I knew that Trixie wouldn't have her first run until at least 11 so I let her sleep in at the hotel while I walked down to the venue to walk master challenge standard.
Well I would definitely need a start line stay for this one - running with Trix from the beginning would almost certainly lead to her knocking #3 or her taking the off course tunnel.
The hardest part of this course was undoubtedly 7-10. MANY teams missed the weave entry and those that got it often had trouble with the pull through. Quite a few handlers had success rear crossing the weave poles and then leaving their dogs in the poles so they could get ahead for the threadle. The second most popular handling plan was handling 6-8 like a serpentine. The majority of teams that chose this approach actually picked up the A-frame and a fair amount missed the entry. I this this was more because handlers were rushing the entry or were too far behind to help show the dog the proper line.
To my surprise, not a SINGLE dog took the teeter after #14 - on paper it doesn't seem like an especially tempting off course, but when I walked the dog's path during the walkthrough it actually was.
Really, the last handling choice was how to handle the #19 backside. A good deal of handlers decided to take the longer path and send their dog to the right of #19 instead of the much shorter path to the left side of #19. What seemed to be the deciding factor in this decision was how far ahead of their dog a handler could get. A number of handlers that chose, as I did, to front cross on the landing side of #18 often did not support #17 strongly enough and so their dogs pulled off of it. Lateness was also a common problem that, obviously, lead to many a knocked bar.
Trixie and I really rose to the occasion and had one of our best runs to date. According to the judge's wheeling she ran it at 5.44 YPS - which seems a little high to me, but maybe I'm underestimating her :)
We took 1st place in this round, which meant we had won the overall performance biathlon. This was definitely the proudest I'd felt about a set of runs since our showing at the 2013 AKC Agility Invitational - especially considering how unsure I was about our readiness for this event.
After the biathlon I settled in for what I knew would be a super long wait for the grand prix finals. For whatever reason the club decided to award medals and ribbons and take win pictures between each jump height. My first thought was, awesome! how efficient is that? But it wasn't. I didn't realize that they intended to actually stop the ring and make the judge wait until all the awards (byes included!) had been handed out, ugh. Once I finally got to walk the course - 3.5 hours after MC standard - the club realized that continuing like that would mean that their day wouldn't end until 9 at night, so they changed to hand out awards until after all the heights had finished.
Definitely another course that'd require a lead out. The rest was pretty straight forward and there wasn't a ton to mess people up. What separated the podium placements was really just tight turns - especially in the opening.
Trix pulled off another wonderful run that earned us a spot on the podium and a silver medal :)
Almost immediately after that picture was taken I had to run into the ring to do the PSJ walkthrough.
So, yeah. It's steeplechase - basically lots of running and lots of fun! The only part of this course that was tricky was the 16-18 line. Sure, it was easy to get your dog to take the obstacles, but it wasn't obvious to the dog just where exactly they were going. Leaving the dog in the weave poles, assuming you had the dog on left, made it a very do-able proposition. Those that didn't make it to that cross had a VERY awkward time, even if they got the job done. Then there were some dogs that just didn't understand what was going on at all and never even saw the tunnel.
So I planned to lead out to #2, but that didn't happen. I just wasn't feelin' it, so I ran. Really fast. The cheering helped :)
We managed to make it to the podium with another silver medal :) I decided to leave before the picture though because it was already 5 and they hadn't even started championship dogs and I was leaving for Ithaca, NY that night. I don't think they did the awards ceremony until about 7 or 7:30, so it was a good call on my part. I did miss out on the prize money though, but fingers crossed they'll be awesome and mail it to me - I can dream, right?
Even though the days were long the people were so organized, the surface was perfect, and I really had a wonderful time and would love to go back next year, - fingers crossed that it works with my schedule! Anyone who's considering whether it's worth the trip, it definitely is. Don't even hesitate because it's that fantastic.
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