CHAROITE SIBERIANS

Last weekend saw us make the long hike down to the lovely Rendlesham Forest for the first race in this season's BSHRA calendar.

I have a bit of history with Rendlesham. As BSHRA trails go, this is probably one of the more technical with lots of turns that tend to be a more than just a natural sweep of the trail. Two years ago, in quickly freezing snow, I badly misjudged one, broadsided the rig into a tree and had the horrible sight of watching my team head off down the trail without me. Fortunately they were grabbed by a marshall after about half a mile and I caught up on foot and we were able to finish the run. The dogs were fine, my rig had a tree shaped bend in the frame and my left hand was probably a bit fractured and my confidence was dented considerably.

The same turn was in this weekend's race so to say I was a bit nervous was an understatement. Some people take turns naturally. Some of us have the flex of a bit of 2x4 and the balance of someone who's just had cold water poured into their inner ear.

I did get to take our nice four dog team consisting of Daisy, Delta, Shadow and Tigerlily first who had a lovely lope around the forest and let me practice the turns at a less hectic pace than the three dogs to follow. Pyewacket, Brew and Spook were awesome as ever and didn't let the fact I did slow down quite a lot on some of the corners, squealed occasionally and shot out the odd tree-root induced expletive put them off from putting in a great time and bringing me home in 3rd place, tucked behind Reece and Richard, on the Saturday.

I enjoyed Sunday's runs even more. Once I convinced myself I was unlikely to kill us all, I actually managed to concentrate a bit more on where to put the rig on the turns rather than where to hang on to the brakes and knocked a good 14s off my time and moving up into 2nd place! Was great to see the boys run through the draggy Rendlesham sand as though it wasn't there and come over the line looking like they could have carried happily on.

Kev ran Raven, Zala, Hex and Chena in 4 dog. The girls came in highest placed all bitch team both days in the class, getting a 3rd place Saturday and an 8th place after a bit of a tangle on Sunday.

I borrowed Kev's camera on Saturday to film my run. You can watch it here. Have the sound on if you want to hear someone who talks waaaay too much to their dogs ("We're going to go gee in a minute boys...") but they're used to it. If I don't talk to them, they think I've fallen off or something silly. it's better watched without my contribution!

Some of the dogs enjoying a nice chill out in the late autumn sun: