On Defending the Title: Can Am 100 Win 2022
Gemma and Jax on fire at the start, you can spot Cobalt in point, and Wocket in wheel. Photo by Pete Freeman.
On the run back to Fort Kent, to the finish, traveling through rolling hills I took a minute to realize where we were. The golden afternoon light lit up the mountains around us, dry leaves rattled in a few trees but otherwise the sound of winter silence was all around. The 9 dogs on the team moved seamlessly and powerfully, needing nothing from me for the moment. At that point, we were still in third place, I felt we had put enough distance ahead of the musher behind us that I felt secure.
I had no idea we were about to go team hunting, but not long after this I spotted a team ahead.
‘Gemma, it’s a team!’
The Can Am 100, the concept of defending a first place title, has been on my mind all season. Yet going into this race, I didn’t think this was possible. I haven’t had a clean fast run with the dogs in weeks. Gemma had a wrist injury two weeks before the race. Riptide came off the team with a sore shoulder five days before the race. It was a gamble, but I had to take hope that they would come together on the race trail. With the perfect trail, and perfect conditions, I let go of the doubts and focused on the team. I didn’t know what place we’d be racing for until we left the checkpoint, but I was planning on and managing the team for a negative split with a faster second leg.
At the checkpoint, getting ready to leave, as I looked over the dogs and got into the mindset of the second leg. Photo by Mira Saucier.
In the first leg I traveled with Mark Patterson for awhile, I just couldn’t pull away from him, and he just couldn’t pull away from me. After I passed Mark’s team for the third or fourth time, I looked at my watch and said ‘it’s been exactly 2 hours, Mark should snack soon’, and sure enough he dropped back and we each were able to run our own races. It took a while for the team to come together in that first leg, they were constantly accordioning up with bathroom breaks, snow scooping, and just general ‘meh’-ness as once we passed Mark we were first on the trail, we had no dog scent to chase. We were first into the checkpoint, but until I saw all the times I didn’t know how we measured up. My checkpoint routine was a little rusty, but all dogs ate, watered, and napped. I checked all over, and massaged tight muscles.
Leaving the checkpoint in third, we got to the re-start a little early, and I kept asking the timers how far ahead of me Rico and Luc were. Rico was about 7 minutes ahead, Luc was 15. ‘You’ve got a challenge,’ one of them said. ‘I left in third place last time,’ I said. Leaving, I planned to run them the way we train, and try to hold onto third place and stay ahead of Florence. I had my red running shoes on and had stripped down the sled of any excess—it’s a race after all.
About 8 miles from the checkpoint, the race trail leaves the snowmobile trail and goes onto dog team trail, and in previous races that is where I can see how the dogs want to travel, see what they’ve settled into for pace. They were moving nicely at about 11-12 MPH, effortlessly. I felt good about holding onto 3rd.
I passed Rico about halfway, I knew his team was managing a virus which is a tough thing to do, speaking from experience. Thanks Rico for a giving us a good pass and giving us space to move ahead, I appreciate the sportsmanship and it was a joy to share the trail with you. We passed too quickly for Rico to shout at me ‘go catch Luc!’
The sun set slowly, we had left the checkpoint so early most of that second leg was run in day light. The dogs maintained 11.3-5 on the GPS and on their pace, I started helping them more on the uphills. Gemma and Jax were working beautifully together, Gemma driving and Jax setting a fast pace.
About 15-16 miles from the finish, I saw a light ahead. ‘Snowmobile or dog team?’ I wondered. The light looked back.
DOG TEAM.
‘We’ll reel him in,’ I said to the dogs. ‘Let’s go team hunting.’
Celebrating at the finish, literally jumping for joy with dear friend Julie Albert. Willie and Jax curiously looking on. Photo by Amanda St Ivany.
We caught up to Luc’s team in the potato fields, about 8-9 miles from the finish. I wasn’t super psyched about this, as the potato fields can be a mind-sink for the dogs, a big open expanse of drifted in snow, but it was far better than trying to pass in the single track still to come. Gemma loves to blow past teams and put some distance behind us, but it took a while to pull away.
When the alert came to the finish line volunteers that a team was coming in, people were guessing, is it Luc? Rico? Luc? Rico? Brianna spoke up and said ‘Sally is literally wearing running shoes. It’s going to be Sally.’
In those last few miles we gained the gap we won the race by, 9 minutes. We were the only team to have a faster second leg than the first, with incredibly consistent speeds, running leg 1 in 3hr44 and leg 2 in 3hr42. We left the checkpoint 15 minutes behind, and finished with a second leg almost 30 minutes faster than second place. The Can Am 100 is usually won in the second leg, and this year was no different.
The dogs on the team, half of them are two year olds I bred myself in their first race season. They’ve seen the slow 8.9 MPH slog at Greenville, the 14-5 MPH Laconia Open Class sprint race, and now the 11 MPH Can Am 100. I’m so proud of them for being so versatile, happy, and energized. Wocket the wonder dog is the superstar 2 year old that ran in all of the first-place teams and Laconia, he just derps along in wheel, I’m honestly not sure he’s aware he’s in a race after the first few miles but he’s always there. His sister Marian is a phenomenal up and coming star—she loves to go team hunting, just like she likes to go hunting for grouse on our trails back home. Skee and Squanny are two sisters, their mother Aurora lead the Can Am 100 team in 2020, Squanny is a fierce little redhead who took a long time to mature and now she’s all in. Skee has been a pro since her first time in harness. Vorace, brother to Squan and Skee, was dropped at the checkpoint after he fell into one too many moose holes. The remainder of the team are veterans Willie Jr and Flora who are four year olds I’ve raised from puppies, 3 year old hardworking Cobalt, and the perfectly matched pair of leaders, Gemma and Jax. Gemma is the brains and the drive, Jax is the gas pedal, and between the two of them they run such an even pace. I saw Gemma and Jax nose-kissing in this last leg—they were having a great time on that trail.
I ran the dogs the way we train, and they just kept giving it. When you get down to it, we are training a group of dogs (dogs, any of you have pet dogs out there? We are talking about dogs) to perform these extraordinary athletic feats. These dogs draw on instinct, we cultivate it with training and love, but because dogs are dogs you just never know what might happen. I’ve been tearing up about how proud I am of these dogs.
Accepting first place from Dennis Cyr, president of the Board, and John Pelletier, Race Marshall and Trail Boss for the 100.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, I’ve run so many races but Can Am stands alone. All races are a community endeavor, but Can Am envelops the whole community in a way I haven’t seen elsewhere. There is a spirit of Can Am, a celebration of friends, community, and landscape and forest. Can Am is a word class race, with challenging trail but also some of the best-marked trails I’ve ever seen, I smiled when once again I saw the foot prints of the local volunteer who painstakingly checks and fixes the trail markerA talented and dedicated vet team that descends and rapidly works through vet checks, and a pro finish line crew that can do your bag check for you, so you can focus on giving love to the dogs. For all the hours we put into our teams, I know the Can Am volunteers put in just as many. There was a hole in my heart last year when the race couldn’t be held. I was so so glad to be back. The emotions coming across that finish line wasn’t just about coming across it in first with a team of beloved athletes, but about all of the friends who were there with me, the Can Am community.
Friend Phil asked ‘do you have any photos together’ and I said ‘whoops no!’. This was the best photo of Gemma, maybe less so of Bri and myself
Thank you to the enormous community of friends who support the dog team through sponsoring dogs, thank you to my friends and neighbors in Shelburne where I live full time, and the supportive community of Upton Maine where we train six months out of the year, thank you to Patrice for taking care of my family so I can focus on the dogs, thank you to my long time host family the Audiberts, and thank you to my patient partner Chuck for being a ‘mushing widow’ during the training season, and for taking care of the pups and older dogs as ‘Camp Chuck’. Congrats to Brianna for her first Can Am 30! Thanks to Amanda and Andrew for being last-minute superstar handlers. And, always, thank you to coach Al for being a sounding board and insisting that he doesn’t have any answers, which isn’t entirely true.
10 years ago, was my first Can Am race, the Can Am 30, and I came in at the bottom of the pack and out of the money. To be able to perform at this level with consistency is something I didn’t think possible.
These amazing dogs.
