Extreme Dog Race Opatov

Opatov is a matter of the heart, EDR too, so this could not turn out other than the absolute top among races. And yes, it certainly did! An absolutely perfect race, beautiful track and excellent atmosphere. Just the heat! Someone forgot to turn off the heater up there. I signed me and Erik up for the Long track. Ups! But who could have guessed that it would be so hot in August? LOL Well, I didn’t get much praise at home. Erik had been lamenting for two days before, but he gritted his teeth and, as always, went along with me. He is a fighter.

We started just after 9 o’clock, so we had to run with the wind in order to cool down on the way and to be back before the sun climbs high above the horizon. There was a lot of water (and mud and hills) on the way, so luckily we could cool down somewhere every now and then. We went left, right, up and down again on the motocross track. Certainly an interesting sight from the spectators’ point of view. They laughed mischievously at us as we sweated blood on the track. I ran with Amiga, Erik started with Frozen for the first time. Because Frozen used to always prefer to run with girls, she didn’t enjoy it with boys so much. But she finally understood that even men are fine and took them at her mercy.

Despite all the difficult parts, we enjoyed the race. Up to the point where I came to the javelin throw. We were supposed to hit the target. Throwing is not my favourite. Unfortunately, the javelin was lighter than I expected, so it landed far in front of the marked area. So I had to take the “prisoner” handicap. They tied my hands with duct tape and they said the next helper I meet would free me… 100 m, 200 m, half a kilometer… I started to worry if the helper needed to use the toilet. No, the organisers were really so evil and let us run tied up about a kilometer. I guess I’d better learn how to throw. So I kept running, I finally had both hands free, so I was looking forward to things getting better. No way. Another kilometer was a nasty long hill up, so nothing much of a nice run again. Phew, finally I was up. A welcome rest on a few obstacles, I walked over the slackline, pulled the tire, crawled through the pool and ran on pleasantly refreshed. I lost Erik somewhere. But the hardest part was yet to come. It was clear that in no time he would be breathing on my heels again. This was followed by a beautiful fast section between the cornfields, a gentle descent on a grassy path, I ran surprisingly nice and easy, Amiga flew ahead of me. Just great. In a kilometer there was a turn into a field. OMG, really? Yeah, really. Another section straight through corn, for a while along the edge, for a while between gutters, mature cobs and boulders from the field. It wasn’t so nice anymore. The whips hit me in the face, I could hardly see the ground in places through the dense vegetation, I called Amiga “left” to run to the edge of the field, but the corn was like an impenetrable wall . Finally light at the end of the tunnel and out of it. Since we actually had a bit of a rest now, they prepared a few strength parts for us, back on the motocross track again. We ran up and down with a 5 kg barrel of water and just a little further another two steep up and down hill runs. I don’t even know which was worse. I’m afraid of fast descents and I was running out of strength going up the hill. In these passages, Erik is clearly much better, so he quickly caught up to my entire lead and we already overcame the last two obstacles together and then crossed the finish line together. And as bonus we both placed second in our categories. At the finish line, Erik was once again spreading optimism and the initial discord was over. (Fortunately!).

Juniors ran in the afternoon. Amiga made another start with Natálka. Well, even with seven dogs at home, we sometimes don’t have enough, when almost all go into heat. But the girls managed it excellently and in the 13-15 years category they ran for gold.

From our Niktel White Warriors team, Hallelujah Hero Niktel fought with Andrea on the long track as well, and Barnie Beetle Niktel and Naďa participated on the Base track. Congratulations to everyone on a great performance.

All that was left was to thank the organizers and helpers for another great experience. At the same time, we also bow down to the incredible piles of work of photographers. In short, huge thanks! We are looking forward to the Steeplechase race later this year in Pardubice.