written by Anna Beltrame & Tone Coughlin

A Fully Loaded Jeep and a Wonderful Race Weekend in Wisconsin! With the sled strapped to the roof, kibble in the cab, and beef, bags, and booties bunched in behind the buckets seats, we were almost set to go. The only thing missing in the tightly packed Jeep were the dogs. “Load ‘em up.” The dogs were walked, one by one, from their dog house in the yard to their weekend home in the Jeep. Toivo, Valor, Magnus, Seppo, Jaana, and Ari were compliant little beings, not fussing about their tight quarters. One Jeep, six dogs, two humans, a sled, and all the essentials needed to make for the successful completion of a sled dog race. Off to the races!!!

We spent Friday evening at Tone’s family’s home in Ashland WI, a midway point between Duluth and our destination of Land O’ Lakes. Here the dogs were excited to get out of the Jeep to stretch their legs and mingle with the resident dogs, Duke and Rex. Tone’s family served us a hearty dinner, which we were both so grateful for. Later in the evening Toivo and Valor did not refuse an invitation to spend the night with us indoors. With full bellies and fresh blankets and straw Magnus, Seppo, Jaana, and Ari were happy to spend the night resting in the cozy Jeep.

After a delightful pancake breakfast on Saturday morning, prepared by Tone’s step-mom, Mary, we started on our 1:40 hour drive to the race site in Land O’ Lakes, WI. The drive went smoothly, despite the fact that the only radio station with clear reception played nothing but Country music!

Upon our arrival to the race site the dogs were watered, new plastic was put on the sled runners and Tone suited up in his racing attire.

Our starting partner was Bob Bzdok who we’ve trained with before up in Taft. He got out of the 200 meter chute just ahead of us, but we were going the same pace. Valor tried to pass on the inside of his team but when he got to Bob’s wheel dogs they closed the door and snarled a little making Valor back off and the gangline go slack. Toivo stepped over the center line and had his front legs on Seppo’s side. So we decided to stay behind until there was enough room to pass since were going the same pace anyways. The trail was soft and punchy from all the teams that ran before us and the warm weather. We dipped down in a ditch and that’s when Toivo punched through and fell, wrapping his rear leg around the tug line. I stopped the team to untangle losing about 20 seconds or so. Bob’s team was just out of sight. The corners were empty of snow and were a virtual skating rink. You would just slide sideways and hope you didn’t end up hitting any big trees. The dogs saw Bob’s team on the long straight away that was almost a mile long. We started to gain some time back cutting it back to 12 seconds or so. Then the corners and twists and turns started again and the team lost some interest. We ended up finishing in 17th, 30 seconds behind Bob.

I was really happy with the performance of the dogs, although I do believe that I am too heavy to be running the 4 dog class since all the finishers in front of me were under 130 lbs and the soft trail conditions.

Saturday evening, after the race, we enjoyed a spaghetti dinner at the Gateway Lodge in Land O’Lakes, before retiring to our hotel in Eagle River, WI. Boy, did it feel good to finally rest after such a busy day. Toivo thought so too! He got his own queen-size bed and fell sound asleep within seconds of lying down.

Sunday’s race was hopefully going to be faster. We started with Hanna Marsh who was in 2nd place, I figured the dogs would try hard to stay with her…boy was I wrong. Out of the chutes she was 3 yards ahead of us and within the first mile she was out of sight! Seppo had to poop on the long stretch and then Magnus about a mile before the finish line! When your leader has to poop the whole team stops, I thought I could have stayed on the sled and he would get going again, but no, he had to smell the snowbank and mark it too! Seppo also stepped over his neckline so I had to hook down and untangle and restart the team. Then I saw Jenna Dittmar coming up behind us, she started two minutes back! I let her pass us after we got going, as she was passing Seppo freaked out and ran in the deep powder taking a dive and getting full of snow…silly dog. After she went by they decided, hey, let’s race again! Valor wanted to pass her team but I stood on the brake and let them stay out front. She made up two mins, I’m not going to be a jerk and cause trouble in the last 1/2 mile.

I really couldn’t complain, somehow we made up two spots after having a slower time than Saturday finishing in 15th out of 30 teams. It was a good experience for the dogs and the team as a whole. We came in with no expectations so we couldn’t be disappointed no matter what happened or what place we finished!

We could not have asked for better driving conditions on Sunday for our trip home. The sun was out, the roads were clear from snow and ice, and the wildlife of Wisconsin stayed clear of the roadway! About a half an hour into the ride home, Valor found a comfortable spot lying on top of Toivo. Other than a slight growl, Toivo displayed no real objections to Valor‘s chosen sleeping spot. Maybe Toivo really didn’t mind Valor’s 62 lb body smack dab upon him or, more likely, maybe the dull lull of Country music had him in a trance.

The ride home on Sunday gave us time to reflect back on our race weekend. What a wonderful time we truly did have! We also discussed what we will do at our next race to make more efficient use of our time. Tone talked about what he will do in the future to improve the performance of his athletes-What a Super Coach! We arrived home late Sunday night, tired after the long weekend. We unpacked most of the Jeep and walked the dogs, one by one, to their spots in the yard. Off to Bed!!!