USDAA Central Regional Day 2: Deux Jours

After recovering from our alcohol and carb induced coma from Friday night, the traveling partner and I woke up bright and early for deux jours of the regional. Although I was more than a bit tempted to, I had to pass on trying some doughnut bunches at the local gas station we stopped at to stock up on essentials for the trial. Lets just say, we don't have many "bunches" of anything here in Minnesota let alone doughnuts...

Although I will say my stomach did feel "bunches" better than it did in the AM on Friday! Armed with two giant bottles of water, a fully charged phone (with a killer walk-through mix) and my copy of Kathy Keat's book I was mentally prepared for whatever Saturday threw our way. 

A couple of regional and team runs were on the agenda for the day and lets just say it gave me plenty of time to chitchat and meet up with some friends both old and new! Viper had some really good team runs and even though there are some skills that we are missing (I won't use the word lacking simply because how can you lack something if you've never taught it?) we managed to wade through the courses! I just have to keep reminding myself that the baby dog isn't quite a baby dog anymore! The not quite-a-baby-dog-anymore even managed a clear round in Steeplechase to put us into the finals on Sunday! Simply making it INTO the finals made me beyond giddy!!!

The Bee's Knees on the other hand was well, a giant butthead. Don't get me wrong, he was a brilliant one at that but boy have I forgotten how pushy he can be if he doesn't get to run ALL the runs in a day! Regardless, I was super impressed with how well he ran the first round of Steeplechase! Unfortunately, a hard turn from the Aframe to the next jump isn't a skill set we have totally mastered and our Aframe was called but overall it was still a super SUPER run!

Grand Prix, shall we say was; WILD! Broken startline position (he hasn't done THAT in forever!) orbit-to-almost-China turns and lack of criteria on his dogwalk AND Aframe made for an interesting run. The goob was pretty proud of himself after the whole ordeal too! Although I was a bit skeptical before I checked our time, we did manage to get into the finals for Grand Prix!

It feels like this is a great place to post a video or cute photo from the day, but unfortunately I didn't get any of my runs videotaped nor do I have a cute photo in my possession as of yet. Bummer! I will say that the photographer at the event got a couple of very "Viperish" photos that I adore and can't wait to get!

With a lack of photos and video I'm not sure what else to really report on the day? Post-trial we did find a fabulous little hole-in-the-wall Mexican place that served shrimp wrapped in bacon. That's right SHRIMP WRAPPED IN BACON! Never will I ever look at Mexican the same way again! After loading up on some fabulous desserts and taking them to-go to devour in bed at the hotel, the traveling partner and I again found ourselves in a sugar and alcohol induced coma for the second night in a row! 

USDAA Central Regional Day 1: Knixing the Negative Nelly

Da Boys and I are home from the USDAA Central Regional and all I have to say is; I missed you Minnesota! No, really. Spectacular dogs, an absolutely hilarious traveling partner and a well run Regional event is an above par experience I promise you!

Going into the Regional the dogs and I hadn't done much in the way of training for the last few weeks (I know, terrible terrible decision on my part as we were going to a REGIONAL event!) but both of Da Boys held it together just fine. Not wanting to waste a valuable day of vacation at the new job, we (the traveling partner and I) made the decision to drive from Minnesota to Missouri Thursday night. It may not have been our finest hour but we did manage to make it there alive and well AND before 2AM!

It may have been the lack of sleep (we maaayyybbeee got three hours?) or a mixture of several other factors but Friday was definitely not my day. From the time I woke up until well after I was into my giant margarita post-trial my stomach was giving me a HUGE case of the blahs. I don't know if I have ever referred to myself as "lethargic" before but it pretty much fits the bill for how I was feeling all day on Friday.

That, paired with a weird voodoo-like curse that Da Vipe and I seem to have at larger events made for a very pessimistic Kim. I don't know if it is the Agility Gods way of telling me to just chill out or what, but at both of the last two regionals Viper and I have had to deal with some kind of major glitch with the gate before our run. Luckily we got everything straightened out enough for us to run but mentally I was shot after we ran Team Snooker.

After making amends with the teammates for a less than stellar Snooker run, I tried to figuratively crawl in a hole and rest back at the crating area. Let me tell you, rest was not-to-be had. I was simply too irritated with myself and my behavior to shut the brain down and re-boot. Irritated Kim is generally a pain-in-the-ass to be around let me tell you (you can ask anyone, they would most definitely agree) especially when irritated Kim is irritated at herself...

I'm not sure if I subconsciously thought I might need it at the regional or not, but in my infinite wisdom I had stashed a couple of mental management and Agility related books in my bag Wednesday night. Luckily for me, I was just irritated enough to pull out one of the books and attempt to immerse myself in Mental Management Land.

Obviously the Agility Gods had played a role in this whole irritating dibaocle because I just happened to open Kathy Keat's "Success from the Inside: The Path to a Winning Performance" to this particular page:

Well played Agility Gods, well played...

Needless to say, I spent a good chunk of my morning off in Mental Management Land attempting to clear my head. By the time our second run rolled around my head was mostly-clear even if my stomach didn't get the memo. I can't say that it was one of our more spectacular runs by any means but Da Vipe and I managed to get through it without letting my "Negative Nelly" attitude from earlier interfere. 

I'm sure Viper appreciated it.

I know I did. 

For the remainder of the day I kept my copy of "Success from the Inside" at ready and paged through it every chance I got. Between its always appreciated motivational quotes and a stellar music selection from the phone (much needed for walk-throughs) both did a good job of knocking things back into perspective for me. So much so, that Da Vipe and I snagged not only the ever-elusive local Grand Prix Q but a Masters Challenge Jumpers Q with a 6th place finish to boot too!

In celebration the travel partner and I went out and found out first hand how horrible Missouri's beer selection really is (IPA anyone?) and then let the dogs terrorize one another back at the hotel while we both passed out because of a protein and carb induced coma.