So this weekend we took the caravan down to Box End Park, Bedford. This was for the second Tri Dog event (facebook page), the last being held back in May. It is a beautiful venue and has a lovely 5km route around it which makes it perfect for the event. There are some lovely straights and a little twiddly bit which keeps it all interesting.

We arrived Friday evening, our first race weekend away in the caravan with Mozi. We have been a little excited about this weekend, partly because Paul and Dill love the event and partly because both of Mozi’s parents were going to be there and five of his siblings! So yes we were super excited about seeing all of them together again too!

The briefing was at 8am and registration was open at 7am. At registration Paul was given a bag, with freebies in, a bib, swimming hat and a number to attach to the bag. The bag then had to be back at registration for 8:30am as it was going to Transition 2 (bike – run). It meant you could put in anything that was needed at that transition. You had until the same time to get your bike over to Transition 1, along with your shoes, and well anything else you wanted after you got out the water. Racing started at 9am on Saturday morning and Paul and Dill were out 8th (I think!). There are one minute intervals between starts, this gives people time to swim across the 80m and get to transition without there ever being too many people in the water at once and it also means that there isn’t usually an issue with the number of people trying to leave transition at the same time either. The bike is then around 2.5km followed by the run that is also around 2.5km.

The swim went really well, Dill happily got in the water with Paul and swam across the lake, yipping the whole way. Quite a few people found his yipping amusing though we find it rather annoying! It appears he may never make a great gundog due to his noise but he will be an awesome triathlon dog and make people laugh at the same time! We don’t mind that at all!

Paul did do a little slip, well, he completely lost his footing on the bank after getting out the water on the way to the first transition and Dill, being very keen, pulled him along the bank quite a way before Paul was able to get up again. As they reached the transition, Dill is put on a stake out line whilst Paul gets ready – take wet suit off (though Paul just takes his off his top half and has it round his waist!), put shoes on, get bike ready and obviously put his helmet on! Only then he can collect Dill off the stake out line and attach him to the bike. They must walk in transition, so he then walks round to the line, gets on the bike and off they go!

The bike went as well as it will ever go at Box End. We all know that Dill has a terrible weakness around ducks/swans/any bird on water… and well Box End has a lot of ducks and a lot of swans! So the big long bike straight alongside the lake tends to be Paul cycling forward and Dill running forward at a slight angle down towards the lake! When they get to the top of the lake and away from it his head switches back to race mode and they can race again. This meant they could get to the twisty bit of the course with Dill fully focused and so he sped down the hills, dug in on the up hills and they had a great time together.

At transition two there is a line where Paul has to be off the bike and then walk through transition. Again Dill is put on the stake out line first, then you can put your bike away, change shoes if you want to (Paul does as he would rather be clipped in on the bike, plenty don’t!). Then you can walk to the end of transition and once you are at the line you can start running.

The run then goes round the back of where the bike’s twisty section was and back down the side of the river before round and in to the finish.  Then you have completed a triathlon with your dog! Paul was smiling at the end of it, so was Dill! In fact it hadn’t even been half an hour before Dill was more then ready to go again. This dog is far too fit!

So then Dill had the afternoon to rest (he insisted he didn’t need to…) but it was time for Mozi to have some puppy fun! We met up with Mouse (who we see quite a lot, he adores his sister!) and then four of his brother, Marshal, Aksel, Kermit and Vegas. His mum and dad, Indi and Magnus were also there, though I don’t think either parent wanted much to do with their kids and I can’t blame them! Six puppies at six months of age… yep I wouldn’t want them near me if I was their parent!

Still it was lovely to see all the pups play together, I am sure once all the boys hormones kick in their relationship with each other will end up being quite different so it was a very special moment!

Sunday, we woke up and both felt awful! I even told Paul several times that he didn’t have to race and it wouldn’t be the end of the world if he didn’t. He is stubborn though! It was also hot! It was nearly 15 degrees and 99% humidity. We had however anticipated this and there is part of us expecting that most of the races this year will be warmer than we would like. Expecting this, we spent a lot of very early mornings getting out and exercising Dill in warmer temperatures but always when he could cool himself off in water afterwards. We never cool him off, we are pretty sure he is an expert at it and our summer training appears to have worked well. We think it also helped that Dill got to swim first, the weather was also raining, well spitting on and off and there was a heavy dew. The grass being long and wet meant he finished the race still very wet, which in those temperatures would have helped without a doubt! Obviously as with any race if Dill showed any issues throughout the race we would have pulled him. We do this for him, we don’t want to risk him whilst doing it.

As it worked out, they had an amazing second day and put down the course record for the weekend. They had a great run, the bike was well as expected, the swim was good and Dill was over eager to get going. This boy is far too vocal! He barked his whole way to the water and yipped his way across! There is no denying that this dog loves to race, especially the triathlon! Paul and Dill won the male category in the triathlon with a lead over the weekend of 7 minutes and 47 seconds! They loved every minute of it and Paul was beaming after his race on Sunday!

This is our favourite event. The dogs love it and if you don’t have a dog that will swim or if you don’t swim then it’s fine because they do a duathlon! So you can just bikejor and then canicross! Everyone who finishes gets a finishers medal as they cross the line on the Sunday and they have loads of spot prizes for people! Whether it’s the most amusing walk through the transition or the noisest swim (Dill!!!!). So even if you don’t think you will win anything, actually if you turn up, you are enthusiastic then you might just get a random spot prize! These are decided by the marshalls at the transition points and around the course! So get to Tri Dog! The next one is the first weekend in May (bank holiday) and we will see you there!