Tuesday was agility and rally, with the top 20 in the evening. As of Monday night I thought I was fully recovered from whatever bug I had on Saturday night. So I was very surprised when I woke up Tuesday morning well before my alarm was supposed to go off, with an upset stomach. What on earth was up with that?? My brain also just wouldn't shut off. Thoughts were whirling around in my head at lightning speed and I had finally come to the conclusion that I was simply nervous. That's what it had to be. Never mind the fact that I hadn't otherwise been feeling nervous or that I don't usually get antsy ring nerves until shortly before I go in the ring. After about an hour of this and not being able to get back to sleep, I finally came to the realization that I really wasn't over whatever bug I had caught. I decided to just continue laying in bed and hopefully the upset stomach would go away as quickly as it came. No such luck. The minutes kept ticking by and I kept thinking of all the stuff I still needed to do with the dogs and myself in order to be ready to run. Finally at about 7 am I decided that I would scratch my first two agility runs, which were time to beat and FAST. No real hardship there. And hopefully by the time I had myself and the dogs together, I'd be good to go. Agility wasn't supposed to start until 8am and rally at 9am.
Wellllllllll, I did my best to suck it up and get all three dogs potty walked and fed. I had texted my friend Megan asking her to scratch us from our first two runs because I knew that I wouldn't be able to make it. And I was finally getting myself ready to go. Megan helped me track down some anti upset stomach stuff so that I could try to make it through the morning. My friend Faith picked up the stuff, brought it to me, and helped me walk the danes out to the field. I still just wasn't feeling all that great. But I thought that I could suck it up and make it through. That really wasn't to be.
I pretty much went over that morning in a previous post, so I won't go into the details again. It was a very disappointing day. I put so much pressure on myself to have the dogs ready for that week. In the weeks leading up to our departure I was tweaking both my personal schedule and my work schedule as much as I could to fit in training sessions, lessons, and matches so that we would be ready and actually look like we were ready. To have things so utterly fall apart on my end was heart breaking. My friends and the other competitors were really great and I don't know how I would have made it through that day without them. I can't even emphasize enough how awesome all the people were! Between the physical help that I was getting with everything and the general support, these people are some of the most amazing people that I know and I love them all dearly!!!
So there was a bit of a meltdown, but now that the time is behind me, it's not as big of a deal as it felt at that moment. There are other trials and there will be other national specialties. Though I have to admit that I am looking forward to going to the 2012 national without any dogs to be responsible for!!
And let us not forget that I had various specific outfits planned for the various events! But how on earth could you really have a themed outfit for an agility/rally trial? Simple, go with a super awesome kickball uniform!!LOL And I just happen to have some pictures with me in my super awesome get up, courtesy of Olga! I'll share her photography information tomorrow when I share the rest of the great pictures that she took of the pooches.:0)
Nice bright orange shirt (I think that everyone on our kickball team went to Oregon State, so it's an appropriate color), lucky shorts, nice garish knee high socks, and soccer cleats complete with matching orange laces.:0) If your performance isn't going to be great, you might as well look "good" doing it.;0) Needless to say, aside from the being ill part, I have a feeling that I stood out a little bit.That night was the Top 20 and it was amazing! Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from any of that, but it was so much fun getting all gussied up!
And that pretty much is all the rest that there is to tell from this year's national specialty. I have a feeling that I won't be competing with the danes at another one until we have our next puppy (which I am happily on the waiting list for!), but that's okay. It just means that I'll have more money to do some shopping with at the ones in between!!
And now it's time to head off and do some serious relaxing before the big turkey day tomorrow. I hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!!
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