Running the K9 4K

Saturday found us doing a little "summer training" by running the Annual K9 4K Race in Frisco.

Max, Zorro & I crossing the finish line. Note the huskies are "shoulder to shoulder"
and look ready & willing to run another 4K!

Highlights:

1. We shaved almost 30 seconds off our previous "fastest time" - finishing in 17m 10s!
2. We placed 8th overall in the race!
3. We placed 2nd in my (the human's) age group!

As usual, all times & places were the human's fault. The huskies were primed for first place and a record pace. I tried, I tried...

The start of the race made the front page of the local Summit Daily newspaper, here are some scans of that front page - sorry it's kind of grainy... The result of a scan of a newspaper using my el-cheapo scanner:

Closeup of Max & Zorro taking off at the starting line.
Shoulder to shoulder, legs in unison, happy faces.
These 2 "get it" when it comes to racing!

Full shot of the race start (click to enlarge) - we are to to the left in yellow (Brad),
red (Max) and black (Zorro). Note the haphazard dogs going every which way,
except the 2 huskies who are in perfect form and charging straight ahead.
We were in second place by the time we hit the first corner - focused, sprinting
Siberian machines!

It's also fun to scroll through the "finish line shots" of the race - patient, this page has over 140 images! What's so interesting? Most of the dogs cross the finish line at or behind their human partner. The exception? Max & Zorro - they finish every race in full sprint at the extension of their gangline (leash, in this case). No human, on foot, can match their speed & endurance!

Summer Hiking

Ok, so it's not skijoring, it's not rollerjoring, it's not even boot skiing... But hiking to the snow on July 1 counts as something worthy of making it onto our skijoring blog!

The Goal: hike to find some quality snow on July 1.
The Route: (1) hike up 1800 feet on Peak 10 of Breckenridge Ski Resort; (2) hop, play, skip, dig, roll in the wonderful snow; (3) run back down 1800 feet (leave the snow [sob] and catch on fire ;-)

Elevation about 11,500 on Breck Peak 10.
Roaring stream next to the snow - gives you an indication of how cold
the water is (it was just snow a few moments ago!)
Max says, "SNOW! Must cross the water to get to the SNOW!"

Zorro says, "OMG! SNOW! Oh, but look at that wide water crossing!
How will I get to the snow?"

Simple... Just back up, take a running start and long jump the water to
get into the snow! "Hey Bro - we made it! What shall we do first?"

Bury our heads in the snow, of course. Was there any question what
we would do first???

"Who needs water? Tasty snowcone!" says Zorro.

"Hey, what's under this snow? Must dig to find out!" declares Max.

"Hey bro, what did you find down there? Let me look (and dig)!" proclaims Zorro.

"Best July 1st I've ever had," states Zorro, "do we *really* have to
go back down? Can't we live right here?!?!!"