One of my dogs, Winston, ran his first canicross race yesterday (thanks to Juliet for running with him!) and what better way to launch his racing career than with a 10km Brutal!

He ran it with some of his best pals; Hank, Coco, Frieda, Dylan, Pip, Missy, Red and Sidney. All of the dogs did amazingly well and, as usual, helped drag their owners round a challenging yet fun course.

Team Dogfit ready to tackle the Long Valley Brutal

The Brutal races take place across Surrey. They are off-road and make use of natural obstacles such as hills, mud and plenty of wet areas! Popular with canicrossers, there is roughly one event a month throughout the racing season.

The Long Valley Brutal in Aldershot had a bit of everything and with sections such as Alligator Swamp, Swan Lake and Duck Pond, you won’t be surprised to learn that water featured significantly in this race!

Close to 50 canicrossers took part so we experienced a particularly high octane build up to the start of the race with most of the dogs barking in their excitement to get going – always the best part of the race in my mind! And when we eventually set off, for the first 200m most of us were giving Usain Bolt a run for his money!

Click on the link below to see a video of the canicrossers setting off…

BrutalLongValleyStart

Canicrossers started 10 minutes before the mass start to allow the dogs to spread out. This was probably a good idea as there were a lot of single track paths, hence not terribly conducive to overtaking.

The course itself was definitely different to last year. I would say much more technical with more narrow paths, boggy sections and short, steep hills.

The main water features hadn’t changed although they weren’t as deep as last year due to the fact that we’ve had less rainfall. The largest and deepest section only came up to waist level. That said, it was deep enough that the dogs still needed to swim. Conveniently, some sections were a lot shallower along the edges so some of the less confident dogs could avoid some swimming.

Hank showing the other dogs how it’s done!

Long Valley Brutal is a single lap route. It starts with a gentle, undulating section with good paths that are firm underfoot.  Then you hit the first steep climb that takes you out into the open through a quarry bed, before hitting a couple of water sections which probably stretch over a relatively short distance with technical and narrow forest paths and trail in between.

After this, we hit a muddy and technical section with a couple of climbs before hitting the last wet area. Finally, we tackle a steep short hill, a fast descent and then some more short hills before heading back to the finish area.

Coco did a sterling job of leading me round the course

Some sections of the course were awkward underfoot (bog or tree roots), especially along the rain gully, so you need to concentrate fairly hard and wear good footwear with a decent tread!

There was a section where we had to do a few short, steep descents and inclines but the terrain was pretty good – soft and not particularly slippery – so it wasn’t a treacherous course by any stretch of the imagination. Just be prepared to work those glutes a bit!

As ever, canicrossers were made to feel very welcome and the organisers did a great job of sign posting the course. There was a water stop half way round and good refreshments at the end of the race. Parking and registration was exceptionally easy and all contained in one main area.

Thank you to Jenny Barragan’s children, Millie & Miles, for helping out on the drinks station

My only bit of feedback is that we came across a locked aluminium farm gate that everyone had no choice but to climb over. This also meant that the dogs had to be carried over. In fairness, there was a marshal on hand to help everyone but some dogs weren’t comfortable being carried so it’s worth noting this if you plan on doing this race next year (assuming the course is the same). It would have been helpful if this had been raised with the canicrossers at the start of the race (if not on the website) so people could have been better prepared.

All in all, another fun and exciting Brutal and it definitely gets the ‘paws up’ from Winston

Team Dogfit led out by the gorgeous Pip and Dylan.

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