3rd place in Gausdal Marathon 2011!

Hi Everyone!

Kaia and the team came in 3rd place in Gausdal Marathon 2011!

The trails were slow, it was snowing the entire race, and the start was later in the afternoon than anticipated, so they ran almost entirely in the dark. We had some dogs catch kennel cough in the days leading up to the race, and they were not looking good enough to run so we were lucky to be able to borrow 2 dogs from last years champion, Sigrid Ekran, and one dog from Atle Bjerke.
The dog from Atle was a dog we had run before, so we knew what to expect from him and he knew what to expect from us. The two from Sigrid are fantastic dogs, but were a little thrown off by suddenly running in a race with dogs and a musher they didn't know. They would have gone like crazy if we had done the full marathon, but because they didn't know Kaia, they held back a little on the way out, but finished strong and happy! Thanks to Sigrid and Atle for the loans!


All in all the stars of the team were our leader Soka, Epo, Harry and Laffen (the borrowed dog from Atle). Orion did not pull at all the entire race.

The weekend was fun for me too. I helped Kaia get out, and spent some time doing some interviews for an upcoming mushing magazine article that I am writing about the marathon.
Lars Monsen, Inger Marie Haaland, Sigrid Ekran, Nina Skramstad, Marit Beate Kasin, Bjørn Barlund, Thomas Wærner, and Stein Haavard Fjestad, were among the mushers nice enough to take time to chat with me.

After all the teams had left, I was interviewed by Meho Sortland of friluftblogg.no, and then drove to the checkpoint Astridbekken, and began translating the race updates on the Gausdal Marathon website. After wrestling with internet connectivity problems for a while, it was time to take a break and go and cheer the first teams into the checkpoint.

Just after 9:50 pm Kaia and the team crossed the finishline. She looked thrilled and tired, and the dogs looked happy. the good dogs in the team looked ready tp go out and do it again!

We are just thrilled with how things went, and would like to thank Atle Bjerke for loaning us Laffen who ran in lead the entire way. Sigrid Ekran for loaning us Sezar and BMW. The Vinding family for the use of their sled (after I smashed ours to splinters while training) and numerous other thinsg they have helped us with. Plus our sponsers: Especially, Dr. Tim Hunt and Momentum dog food, and JB Utstyr for the Working Dog race jackets. Inga-marie Mynors for sponsering the entry fee, and everyone else who helped us get there this year.

A special big thank you to Are Dons Søvik for helping out the entire weekend and acting as super-handler while I was translating the webpages.

it may seem like a small thing to run a race, but it meant a lot to us to make it there, and we are thrilled to have had a good race.
So thanks to everyone!

Cheers, Barry and Kaia