The training session with all 4 dogs, Rusky and Shanta leading and the puppies Oska and Storm behind in the wheel, was very good.  Over the festive period we had four good runs with this combination of dogs over some very heavy wet grass and muddy trails.  The last training run was over 5.77 miles which we did in a time of 23 minutes, so I had high hopes for the New Year’s Eve race at Wareham.

We were second to last out in the four dog class and all went well until the half way point at a T junction where we needed to take a left turn.  The 2 leading dogs decided this didn’t apply to them and went straight ahead to say hello to the spectators.  From there on the pace became slow with the temperature rising, as was the humidity.   At the next right turn the line between the front and back dogs became tangled in Storm’s paws.   After untangling Storm’s paws and having a few minutes rest we restarted again but at a very slow pace.   After a left turn the finish line was only about half a mile away but by now we walked and trotted to the line as the dogs were too hot to run at full pace.  The temperature was now 13 degrees celsius at 92% humidity and because of this we decided to scratch from the New Year’s Day race.  Our final time was 23:14:11 with an average of 9.68 mph for the 3.75 mile trail.