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Hardcore Huskies Newsletter 08 Race Edition.pdf [ Archive ] |
| KX Television Covers Race Preperations | Fri, Feb. 8th, 2008 | |
North Dakota`s KX Television is once again covering Heather and the Hardcore Team as they prepare for this years Iditarod. To see how Heather and her Hardcore Team are preparing to improve on last years emotional run CLICK HERE
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| Heather Recaps the Bowers 300 Race | Tue, Jan. 29th, 2008 | |
“I had a feeling that I would draw number 1, just an instinct and I did,” said Heather Siirtola.
That is how Heather described her feelings as she arrived for the Don Bowers 300 Memorial Dog Sled Race. Heather and the other musher’s attended a mandatory meeting at the Willow Community Center on January 24th, the day before the race. At the meeting the trail groomers go over the trail with the drivers and show what the markers look like and what the trail holds for the teams, then we get up and drew our starting numbers.
Heather says on race day, she got up at 6 am and fed the dogs. Her friend, Heather High came over to help her load the 12 dogs she selected for the race. As usual Heather was running late and the new foot of snow that accumulated the night before didn`t help anything.
Between Heather High, her friend Seal and Heather and the Hardcore Team got to the starting line fine.
“3,2,1, we were off,” said Heather.
She said it was a crisp afternoon, temps starting to dip under the teens. In lead she had Dexter aka Piggy and Earp, in swing I had the twins Kitty and Dolly, the team members were Minnie and Louise, Shadow and Cal, Colvin and Wyatt and in wheel I had Bruner and Eddy.
“We had a great run up to Oil Well, which is the first checkpoint, 66 miles into the race,” Heather recalls.
Earlier in the run, Wyatt slipped on jumbled ice and was hurting after our rest in Oil Well so she decide to drop him.
After their meal and letting their tummies rest, they were off to Joe May`s house, the 2nd checkpoint 100 miles into the race.
“On the way there I started to see my team falter a bit, something seemed to not be sitting well in their digestive systems,” Heather said.
We got into Joe May`s at 5am, and took our mandatory 8 hour rest.
According to Heather “I offered the dogs a small meal and got little interest from them, so I went to eat and napped for a few hours.”
Heather says when she got up and out to the dogs and they were chipper and eager for their 2nd meal and she was relieved to see their appetites were back. She had given them some Pepcid AC the night before to sooth their stomachs, and some of the dogs got other medicine to ease the digestive problem, it seemed to be working.
Heather says she was contemplating scratching earlier, but the dogs perked up and the medicine seemed to have worked, so off they went.
It was 34 miles to the next checkpoint, which was back to Oil Well Road. On the run there, Heather again noticed the dogs were not themselves. When they arrived at the checkpoint again some of the dogs had little appetite. So I decided to again let them have rest and fed again later.
“At this point I knew I was going to be battling this problem the whole way and taking a risk of not getting my team health back to par,” said Heather. “I made the decision to scratch to save my dog`s health and get them home to the vet.”
Heather says she has no regrets about leaving the race. She says the dogs definitely performed and she was proud of them for that.
“We ended our race officially at 134 miles, but I ended up running them out of the checkpoint over to a Julie and Katrina DeLoach’s house which was 12 miles away in Trapper Creek,” said Heather. “When we arrived there, the dogs tails were wagging happily as this was their finish line and they are familiar with the DeLoach residence because we train with them there regularly.
Heather says her goals for this tune up race were mostly met. She wanted the dogs to go through the process of checkpoints and being around other dogs that they are unfamiliar.
“When they felt good, they performed great,” says Heather. “That’s what I’ll take away from this race.
Heather says with Iditarod 36 just a month away there is still lots to do so after the vet check it will be back to training and getting ready for this years edition of the “Last Great Race.”
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| HEATHER SCRATCHES FROM BOWERS RACE | Sun, Jan. 27th, 2008 | |
After reaching the Oil Wells Road checkpoint last night at 6:40 PM AKST, Heather took ill and offically scratched from the Don Bowers 300 Memorial Dog SLed race at 6:32 this morning AKST (10:32 EST). Race officials were not aware of the specifics of her illness but said it was "nothing serious" and "she was on her way home to Talkeetna."
Heather had completed 134 of the 287 miles of the race.
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| Heathers Reaches Halfway Point | Sat, Jan. 26th, 2008 | |
Heather and the team arrived back at the Oil Well Road cehckpoint at 6:40 PM AKST (10:40 PM EST). This 34 mile run took her and the Hardcore Team 4 hours and 22 minutes. She reached the checkpoint with the same 11 dogs she has had since she got to that checkpoint shortly after midnight yesterday. Reports show current temperature in Willow is −18.4°F, sure to be colder nearer the river.
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| Eight Hour Rest Ends - Team Heads Back to Oil Well | Sat, Jan. 26th, 2008 | |
Heather and the Hardcore Team ended their mantatory eight hour rest at 2:18 PM AKST (6:18 EST). Heather started with 12 dogs and so far has dropped one. She is currently in 6th place.
The team will now head back to a checkpoint at Oil Well Road, about 34 miles from Joe Mays cabin. The weather is reportedly cloudy and 28 degrees below zero but not much wind.
With all of the teams that have been on the trail, officials say the return trail should be fast. And so far that has proven to be the case as some mushers have shaved almost 30-45 minutes of their time between Mays and Oil Well Road. Heathers time on this leg was 4:03 so we`ll see if that improves.
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