Extreme Dog Race MILITARY Josefov 17. – 18.5.2024

Night and day obstacle race in the fortress town of Josefov. Beautiful environment, fantastic atmosphere, friends everywhere you look and a lot of unforgettable experiences.  As a part of the day’s race, there was also a special – “Championship” in the obstacle course for white shepherds. We were looking forward to this race all the more and there were a lot of us. The organization of our trip to the race was somewhat more complicated, because at that time we still had 8 six-week-old puppies at home, so of course they had to come with us. So on Friday, we packed up all 15 dogs, hitched the trailer to the camper and set off.

A 3 km night race took place on Friday evening. There was water, obstacles and a pleasant run through Josefov at night under the light of headlamps. Almost our entire team ran and everyone had a great time. Natálka and Erik even got medals in their categories (2nd + 3rd place). The winner announcement took place late in the evening, before we got to the car, got all the dogs, sat with friends for a while, so it was 1:30 in the morning. So the night was very short and, moreover, with the bed above the pack of puppies, it was also almost sleepless.

The next day, the alarm clock went off at 4:30. Morning pre-race carousel – walking, watering, feeding puppies and non-racing dogs, registration, warm-up and rush to the start, there was no time to spare. The legs were a bit heavy after the night race and the lack of sleep. Nervousness also worked, and after five morning visits to the toilet, I ended up having to go toi toi again a few seconds before the start. Fortunately here, the start time is triggered by a chip at the start, so it didn’t matter. As soon as we started, I knew it was going to be a tough race. Running through the interesting environment of the military fortress, along the adjacent forest paths, wading through the river and over obstacles on the horse track in light rain made the race nice for us, but it was still very demanding. I gave it my all, but I felt it wasn’t the best performance. I fought to defend the medal from the previous special, but unfortunately it didn’t work out and I ended up with an unpopular potato medal just 9 seconds after the 3rd. Congratulations to everyone on the podium, and I humbly admit, you girls were better!  In the men’s category, our team did better , Erik finished for the gold and Vlastík took the bronze! The juniors were again dominated by Natálka, the third place belonged to Valentýnce with our progeny Amálka. In the afternoon, I ran a family race with Karolínka and Diamond as an escort. I was already completely exhausted and sometimes the child (8 years old) was faster than me.

But we had an incredible time for the whole two days, and after gaining some energy, today we already remember a lot of the nice experiences with furry friends and friends. We went through almost 5000 photos, so here is a small selection, and I bet you can feel the great atmosphere from them.