Tri Dog Duathlon

I'd seen that there was a doggie duathlon running but I was a bit worried about how any of mine would cope in transition, one of the organisers reassured me and Chips foster mum was going to be marshalling in transition so I decided to give it a go. It was down in Gloucestershire so me and the woofs headed off in Bumble on Friday to camp up on a farm where the race was taking place. We got there before it was dark so I could pre-ride. The course was very short (1.1 mile bike and 1.1 mile run) due to the ground conditions being hard work for the dogs. The bike it was fine with a hill from the start and a long draggy hill halfway round. But the canicross section was so muddy I ended up carrying my bike. After the preride I got the awning up, took all the woofs for a walk and then we had our tea. As it was getting cold we all curled up in bumble nice and early, me with my book. 

Saturday morning and it was cold (3 degrees in Bumble) and the ground was frozen. After briefing they took our bags over to the transition for us, mine only contained my canicross line as I had put flat pedals on my bike to make transition quicker. Before I knew it it was time to go. Chip knows what is happening at the start now and dragged me up the first hill. She listened well to her directions and before long we were arriving at transition. I felt like I was faffing but we were soon out and running. The final field was no longer a muddy mess but so frozen it was hard not to go over on my ankles. Finishing I was really pleased with how we had both ran, although Chip looked a lot fresher than me. Turns out we had managed to finish second female.

In the afternoon they ran a second race for people who wanted to race a second dog, it was entry on the day so I entered with Cybi. As always he was a little start but the ground was a lot muddier so a lot harder going and he really was tiring on the run. It was great that he got to race though as he does find two days a bit too tiring now he is getting older.

Day two and the conditions were super muddy we also missed our starting time due to me dropping Chip's lead and her deciding to have zoomies. Amazingly she still was able to pull me up the first hill but the second she lost a bit of confidence and stopped pulling, I think it may have been the ground being so heavy going meant I was slow. Out on the canicross section though and she was flying, super strong and due to starting last we had to do some overtaking, which she did like a pro.

At prize-giving I was chuffed we had held onto second, just by a couple of seconds, as we were slower today and came third on the day.

A fab event, the next one will be a triathlon so I need to persuade one of the dogs they don't mind swimming too much.