My very first double Q, with Deuce that is and a freaking 12 mile run!

I was feeling a little worried about this weekend.  I needed to get a 12 mile run done at some point, with tony working 12 hours a day, 7 days a week and also get to lawrence for the dog show. I also had to keep andrew entertained and my focus on the show at the same time which is super hard.  I never Q when he is there because I don't think my brain is ever fully in the game, but it is what it is.  I am a mommy so I just need to buck up and do it.  Let's start with my 12 mile run shall we?

I had decided the best idea was to be at daycare when it opened, drop andrew off and drive like mad to Linear Trial in manhattan to do a 12 miler.  I am pretty bored with our 6 mile loop and would rather not do it twice.  I needed a change of scenery and bad.  Since I would be by myself, i took miss stella along as she has been with me on most of my longer runs lately, well all of my runs lately since my BRF is just now getting back in the game after her 15 miler.  The sun was rising and it was beautiful in Wamego but as I got closer to manhattan, it was getting darker and darker.  WTH?  I guess i missed the memo that we were suppose to get rain and snow on friday.  Started out to grey over cast sky that quickly opened up, first to a gentle sprinkle at mile 4 and then to a downpour of sleet and rain at mile 7.  Mile 4-9 were under tree cover but the last 3 or so miles were just on open trail so stella and I got pounded with ice pellets.  See the white stuff on my shoulder on my pullover?  That is ice!!  Kind of funny though, my last 4 miles were the fastest I have ever run a long run at.  I did an out and back and my splits for every 2 miles were positive on the way back.  I ran a 10:46 overall pace which is way quicker than normal.  I tend to hover around 11 or 11:15.  I am thinking because of that and because of the fact that I felt like I had gas in my tank, I should be able to stay with the 2:30 pacer and then head out at the end if I feel good.  I didn't realize how truly cold I was ( i ran in leggings and a t shirt and my nike dri fit pullover) till I pulled off to get some chocolate milk and some carbs.  I literally could not grip the pen to sign my name to the credit card receipt.  I had to sign an X as that was the best I could muster!  I then drove like hell to get home and shower and head to lawrence.  It was a late start show so I got there in time to walk the first course.

Time to beat was a really straight forward course but I said turn in front of a jump and the turkey listened and turned and did not take the jump. No biggie in T2B but then he took back side of the jump and came towards me so NQ.  We had standard next and I was oddly ahead of him the whole course.  Not sure if I am just getting faster or if he is getting slower but he got the same amount of MACH points he normally gets on a course so I will go with me being faster.  I think it also is coming with the fact that I can trust that he will take stuff and I go get into position.  He did do one very naughty thing on this run.  He JUMPED off the a-frame.  It was towards the end of the run.  He had two a-frames in T2B, one that I had quick released him on (he was in 2 on 2 off) and then one I fought him on as he creeped down.  The angle was weird so he would have come off the side of the a-frame to get into position based on where I was located so I guess he just thought jumping was a necessity.  He has NEVER done this on a contact.  I got a verbal correction in but kept going.  I worked every contact after that and need to go back this week to working on you stay straight in your two on two off no matter where I am.  He got third on that run thanks to his running a-frame LOL.  Jumpers was next with a very tricky tunnel, tunnel discrimination and a very big lateral move away from the weaves to cue decel down the line for a nice tight 180 to set the line to the correct end of the tunnel.  He was a rock star and nailed everything.  That was our first QQ EVER!  We have been one bar away so many runs so this felt so awesome and on two tough courses to beat.  Considering he got his first Qs in excellent B in 2011 fall, this has been a LONG time coming.

Of course day 2, I had andrew all day so my mind was not where it needed to be i guess.  The runs were awesome but he missed his weave pole entry in all three courses.  All three were short collections, T2B was a pretty fast entrance in, he didn't even try to make it.  Standard was a-frame, jump, 90 degree turn to the weaves and I really felt like he could have tried and I gave him his weave cue before the dang jump.  He didn't even attempt it and I not sure why.  Jumpers was the same thing, not a ton of speed coming in and he just skipped the first few poles.  Wonder if he is sore in some way?  His jumping was good this weekend.  He knocked two bars total, one was the first one on a course and one was the double into nothing from the table.  I blame myself on both, probably set him up too close to the first jump and i sent him in full extension into no where on the double and turned and called to get up the the a-frame (was a 180 to the a-frame) so I blame myself. 

 Andrew and I stopped at Kmart and did some retail therapy.  It made us both feel better.  And we stopped at sonic in topeka and had a peanut butter fudge milkshake and he ate the cherry.  Didn't even know he liked them!  He even added sand as an ingredient.  Luckily the whipped cream on the top caught most of it and kept it out of the ice cream!

Sunday I had andrew again.  He was not letting anyone hold him on saturday so I had to hold him or chase him during walk throws and strap him into his stroller.  My arms and shoulders are pretty sore after this weekend.  Who needs gym when you have a 25 lb toddler to carry all day?  Sunday he was a little better, interacting with his agility aunts and grandmas.  and bonus, on the ride home, he took a two hour long nap!  Started out the day with a Q on T2B.  Thanks to a very creepy a-frame, I only got 8 points.  I was not letting him get away with jumping another a-frame but instead I am back to creeping. Freaking criteria and freaking me letting him get in the grey area of it.  In standard we had two backside to jumps.  Yeah for this judge to have the balls to include some actual challenges.  I loved it!  The first one was out of a tunnel and he had to serp into me to get the next part of the sequence.  We are good at this so I wasn't worried.  I wasn't worried about the next one which was a teeter to the backside of a jump at an angle, but that is what bit me in the butt.  He didn't trust me and had this really confused look on his face so he cut in front of me and took the jump the correct way (in his mind).  This was the run he also decimated the double in but the rest was good and I am happy.  Jumpers was a wrong course that I didn't even consider but again, pulling can be a weakness of his and I think if I would have said a simple here down the line that he would have gotten the correct line and not the tunnel sucking him in.  No bars and super fast even with the wrong course so once again, I am happy.

The best part of the whole weekend was that my bestie barb got her MACH with her whippet Chloe.  She is one of 10 MACH whippets in the country and I am betting it won't be her only MACH.  This is the woman who got me into this dang sport many, many years ago.  We have been together through loosing our first agility dogs (her whippet Haley and my aussie berry), through several failed relationships, through a marriage, the birth of my son,  her god son, and many great times.  I am so proud of her and love her so much.  Fitting that we both got our MACHs in this very building.