Northern New England Sled Dog Trade Fair & Titan's First Race

This past weekend, I took the trip up to New Hampshire with my buddy Paul to the Northern New England Sled Dog Trade Fair held at the Hopkinton Fairgrounds.  This is a big event that helps kick start the mushing season with some educational seminars, a dryland race, shopping, and crazy mushers (new and experienced) getting together to share experiences and support each other.  It was loads of fun and definitely an event I would want to go to again.

It was a weekend long event, so we drove up on Friday, camped out Friday and Saturday night, and drove back Sunday.  It was somewhat rainy all day Saturday but luckily the seminars and vendor area were inside decent sized buildings so there were places to keep dry while shopping and learning.  Did a lot of my shopping that day, picked up some new harnesses for Titan and one for Tikaani, as well as random other things I liked.  Later on, there was a raffle with loads of goodies, of which I won a lovely hand knitted wool sweater.  During the evening potluck meal, which had an absolutely lovely selection of yummy foods, I had a blast chatting it up with other crazy mushers.

Titan did fairly well, he didn't really care for intact males (shame on me for not having him interact with intact males as a pup, most of the dogs I know are neutered/spayed) but overall he seemed to have handled everything well.  He loved getting attention from all of the people and watched quietly as teams of dogs were bikejoring and pulling rigs past our campsite.  At times, more so towards the end, he did get overwhelmed and grouchy so I opted to give him a break by crating him inside the tent.  He would protest crating at first, not wanting to go in and howling once locked up, but he settled quickly and just zonked out.  This was also his first time camping, I was glad that it didn't take him long to respect the tent walls.

I have to say, the sound of the rain tapping the tent and the numerous dogs howling was quite relaxing.  Call me crazy, but it made it easier for me to fall asleep. Woke up early Sunday morning o a gorgeous sunrise and fairly clear skies.

Sunday was bustling with the excitement of everyone preparing for the race. The race course itself was very short at 0.8 miles, which made it a great opportunity for a first time race.  Initially planned to only sign up for Canicross since I had busted my bike up about a week ago, but Paul was kind enough to lend me his bike so I can participate in the 1 dog bike run.  This was the first race for both myself and Titan, and also his first time really running the area.  (I tried him with a scooter the day before, but between my lack of scooter experience and his extreme desire to get at something under one of the buildings, we didn't really get to do much.) I was nervous and excited, a million possibilities running through my head  while we waited our turn.

Even though the run wasn't perfect, I was still very proud of Titan for making it to the finish line and meeting my goal of not getting in last place.  Our time was 2 minutes and 58 seconds, which landed us in 26th place (out of 28, 1st place time being 1 minute and 27 seconds).  We probably would have done better had he not gotten the line between his legs, will have to work his ability to correct that, but regardless I think he did pretty well.

We did ok in Canicross, made me realize that I'm not very fit and should jog more often.  Titan wasn't too happy with being crowded at a mass start, but once we got going he was more focused on running than the other dogs.  He did get a little grumbly at a dog or two, but he ignored them when asked and didn't go beyond that.  Didn't really get a time on this run due to the mass amount of people crossing the finish line at the same time, causing the judges to scribble names down as fast as possible, but I think there were a few people who came in behind me so yay to not being last. 

After the race, there were a few more seminars followed by clean up and giving a fond farewell to new friends made.  Below are pictures mostly from Sunday, didn't really take many on Saturday due to rain and poor lighting.