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The 2008 Can-Am 250 Race
I had a whole list of things I was going to do differently this year to get ready for Can-Am. And while I definitely accomplished some of the changes, I still found myself madly sewing up booties a week before the race, working at my job until 9 pm the night before, packing my checkpoint bins the morning I left instead of having everything finished days beforehand, and generally being stressed out.
© 2008 Jaye Foucher About a week before the race my 8.5 year old, Maja, started favoring a front leg after running. It was very slight - almost hard to tell if she really was limping or not. The only thing I could find wrong was a split in the webbing of her foot. Lord only knows how she got this split since I've booted her feet nonstop all winter. At any rate I began treating the foot multiple times a day with ointment in hopes she would be back to normal by Saturday. Most dogs will still run even with splits, but Maja has always been really sensitive about her feet. She's the only dog I own that actually prefers to wear booties, especially when the temps dip below the double-digits. Jackson, meanwhile, was still not 100% recovered from a shoulder injury he incurred at the Beargrease race so I wound up having to drop him from the race team and would be starting the Can-Am with 11 dogs again, just like last year. But at least 8 of those dogs already ran the Can-Am before, and all 11 ran 200 miles of the Beargrease with me. This year I managed to get out of the house at a reasonable time on Thursday to head up to Eagle Lake Maine, and arrived at Fish River Lodge around 7 pm. Plenty of time to feed dogs, leave them dropped for awhile, and go visit with Tenley and Wayne. We watched some TV while chatting and then I went off to put the dogs back up and head to bed. Friday was vet checks, registration and then the driver's meeting. Turner Lewis, a well respected Iditarod vet, was one of the vets checking my dogs and he raved about both how beautiful my dogs were and what excellent shape they were in. After the vet check I went with friends (and my handlers for the race) Scott and Corina back to where they were staying to watch tv and kill some time before the driver's meeting. Corina and I are both big fans of Days of Our Lives and we managed to get to their cabin in time to catch that day's episode. :-) Most of the time the night before a race I'm too wired to get to sleep, so I generally have a drink or two to try and get me sleepy. This year I bought a bottle of my favorite wine and upon my return to Fish River Lodge following the driver's meeting I went in to have a glass and pass the time with Tenley and Wayne. Rita Wehseler came in for a few minutes and in the process of chatting with Tenley and Rita and having a grand ole time I lost count of how many glasses of wine I drank; it wasn't until I stood up to go drop dogs and head off to bed that I realized I'd had one glass too many. I was really kicking myself for that (not literally of course, because just walking a straight line at that point took all my concentration) because getting drunk is definitely NOT what I ever want to do the night before a big race! I managed to drop dogs without actually dropping them then went off to bed. 
The next morning had me waking with a very upset stomach thanks to the wine -
as if my stomach wasn't already a mess of nerves as it was. At least I slept well!
That much I can say. It was more of a coma, frankly...
This year I got to park a lot closer to the starting line, since my bib number was 13. Lucky Number 13, as so many people referred to it all weekend. I only hoped they were right and that it would turn out to be a good luck charm for the race. Continued on Next Page » More Race Photos » | |
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