2013 AAC Nationals
I am definitely not the most consistent blogger on the planet, but I figured it was time I through a new post together to bring everything back together. After our trip to EO 2013 in Belgium, we went directly to Edmonton, AB for the 2013 AAC Nationals. This was Crash's second trip to the event and we were still riding the high from the international experience that had us "hungry for Hungary" ;-) (more on this later).
Our focus had shifted at this point to kicking ass at Nationals - the goal was top 10, and just for fun, we threw our name into the hat for IFCS (found out you were awarded points for individual class placements at Nationals and the team for Worlds was selected on these results.....what's the worst that could happen right?), though this was not our primary focus for the event.
We arrived at the Calgary Airport in Alberta ahead of Erin and Jeri who took a seperate flight back to Canada (they had to detour stop in Halifax to pick up Toffee). We drove from there to Edmonton in time to pick them up at the airport - we were all very relieved to see each other again. Erin and Elisabeth were nearly in tears from the relief, lol...may have been from being over tired, but it was pure joy, lol. The rest of that night was bascially airport - hotel - sleep - get rid of jet lag as quickly as possible!!! The hotel we were at was where most people were staying from away. The majority of our EO teammates were there as well, which was nice.
If my memory serves me correctly, the first full day there was not very eventfull. I think we made our way to the trial site, got checked in and I believe they had pre-quals and warm-up runs going on. Crash and I did one or two (can't remember exactly), and then we all headed out to find a trail to take the dogs for a walk. We did end up finding a nice path that ran along a river (I'm not going to try to guess the name at the chance of embarrassing myself by being completely wrong on the name), but the dogs had some fun splashing around and chasing some fetching sticks.
So I'm not going to try to remember exactly what day what run was on (since I really can't remember....maybe that's why Erin kept telling me to write about this asap, lol), but things kicked off with Steeplechase as per usual. To be honest, all I wanted to do was work his contacts in those runs....wanted to not have any worries about the Nationals runs. Steeplechase 1 was clean (with nice contacts), however Steeplechase 2 we had some trouble with staying in the weave poles, so we ended up training a bit.
Now, onto Nationals Round 1, Gamblers. We really felt the main was doable (which for Crash and I who never practiced gambles, was a very good thing). We did the weave mini twice to start things off, then moved onto the double-teeter-jump mini which Crash had no problem doing, however he knocked the only bar all weekend on that double, so the second mini was burnt for us. We did finish the run by getting the main gamble, and despite not having the second mini for points (twice), we still placed 9th in that round :-). Round 2 for Crash and I - Jumpers :-). I definitely remember feeling pretty good going into the ring, and Crash was a very good boy following my lead through a course that provided the always fun shotgun tunnel (two of them). We ran it clean and placed 6th! Round 3 for Crash and I was Jumpers 2 - there were a few shaky spots, though we still managed to run it clean and once again placed 6th :-). Not bad up to this point. Though we weren't trying to pay any attention at this point to standings, a couple birdies did tell us that we were "sitting pretty." Next up was Standard 1 in round 4. I honestly thought we would run this one nicely without any troubles, but due to some overhandling on my part, I put Crash off course and then stopped handling in the final sequence which resulted in him running around the last jump.....dang it. Turns out that missed last jump cost us our top 10 placement in the overall...I will never stop handling until we cross the finish line ever again. Round 5, Gamblers 2 - I've never seen so many opening points available in a gamblers. Crash and I had a "bad" opening by my standards, and we still ended up with 60 points....though dogs who had nice openings for this one were ending up with 80 points!!! It was crazy!! The main gamble was definitely doable, but a late verbal from me and Crash took a jump we weren't supposed to so that was it for us in gamblers....dang it again.
The final round had the divisions running in reverse order - can't even remember where I was heading into this one. The course itself ran pretty quick - was smooth. So I felt confident that we could go clean and still have a chance at our top 10. So run clean we did, and it felt great. Though after the run, while collecting Crash, Elisabeth came running over saying the clock didn't stop when we went through the finish. So now what? Apparently we had run the course in about 36 sec, though the clock only stopped just before the 39 sec mark.....After consulting with the judges and the timers, my options were this, keep my clean run with the time as it stood (which would definitely allow me to hold my placement (move up potentially) in the overall standings, OR run it again for to get a better time (but by doing this, each obstacle needs to be completed in proper sequence - even though I couldn't be faulted - I was risking the potential for an even worse time if I lost control of Crash during the re-run......ultimatley, I decided to go for it and we ran it in under 35 sec and WON THE CLASS!!!!!! It was such a rush!! Quick shout out here to Laura Campbell and Kayl McCann for helping me work through that crazy 10 min of the event - it was a whirlwind!
So final placements had Crash and I in 12th overall with our first Nationals score over 500pts AND our first Nationals with any placements :-) Not bad for my 3 year old red boy...Having looked at our standings for IFCS points, Crash and I were in 4th!!! So unofficially, we knew we were GETTING TO GO TO WORLDS!!!! HOLY CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It really didn't settle in until the end of the month when we actually got the invite from the AAC saying that we were selected for the IFCS Canadian Team that would be heading to the Netherlands for the World Championships in May of 2014.
That concluded our 2 weeks of crazy for the summer of 2013 - more updates to follow, but that's it for now :-)
