Czech Dog Run – Military

This was quite a ride. CDR is one of our favourite races, so we wanted to run everything they have to offer in Jihlava. And as we said, we did. In about 18 hours time, we stood at the start 11 times on all lengths of tracks and in terrain full of water, mud, unevenness, treachery and various obstacles. We fought against the darkness at night and the scorching heat of the sun during the day. But we enjoyed every moment of the race, every run through the puddles, the starting gate and crossing the finish line. As usual, we all participated, the whole family, from the youngest daughter Caroline (the older Natálka (12) and me Miroslava Lajbnerová and Erik Lajbner + a lot of dogs from our breeding running for our joint team NIKTEL WHITE WARRIORS.

On Friday evening, we all ran a night race of 3 km, I ran twice – first I accompanied Caroline and Skazka (Skazka’s first race after her maternity leave less than 3 months after giving birth), immediately after the finish I just harnessed another dog – Bella and as I was – wet and dirty, I was already running to my second race together with Erik and Amiga. Natálka with Frozen ran right after Caroline. Completely unexpectedly, we all placed on the podium. 3x 1st place, 1x 2nd place. I missed the highest placement by 4 seconds, so next time I will probably send Karolínka to the track alone, save my energy for my own race and hope that I will see her again sometime. The award giving ceremony didn’t take place until just before midnight, so it was well after 1am when we got into bed. After less than 5 hours of sleep, we were back on our feet and walking the dogs again, mixing pre-drinks for the dogs and preparing for an even more demanding race day.

Start children’s race – track MINI 1.5 km: 10.00 – Caroline with me + Diamond, Natalie with Vendetta

Start – STRONG track 7 km: 11.45 – me with Frozen, Erik with Amiga, Vlastimil Halla and Renata with progeny Amálka and Destiny

Start – EASY track 3 km: 13.45 – me with Skazka, Erik with Bella, Natálka with Diamond + progeny Barnie with Naděžda Čeřovská.

Between each race, there was barely time left to change dry clothes, take a quick breath, swallow a few pieces of dried fruit and hurray for the start again. Meanwhile we also had a very pleasant visit from one of our youngest progeny Jerry and his family who live very close to the race track. It was so nice meeting them. Unfortunately among this racing marathon, there was not much time to chat, but we were happy to see them. At the end of the day, although we were like run over by a steamroller, tired but happy, both us and the furry ones. We thoroughly enjoyed the final announcement, received the prizes and went home. We thank the organizers, friends, volunteers and photographers for the great atmosphere, experiences and memories we will keep. We will be very sorry if this series ends next year as announced.