I'll keep it short. Today was a bit colder but really wet in the air with thick fog and 12 inches of new snow during the day. The weather should have suited Pontier but he didn't manage a podium place today, surprisingly, and the results of today mean he's lost his first place standing overall. Jiri Vondrak now takes the overall lead with Pontier in second.
Milos ran a good race. Much better than we expected considering the dreadful winter conditions and so much snow. He managed third place again, with 9 dogs, this time conceding to Jiri and Daniel Juillaguet, who has perhaps experienced a podium place for the first time. The mistakes of Pontier mean Milos has closed the gap on second place to just 10 minutes and only 13.45 to first place.
Our results today were blighted by bad news. Just as we were taking out the dogs to harness them for the race Slash threw up. Balto also didn't look so good. Both were due to run but we decided very last minute to swap them with Heiney and Spendrup. It was a good decision. Within an hour or so both had temperatures of 39+. Since then the vets have been checking the dogs every hour. Both are now on a drip and their temperatures are normal again. Slash is recovering really well but Balto is a little behind. Both will be sleeping with us tonight. At this point the best we can hope for is that the dogs don't need antibiotics (as that would mean the end of the race for them due to anti doping controls) and that they make a recovery in a few days. But at one point today we thought it was the end if the race for us. It is still unclear what the problem is but it seems to be a mix of virus and gastro/stomach problems. I will keep you posted.
Pictures today are the results, Milos at the finish and our dog hospital/bedroom.
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