Finnmarkslopet have a newspaper where is a nice article about me. You can read it here http://www.finnmarkslopet.no/media/dokument/2011-11/Ciiko-01-11.pdf scroll down to side 9. It´s only in norwegian, so here is the english translation (but anyway you should have a look at the norwegian version) :

Back on Track

In 2008, Katy Meier was leading the Finnmarkslopet 500 race as she headed out of the last checkpoint towards the finish line. With two previous second place finishes in prior years, she thought it was now or never. Unfortunately, the weather came to bare as a force, and being the lead driver, she had to break trail while the other competitors closed ground. With only 40 kilometers left in the race, a strong driver from the eastern Finnmark region caught up to her. He paused to give her a hug and apologized for passing her as he drove on to the finish line, leaving Katy to yet another second place.

After the race, she was interviewed at the finish line. Her team looked well and she was impressed with her dogs, especially after such hard trailbreaking work to finish so strong. Yet, it was a bittersweet taste, since it was to be her last Finnmarkslopet, the dogs were being sold off, and it was not the victory she hoped to end her racing career on.

Things don’t always go as planned, both good and bad. A year later Katy was back at the race as a spectator. After following the race from the sidelines, she came to the only logical conclusion possible, that she had to rebuild her kennel and race again! Together with her partner, Jorg Bungard, they created a long term plan, and started to put it in motion. Later that spring, the kennel in Slagnas, Sweden was refurbished, and 24 puppies were brought in to call it home, of which 14 were kept for her team. This would truly be from scratch, as there were no yearlings, no leaders, and none of the pups were from her own bloodlines. This was an interesting development, and gave Katy the chance to truly start from zero.

The Comeback! Katy drove Troms Quest 2011 with her team. No longer puppies, but young dogs, they responded to the competition with a satisfying 5th place. During the same season, her partner Jorg, drove his team to an impressive 3rd place finish at the Pasvik Trail. All of this work, the training, and the team building, combined with the race experience point towards one moment, 10 March 2012. This is the moment she awaits, when the seemingly eternal last second before starting in downtown Alta arrives, and she begins the quest to fulfill her Finnmarkslopet dreams. When asked about her ambitions, she is quite clear, stating “ I’m not coming for a camping trip, I will compete and I believe that my team can compete. It will be exciting to see if they can handle the mental challenges of a 500km race.”

Today, this lovely Swede has everything under control. Fall training is going as planned, and she is highly motivated. To describe her feelings about this endeavor she quotes the Tour de France king, Lance Armstrong. “ I show up prepared, I show up motivated, and I show up because I love it,” as she states the same applies to her, with a gleam in her eye and a determined look on her face. We believe that it will!

Puppytraining

Here the small videos from the puppytraining today - I finally managed it ;)))))))) And one nice and bright day I will even manage it to make a good video without black scenes in between :)))


The puppies are the 4 dogs on the right side (from wheel to the front). And on the single pictures their are Felice, Gira, Sivtsov and Andrew

Here it´s the same, the 4 puppies on the right side, at the single presentation Bartali, Fausto, Givanni and José

We had them now 7 time in harness and they are very eager and happy to run. Even if Gira is very calm in the video, she wants to run!

Snow!

At least 3 cm. But we need only 7-10 cm more that we can go out with the sled. Dogtraining this morning with the ATV was completely different because of the snow. It´s all so calm and quiet, the dogs can eat snow while running and everything seems to be more friendly :)))

I took this picture on wednesday, we had PLUS 7 degrees that day! The ice was still on the lake, but there was about 2 cm with water on it. It looked great.
This picture is from 11 am today. Looks completely different.

Now we have -8 degrees. yesterday we looked at the lake and it´s now covered with about 15 cm ice. For the ice this ups and downs in the temperature is good, so it grows fast and save. Sounds strange, but it´s the truth, believe me ;)

The forecast looks good and even with a bit more snow. So maybe we are able to drive with the sled next weekend, wish us luck!

In the middle of the day I will go out with the puppies for a ride. Maybe I manage it to make a small movie, but like usual I can´t promise to do it ;)) But I will try my very best!!!

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How to mark the trail...

First you drill a hole in the lake
and then you strike in the marker with the hand - because we forgot the hammer ;)

Like I told on saturday we went out to set the markers for our trail at the lake yesterday. At least the first km over the lake the trail is marked. The other parts of the trail are not that importand to mark now, only the markers at the lake have to hold the whole winter. At some parts of the lake the drill went through the ice very fast, so there the ice was not that thick...

The puppies got their second ride in the harness. It went even better then on saturday and they where very eager to run ;)))

The winter has come with some colder days, the coldest temperature was -10 degrees now. But we wait for the snow, ans wait and wait and wait...

The big day!

For our puppies. They where for the first time hooked up into the team. First the 4 boys, then the 4 girls in the second team. It went very well and in the end all puppies knows what to do. Only little Taylor has to wait one more month :( So I was also able to take pictures of our puppies one by one - they had no chance to disappear ;)))

4 young boys in the harness
Fausto

Giovanni is a bit afraid of his father Tchmil besides him

José wants to move on

Andrew didn´t get the right direction...

And here the 4 girls

Felice, she lookes like a profi-husky :)

Sivtsov not that happy that we are home again

Gira hopes that Stijn is nice to her ;)

Bartali: hey what´s up there, was it all for today?

We had frost from wednesday, too. So the lake is covered again with ice and it´s about 8 cm thick. So we was of course again on the lake.

The ice is so clear that we could look through it to the gras covered ground

Jörg and Susan at the lake. Tomorrow we will set the marks for our trail into the ice.

What´s wrong with this picture? That it is the 2. november and we have 5,6 degrees PLUS instead of minus :(( It´s the first time since we moved here 2002 that we have it that warm in november. The lake is still covered with ice but the forecast promise plus degrees the whole next week. Then the lake will be open again :((( But all whinig helps nothing, we have to deal with it! we can only hope that the weather change one day to normal cold tempratures...