​Halloween Weekend at Checkendon 2017

Sorry for the delay on this blog, the world is slightly busy right now!
However it’s important to rave once again about the fun we had at the last Checkendon of 2017, the now famous Halloween weekend.
 
The NATBs were once again out in force and team moral was at its normal level of high spirits and laughter!
Jan and David had worked their normal magic and the course was clear (with Sally and Cliffy’s help) the extra twists remained and the atmosphere relaxed.
 
After a shock on the Friday evening of the local fish and chip shop being shut we had all sat around chatting and eating random food, huddled together in awnings to keep warm as the late arrivals trickled in and joined in the laughter!
 
With Roy (Mushers Mucker) on the Start line helping we all ensured we were ready to start on time and were started with a laugh and wave.
The first day was chilly and dry after rain the few days before, but many people still made a huge effort with their costumes! The course was riding brilliantly and our Bikejor competitors were coming back in all smiles.
Cliffy was racing Vinnie this weekend and Sally had the elevator dog Stanley. Both teams put in a great performance, enjoying the fast course.
Emma was biking Oki as Hannah couldn’t attend the weekend and he, after a poor start, and a poo stop decided that he did want to run!
Lucy and one of her dream teams completed a good first run, her outfit from Tron was fab!
Gary took part in the Male Scooter class, his team being a bit dawdly (according to him) but still finishing in a reasonable time, most importantly in one piece!
Danielle was in Female Scooter, her team went off like the clappers, and finished in a similar vein, grins from ear to ear!
The canicross entrants lined up, with varying degrees of happiness! Cliffy was borrowing 2 of Gary’s dogs (so the race was on there!). Emma was running the woos; well fast walking them. Izzy was running a single team of Flo; as Sam is still injured, Helene was being powered by Springer steam, Emily was rocking the black and white team and Gary and Lucy were running a mix of their other dogs (with 13 to choose from they have to mix and match!) Emma Maunder, a new member of the club, was unable to race her dogs due to an injury so she helped Nick Stone run his team. It was so good of Nick to lend Emma some of his dogs and Emma worked really hard helping everyone as well as exercising the dogs. Welcome to the club!
 
We had an afternoon of fun, a group breakfast was enjoyed and then much chatting, laughing, training and general chit chat and cake ensured the afternoon hours were whiled away nicely.
An evening meal on the Saturday evening all together, hosted by Sally and Cliffy with the whole club lending a hand to cook and clear up made for a fun evening, until the fireworks started. We then had to all scatter to sit with our respective packs to ensure they were calm. Many dogs weren’t and it took a while for everyone to be able to settle that night.
 
Luckily we all have resilient dogs and they were up for racing again the next morning, more so than many of the humans!
 
The unexpected excitement of the morning came from Sally who decided to nose dive over her handle bars and face plant a root. Stanley politely stopped to wait, it wasn’t far from the finish so she crossed the line with a bloody nose scratched face and a huge grin. Apparently she was determined to not lose the time she had made up on the person in front!! Competitiveness!
Gary didn’t want to feel left out so also threw himself to the ground……he didn’t injury himself as much though so we ignored him…..!
 
Oki decided that he was going to put on a great turn of speed on the Sunday, finishing 2 minutes faster than the previous day – Emma was a happy lady, especially as the woos put in an even slower time than the day before, so she got her speed thrill from Oki instead!
 
The results were interesting (Gary being slightly annoyed that his dogs ran better for Cliffy than they do for him and Cliffy beat him!). Sally pulling time back from the day before and others putting in great performances as well.
We again had some club rosettes to hand out.
The winners this weekend were:
 
Sally – for her surge of competitiveness after falling off!
Helene – for an awesome effort again with her springer team
Lucy – for best costumes and effort over the weekend
 
As always Checkendon delivered a fabulous weekend, great friends, lots of laughter, lots of fun.
 
Here’s to the next one in March 2018!
 
Results
 
Bikejor Male
Cliff Tarrant – 8th place
 
Bikejor Female
Emma Giles – 9th place
Sally Tarrant – 15th place
Lucy Oke – 20th place
 
Male Scooter
Gary Oke – 6th place
 
Female Scooter
Danielle White – 3rd place
 
Veteran Male Canicross
Cliff Tarrant – 7th place
Gary Oke – 11th place
 
Female 17-39 Canicross
Lucy Oke -  13th place
Emily Thomas – 14th place
 
Female Veteran Canicross
Helene Pettit - 3rd place
Izzy Powys – 10th place
Emma Giles – 14th place