kept saying to myself “gotta sign up for that”…and I forgot. Then I woke up on that morning early and was thinking that there was something that I should have been doing…and then it hit me…THE RACE!!! I quickly jumped on my phone and saw that they have same day signup so I woke Brian up and said, “Hey, I’m gonna run a race with Trixie today, are you game?” Brian is always game so we got up, got running wear together and headed up to Bong Recreation Area in Wisconsin, which is where we ride the horses, so we KNOW it pretty well! The race started at 8 am so we had plenty of time to get up there and get ready. Brian Thomas is the race organizer for these canicross races and he is such a down to earth soul. His races are no stress races which is why I enjoy them so much. We lined up and he sent us off on a 4.5 mile loop through some of the trails that I have ridden many times with my horses. I told my Brian that I was likely to only do one loop because we were also planning to ride horses that day. The race was pretty hilly and Brian Thomas said he thought that the trail had 13 turns as well. Usually a Brian Thomas race is super hilly, so I was happy to see that it was only moderately hilly and wasn’t the usual grueling 45 degree grade that Brian is famous for including. The trail was muddy in A LOT of spots as we have had a ton of rain in Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin this Spring! I felt pretty certain that there would be a trip and fall in my future and I’m excited to say that I neither got lost, nor did I do a face plant. Trixie kept up a great pace the whole race. This dog knows the difference between training and racing and as much slacking off as she does in training, she makes up for in focus on race day. She kept the slack out of the leash and didn’t tug a lot either. The funniest thing that we saw was the Portuguese Water Dog that was running in front of us. Recall, that I told you we have had a lot of rain and there were puddles everywhere on the trail, this dog earned his name (I don’t know what that name is because I was behind him and couldn’t hear it), but what I did hear was “COME ON WE ARE RUNNING HERE, LET’S GO, WE CAN PLAY LATER” about 20 times! It was hilarious!!! Trixie and I came across the finish line with her pulling towards Daddy. She is always so happy to run, but also happy when the run is over and she can get back to Daddy. It started to rain as we crossed the finish line so, as always, we got the best part of the day. Trixie and I take water every ½ mile so we don’t get dehydrated so we were in good condition to go to the barn and ride the horses. We did, inside unfortunately, because of rain, but at least we rode and Trixie slept in the truck. Here are our stats:

4th overall of 16 participants

2nd female of 10 women

2nd oldest (which is a fun stat for me)

With a pokey time of 45:07 for 4.5 miles!

Next race…A HALF MARATHON!!! SOOOOOOO EXCITED! NEW HAMPSHIRE 05/18/2019 WITH MY SISTER, PEGGY!!!