My Winter 2016

Journey to this point has not been easy one, but it has been excellent learning experience. In 2015 February at Ruuhirod we would have never imagined that it was first and last race for my husband on that season. But so it was and after his injury, I was pretty much the only one taking care of the dogs, including the training. They were all in good condition and even then I wanted to race MD with them, but the reality was too hard and I had to give up on my dream and focus on more important things. However I got help from friends and we split the dogs to smaller teams and participated to winter season sprint race nearby with good results.

Training continued towards the summer and I got more confidence of running on my own larger teams and my husband was supporting as much as he could. During the summer it became obvious that if someone would race on next winter season it would not be my husband. So we made decision that I would start building a team as a target to race MDs during coming winter season. This was practical as we had so many youngsters and I was not personally attracted to do LDs. I know my physics is not done for LD racing – I would probably freeze to death in colder conditions: my heavy clothing has been already now a joke among my friends. I deeply respect LD mushers, as for them
to be successful they do not only need to have good team, but they need to have all physical and mental skills to survive in varying, and often in very extreme, conditions.

As fall came I continued training from the point left before summer break. My husband was backing me up with another ATV and helping me as much as he could as we did run larger teams, 8-12 dogs with ATV. We did run one sprint race with pretty good result, even we were already training much longer distances with less speed. My husband has been giving me lot of advices, but also liberty to choose my way of training. Even we recorded the distance and often also average speed of training, I don’t believe in trackers or mushometers, I trust in the intensity and my own feeling how the training is going – how well each and every individual is working and what is dog’s attitude and response towards the training and the intuition how they “feel” mentally and physically on the next day.

Training went pretty well and we gained nice amount of kilometers (under the circumstances), mostly run with ATV as here sled is a luxury as snow comes pretty late. I had calculated that females should start heat at latest in the end of November, but as always ladies in my team decided otherwise as Reija was the first one to start her heat just before Christmas. And as I anticipated one by one the others followed. This of course meant that by first race which was Ukkohalla-Paljakka in the middle of January, I had most of my females in full heat and only two females to be taken into race.

Early January world just stopped. One night I woke up hearing some weird noise, and before even having the first look at the dog yard, I knew what I would see. Nero had bloat - so we drove to local vet, who verified the condition…there was no other choices than just to do the hardest but right thing and let him go. World was black for a while and I was devastated – it was even hard to motivate myself to train the team for the first race.

So I was basically left with three males, as already earlier we have dropped Timi out of the team giving him important task at Sari’s team to guide youngsters - he did not have enough kilometers to join the team. So I knew I did not have any flexibility on males – originally I did not plan to give Dille, which was only 18 months old, any major role in the team. But suddenly he had it and I decided to go race by race and see how he would cope with the pressures.

My first MD (Mid-Distance) race, Ukkohalla-Paljakka race 2 x 35km, went very well and I was very satisfied with my team of five. Reija had problems with her feet, but despite of it was overall doing good job. Ike and Ani were doing fine job in lead. Asko was reliable as always and Dille as first timer was doing excellent work. Dogs were excited to leave after 5 hours break at Paljakka and also return went well. Track was challenging and I managed to stay warm even on the way back temperature dropped to -26 celsius.

Next step was early February, race called Ruuhirod, which was 75km race within 20 hours. Finally all females were back on team, and I had more options to choose. I decided to give two females for Kille's team and take Pate and Elli to my team of eight with idea to drop them either after first or second round. As distance was longer and first leg was fast, I decided to drop the youngsters already after first leg as I wanted them to have as positive feeling of the race as possible. I was very positively surprised about the speed of my team as we were faster than two husky teams. This race was also teaching me not only about my dogs, but also about the race tactics and about the importance of
my own feelings related to my team’s performance.

After Ruuhirod we gave dogs a good rest, also due to the fact that it was raining hard for next few days after the race, which almost made me panic whether the whole winter is over. But luckily the weather started to become colder and we got some more snow, so we continued training with the team, this time with sled. And still we kept on increasing kilometers per training to build more endurance for longer distances. Team was doing well. I can remember thinking that it feels too good and something bad must happen soon….but this time nothing bad happened.

Ruunaa Race, 3 x 43km, was amazing race indeed, but also for me very nerve wracking. I started with team of seven, Ani was racing in Kille’s team. I knew team was in good condition, but I was so worried about the speed and temperature on each day and did not know what to expect on next day. But my team knew their limits and every day even teams passing us were doing their own
race and hitting all three 45km laps within few minutes with very good average speed. And when finishing the race on third day, they were all looking better than ever, happy and no signs of any injuries. Unbelievable! This race was definitely giving me lot of practical experience about snacking (first race where I gave snacks), feeding and hydrating the dogs and well as stretching, muscle treatment,... and especially about timing of all these activities to maximise the benefit.

After Ruunaa there was still one race left, but training wise basically there was not much to do. We did one long training but mainly just concentrated to just give some exercise for the team, kerp them happy and in good mood and try to avoid any injuries. That turned out to be pretty hard, as weather turned out very warm and all trails were very icy, dogs were so excited and I was praying that they would not hurt themselves. Luckily at Easter time we did have chance to travel to area where there was still snow and safe training was possible.

The season so far had went well, nicely increasing the distance. The toughest race was still ahead, Gold Rush Run at Tankavaara were distance was 2 x 85km. Even in trainings I had not run that distance earlier and never done a race which is actually a loop so teams are coming back on the same trail. Like in marathon they say race really starts after 35km and so it did here also after 45km. This time warm weather was really a killer for the dogs, but despite of it they worked steadily and helped me to realize when I need to have breaks to cool them down. As there were all sorts of things which worried me during those two days, I also realized how much more mentally it required from me as well as from the dogs too. It was interesting to notice, that sport class (which did 40km) loop came just amazingly fast that it felt like sprint distance to me when passing the half way. I will always remember this race for three things: 1) the struggle related to the warm weather, 2) those tens of open, limited and sport class teams which were passing us from both directions, 3) the final hill, Tankavaara, in the end of both days, which really made musher humble but also proud after passing it.

Now sitting here and writing this all sounds clear and pretty easy, but I can ensure it has been far from that. I don’t want to even count the kilometers we drove during the winter to be able to train on proper trails. I am so thankful for all people which has been there for me and my family. Racing with malamutes is quite lonely stuff as you do not race for the first places, but most likely find yourself somewhere among the last ones. But you know, that is not the thing – THE THING is for you as a musher to know that you have created a team, which has strong working attitude, and which makes you proud and which contributes to good reputation of the breed. Words cannot describe my feelings in Gold Rush Run when those big teams where coming and passing my team in speed, giving “high fives” and complimenting my malamute team.

Overall, last year has been very challenging, but that is how the life goes. This season makes me feel humble and grateful of this wonderful team. I feel strongly bonded to these magnificent furry creatures. Even I have been hooked already for years, I have been amazed by and fell in love with this breed all over and over again. I am more confident that the true nature of malamutes working capabilities are revealed in longer distances. To succeed you need dogs, which might not be the fastest in the world, but which are tough and won’t stop working even when it gets hard. I have learned much about trust – you need to trust your team, but they need to also trust that you’ll do decisions which might push them into their limits, but not force them to go over. You can require a lot, but you need to be fair. And it is SO IMPORTANT to remember, that in the end the team does not work to beat the time limits, speed records or to be number one, all those things are only in your head. They will run because they WANT to run, they run for YOU, because they trust you and you ask them. That means a huge responsibility for you as a musher.

My humble thanks to my closest ones, friends, breeders of our dogs, people arranging the races and race participants. This has been hard but an amazing year!

And dog’s in my team during this season:

Ike aka Jiepeer’s Iqniq, male 7,5 years (all 4 races)

Oodi aka Noatak’s Hurricane Kanuti Du Tumi, female 3 years (Ruuhirod, Ruunaa, GRR)

Dille aka Neatut R-Tic Yukon, male 1,5 years (all 4 races)

Sitka aka Jiepeer’s Sitqua, female 5 years (Ruuhirod, Ruunaa, GRR)

Busan aka Jiepeer’s Hey, female 7,5 years (Ruuhirod, Ruunaa, GRR)

Reija aka Utamuutin Q’Stock Freya, female 2,5 years (U-P, Ruunaa, GRR)

Asko aka Utamuutin Q’Stock Askr, male 2,5 years (all 4 races)

Ani aka Quinault’s All I Really Want, female 4,5 years (U-P)

Pate aka Utamuutin Wild Arctic Blizzard, male 2 years (Ruuhirod)

Elli aka Neatut R-Tic Eek, female 1,5 years (Ruuhirod)