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The 2010 Can-Am 250 Race (page 2)
© 2010 Jaye Foucher Race Day 
We arrived in Fort Kent on Saturday morning more than 3 hours before my start time. It was odd to be walking around the starting area wearing no gloves, no jacket, no hat. I visited with friends who were racing the 30 and 60 mile races while Natalie, my handler, walked around taking photos.
The temperatures continued to climb the morning progressed and when I went to take the dogs out of the truck about 45 minutes before the start I was actually concerned about dogs getting too hot sitting on the sunny side of the truck. I was anxious to get going and get out on the trail before it got any hotter. Finally it was time to hook up dogs and take off. We were bib #11 this year, right behind Colleen Wallin from Minnesota. The ATV came to assist us up to the starting chute, where the announcer yet again misprounced my last name for the 5th year (I simply cannot fathom why they cannot manage to get this right in a town where French is spoken on a regular basis...) And we were off! 
The trail was soft - very soft snow. Temps had to be well into the 40's by now, yet the dogs were moving at a very good pace. As I normally do for the first leg of this race I rode the dragmat consistently, holding them back from running full out. Even so we passed Colleen before getting to the end of the railbed. I figured she was holding her team back too and would repass me again later, but everyone has their own strategy and mine involved putting some space between me and a few of the teams behind me that I hoped to beat so I didn't want to hold them back any more than I already was.
The trail to Portage was actually a pleasure this year despite the heat. The dogs maintained a really nice mph pace, while I counted down the hours until darkness and cooler temps. I gave the dogs plenty of snow-rolling breaks and a few snack breaks to keep them as cooled off and as perky as possible. The run was not without it's excitement: shortly after passing the halfway point to Portage I heard a shout behind me and turned to see a loose dog running down the trail with a musher not far behind. I quickly sunk my hook and got off my sled, kneeling down as the dog approached me. Luckily I was able to coax the dog to come to me - turns out the musher had been chasing his dog for about 2 miles until they caught up with me. As we got nearer to the Portage checkpoint the trail got thinner and thinner and dirt patches were appearing on the trail. Some spots had more dirt than snow in fact. Colleen caught up with me again and passed, and then we seemed to play leapfrog with each other for quite a few miles. Shortly before hitting the lake that leads into Portage I repassed her and then stayed ahead of her into the checkpoint. I had been anxiously waiting for darkness and cooler temps but as it turned out our run to Portage went faster than I had anticipated and darkness had just fallen as we ran across the lake and into the checkpoint. Nukilik was still doing great, much to my surprise. I had worried about having to carry him the last 10 miles or so of the run if he got too exhausted but he ran into the checkpoint strong and happy and didn't appear to be any more tired than the rest of the bunch. So I told Natalie I'd take him on to Rocky Brook, but to expect that I may be dropping him there. Walking into the checkpoint building I was surprised to see so many mushers and handlers there. Normally I'm so far at the back of the pack even at the first checkpoint that the top mushers are already gone or about to leave when I pull in. Not so this year! I wasted no time eating and getting my gear spread out to dry so I could go try and nap. I wasn't able to catch much sleep but at least I was able to close my eyes for an hour or so. Portage to Rocky Brook After 4 hours of rest I left Portage with the 11 dogs I'd started with, right on schedule. The run to Rocky Brook went fabulously well; temps were cooler and the dogs really enjoy running at night. Again we were cooking right along at a nice mph pace, but Viktor and Lightning both seemed to be "off" during the run. Lightning's tug was loose on and off and Viktor was almost bracing whenever we went downhill. Both dogs had stepped in holes on the first leg and I worried that Viktor had reinjured his shoulder. As we got close to the checkpoint we saw a shooting star fly across the moonlit sky. It was truly one of those magical moments out on the dogsled. Then shortly after that the dogs got spooked by something they heard. They kept looking over their shoulders with a look of almost fear in their eyes. I've not seen them act like that before and it wasn't the kind of attitude they have when they smell or hear moose, deer, or other typical wildlife we come across on the trail. I looked behind me and into the woods but couldn't see anything. A few moments later they did the same thing. "Stop freaking me out guys!" I was getting really spooked myself by their antics. Nothing ever did appear so I've no idea what they heard, but what was going through my mind was: bear. It was so warm and spring was arriving early, what if the bears were waking up early? We pulled into Rocky Brook just as dawn was breaking, again pretty close to my planned running schedule (I think we were actually ahead of schedule at this point). Shortly afterwards one of the other Siberian teams pulled in behind me: Caroline Morin. I was surprised to see her so quickly as I had expected she would take a longer rest than she had at Portage. I had planned on resting 4 hours at Rocky Brook, which would put me making the 32 mile run to Maibec in the heat of the day. But the temps had been predicted to be in the high 30's, low 40's that day and my dogs had been running in those kinds of temps for the past few weeks so I wasn't worried. Tried to catch another few hours of sleep at Rocky Brook while I waited for our departure time but was just unable to get any real sleep there. By the time I was ready to leave I felt like a walking zombie and was regretting having started the race already sleep deprived. On top of that I had been having a hard time eating in checkpoints and on the trail because my stomach was such a mess from the prednisone. I had never felt this shaky and awful on a race before. Caroline left Rocky Brook about an hour or so before me after taking only 3 hours of rest. Despite the fact that I would have loved to have been still in front of her, I couldn't skimp on rest with so many young ones on my team. And, to my surprise it wasn't Nukilik I was dropping at Rocky Brook! Nukilik was still doing quite well but both Viktor and Lightning had shoulder injuries and needed to be dropped from the race. I was bummed to lose two of my leaders from the team. I had known Viktor was going to be a question mark, having injured his shoulder only a few weeks before, but I had really expected Lightning to make it to the finish line and to do some leading for me along the way so losing her off the team so quickly into the race was a real disappointment. With two key dogs off the team I knew I had to now cater to Nukilik and try to keep him on the team as long as possible, as without him I'd be down to only 8 dogs. But I still wondered just how far he could go before he got too tired. « Previous Page Continued on Next Page » More Race Photos » | |
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